As March gets nearer, the Bubble Watch begins....
Can one defeat spoil a college basketball team's nearly perfect regular season?
It can if that team is from a mid-major conference.
Teams like Cornell, Northern Iowa, Saint Mary's, Siena and Wichita State are a lot more anxious than they were a week ago after losing games in the past few days.
As the NCAA tournament bubble contracts and expands over the last three weeks of the regular season, teams from mid-major conferences have very little margin for error.
Surprisingly, each of the aforementioned teams slipped last week:
Northern Iowa (22-3, 13-2 MVC) seems to be in great shape, even after losing at Bradley 68-59 on Saturday. The Panthers had won six games in a row before losing and have the best computer profile of the bubble teams from mid-major conferences. But Northern Iowa can breathe easier if it wins its BracketBusters game at home against Old Dominion on Friday night.
Ivy League leader Cornell (21-4, 7-1 Ivy) had its eight-game winning streak end with a 79-64 loss at Pennsylvania on Friday night. The Quakers were 3-15 before upsetting the Big Red. Cornell hadn't lost since a 71-66 defeat at Kansas on Jan. 6 and had won its previous six Ivy League games by an average margin of 25 points.
Full Bubble Watch, all conferences:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/bubblewatch?id=101
