For an elite subsection of men’s teams, conference tournament time isn’t all that important. At least not in a life-or-death sense. Teams like Stanford, Maryland and North Carolina need not worry about slow performances in their respective conference tourneys. While it’d help seeding, they’re in the Big Dance no questions asked.
For other programs, this time of year is hardly that simple.
Every year a handful of teams bounce off the bubble and into the NCAA tourney despite a mighty close shave due to dented resumes. Likewise, an equal number of teams have their bubbles popped before trudging off to the training field for the offseason. It’s a brutal business, the NCAA tourney cutoff.
For this week’s Five Things, the last before Monday’s NCAA tourney selection date, we’re taking a look at five up-in-the-air resumes from teams firmly on the bubble. In some cases the team probably deserves to be in, others the team might not deserve a spot and still others could be so down-the-middle that it’s uncertain.
Without further ado, here are five teams that’ll be sweating out Selection Monday. Keep in mind that several of these teams can eliminate the drama entirely by winning their conference tourneys this weekend.
