Now that he’s looked at resumé winners through the first month of the season, analyst William Whelan talks five teams whose NCAA Tournament bubble hopes are on the line.
- Wichita State: The Shockers have zero quality wins on the season thus far, and are still waiting on point guard Fred Van Vleet to make his return. With depth being a major concern for this team going forward, it has to be alarming that they don’t have a single showing in the non-conference that is worth anything for the committee thus far. Games against UNLV, Utah, and Seton Hall all look like must-wins for their non-auto-bid hopes.
- California: Individually, this team is terrifically talented. Put them all together, though, and it hasn’t meshed thus far. Their win over the Aztecs will pay off down the line, but the Bears only scored 66 at home against Seattle on Tuesday and have no significant non-conference games until they see Virginia and Davidson at the end of this month.
- Ohio State: The Buckeyes have now lost four games in a row, to the likes of Texas-Arlington and Louisiana Tech. Turning this around will be the toughest task of Thad Matta’s tenure, but at this point, Ohio State looks dead in the water.
- Wisconsin: Their one point win over VCU will serve them fine going forward, but they missed both of their big opportunities against Georgetown and Oklahoma so far, with nothing else really in sight before Big Ten play. We’re not ready to count them out, but missed opportunities count the same for solid teams as blowouts do for bad teams.
- Notre Dame: Losing to Alabama and Monmouth within a week span? Not a good look for the Irish. This is a talented team that simply isn’t playing up to their ability right now, and their resume has some blemishes that I don’t think anyone saw coming at this point.
