Bubblicious Slate

This week's bubble games, for those inclined to follow that sort of thing:

Tonight
Alabama @ Georgia
Indiana State @ Missouri State
Kentucky @ Florida
Villanova @ Cincinnati
Virgnia Tech @ Virginia

Wednesday
Arizona State @ Utah
Charlotte @ Butler
Fordham @ Xavier
Miami @ Florida State
North Carolina @ Duke
Ole Miss @ Texas A&M
Tulane @ Southern Miss
West Virginia @ Baylor

Thursday
Gonzaga @ Saint Mary's
Iowa @ Penn State
Saint John's @ Louisville
UCLA @ Cal
UMass @ VCU
USC @ Stanford

Saturday
Arizona State @ Colorado
Baylor @ Kansas State
Boise State @ New Mexico
Boston College @ Florida State
Charlotte @ Saint Louis
Georgia @ Ole Miss
Indiana State @ Bradley
Portland @ BYU
Saint Mary's @ Gonzaga
South Carolina @ Alabama
Southern Miss @ East Carolina
Temple @ UMass
UCLA @ Stanford
Villanova @ UConn
Virginia @ North Carolina
Xavier @ Dayton

Sunday
Gophers @ Iowa
USC @ Cal

It's an especially big week for:
#36 North Carolina -- @ Duke, then host fellow bubble boy Virginia.
#45 Boise State -- huge road opportunity at The Pit.
#50 Saint Mary's -- Gaels' Charmin-soft resume badly in need of win over big boy Gonzaga.
#52 UMass -- @ VCU followed by home game vs. Temple.
#57 Stanford -- win 2 and we might see the Cardinal in some brackets next week.
#62 Charlotte - make or break week for 49ers; @ Butler and @ Saint Louis.
#63 Villanova -- on the road vs. two RPI top-50 opponents.
#65 Florida State -- beating red-hot Hurricanes would prove 'Noles still have some life. ... I'm not seein' it.
#92 Iowa -- losing @ Penn State and/or vs. struggling Gophers likely cripples Hawkeyes' at-large chances.

At the very least, this is a good indication of how far the Gophers are from the bubble, for now.

Exactly.

Resume-wise, there are a lot of weak sisters (no top-50 wins, only a couple top-100 wins, no signficant road/neutral wins) on the bubble. Basically, all the Gophers have to do to make the tournament is not fall off the face of the earth. I wish I had more confidence that wasn't going to happen. The more I look at it, I'd have a hard time seeing the Gophers get left out at 8-10, but I wouldn't want to count on that.

Update after Wednesday

Charlotte helped itself the most with a road win over Butler. It's going to be really interesting to see which A-10 teams receive at-large bids. There are a lot of very similar teams with similar resumes.

A really bad loss for Arizona State @ Utah.

Ole Miss doesn't have many toughies down the stretch, but it can't afford many more losses to mediocre teams (i.e Texas A&M).

Biggest game tonight (Thursday)? Easily, it's Gonzaga @ Saint Mary's. Gaels need a signature win for their unimpressive profile. Also wouldn't hurt Saint John's to get a marquee win @ Louisville.