The Bubble Team Watch List - Conference Tournament Edition: Who Needs to Lose?
These are all of the teams who need to make early exits in their conference tournaments in order to help URI's at-large chances (in no particular order):
Teams that could make a run and steal their conference's automatic NCAA bid by winning the conference tourney:
NC State, Houston, Georgetown, Utah, Richmond, Memphis, Tennessee, Auburn, Clemson, Pittsburgh, Indiana, Alabama, Ole Miss, BYU, Texas Tech, TCU, Ohio State, Illinois, Harvard, Louisiana Tech, Boise State, Georgia State, UCONN, UCF
Teams that are right in the thick of things currently and actively competing for an at-large bid (should be considered Rhode Island's main competition):
Kansas State, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Georgia, Iowa, California, USC, Xavier
Teams that are likely in the NCAA field but could (in theory) lose their spot if they have a "bad loss" in their conference tournament:
VCU, Michigan, Providence, Seton Hall, Michigan State, Marquette, Arkansas
If all goes well with these bubble teams struggling in their respective conference tournaments and URI takes care of their business in the Atlantic 10 tournament, the Rhody Rams will be a part of the Big Dance.
