SI:AM | Bad News for Bubble Teams

Plus, why the rest of the NBA should be scared of the Nuggets.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I can’t wait to be back in your inbox on Monday morning breaking down the NCAA tournament brackets.

In today’s SI:AM:

🗽 Pitino comes full circle

🤔 USC’s (and Bronny’s) season is over

🙃 Cautious optimism for Gerrit Cole

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One team’s bubble just burst

With Selection Sunday just days away, several teams are waiting anxiously to hear if they’ll be among the lucky 36 teams selected for at-large bids to the NCAA tournament. And for men’s teams on the bubble, that wait just got a whole lot more excruciating.

The Atlantic 10 men’s tournament has been the epitome of March Madness. After yesterday’s quarterfinal games, none of the top four seeds remain. Either VCU, Duquesne, Saint Joseph’s or St. Bonaventure will be headed to the NCAA tournament as the conference champion—and that’s bad news for everyone on the bubble. You see, Dayton, ranked No. 24 in the latest AP poll, was already a lock to make the tournament. But after the Flyers lost to Duquesne yesterday in Brooklyn, they’ll have to be included in the bracket as an at-large.

That means that we’re destined to have at least one bid thief who shrinks the bubble on Sunday. That’s bad news for teams like Indiana State and Providence, who are currently projected to be on the wrong side of the bubble. But it’s also bad news for teams like Virginia and Colorado, who are projected to be among the last teams into the field.

Will the A-10 champ be the only bid thief this season? Maybe not. Here are the conference tournaments that will have the biggest impact on the size of the bubble.

ACC

The ACC tournament got a lot more interesting last night when NC State knocked off Duke. That means there’s only one team left standing in the conference tournament that is assured a spot in the field of 68 (North Carolina). The Blue Devils’ upset makes the Tar Heels an even heavier favorite to cut down the nets, but what if one of the other three semifinalists emerges victorious? Pittsburgh and NC State will need to win the tournament to keep their season alive, while Virginia should be on the right side of the bubble at the moment.

Pac-12

The Pac-12 only has two locks to make the tournament (Arizona and Washington State). Both teams are playing in the conference semifinals tonight, along with Colorado and Oregon. The Buffaloes are a bubble team and can eliminate any Selection Sunday anxiety by winning the conference to ensure a spot in the field. But the only path forward for the Ducks is a league title, which would further shrink the bubble.

Big East

The situation in the Big East is similar to the Pac-12, with two remaining teams (UConn and Marquette) assured of a spot in the field of 68. The Huskies will face St. John’s in the semifinals tonight, while the Golden Eagles are playing Providence. The Red Storm and Friars are both bubble teams. The question for both of them is whether a win tonight against an elite opponent will be enough to get them solidly into the tournament field or if they’ll need to win the final as well.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Robert Deutsch/USA TODAY Sports

• Rick Pitino and St. John’s cruised to a dominant victory over Seton Hall in the Big East quarterfinals yesterday, which was a full-circle moment for a coach whose winding career has nevertheless always been tied so closely to Madison Square Garden, Pat Forde writes.
• Forde was also on hand at Providence coach Kim English’s press conference, where English was asked a really odd question.
• Oklahoma State fired men’s basketball coach Mike Boynton yesterday. Kevin Sweeney has a list of eight potential candidates for the job.
• Sweeney also wrote about the end of Bronny James’s first college season and what could come next for him.
• Rohan Nadkarni thinks the rest of the NBA needs to be worried after the Nuggets have surged out of the All-Star break.
• Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is not expected to need Tommy John surgery.
• After signing Kirk Cousins in free agency, the Falcons traded quarterback Desmond Ridder to the Cardinals.
• The Sixers are reportedly expected to get Joel Embiid back before the start of the playoffs.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Danton Heinen’s goal while falling down.

4. Jalen Green’s behind-the-back dribble that sent a defender to the floor.

3. Wyndham Clark’s vicious swing to chop the ball out of some absurdly thick rough at the Players Championship.

2. Max Homa’s 3-wood off the pine straw, over the water and onto the green from 260 yards out.

1. Mason Madsen’s chaotic buzzer beater for Boston College to force overtime against Virginia. (BC lost in OT, though.)

SIQ

On this day in 1974, San Francisco Giants pitcher Ron Bryant, who had led the majors with 24 wins the year before, was injured while at spring training in Arizona. He went on to post a 3–15 record that season. How did he get hurt?

• Motorcycle crash
• Swimming accident
• Bitten by a dog
• Slipping in the shower

Yesterday’s SIQ: The UMBC Retrievers are famous for being the first No. 16 seed to win a men’s NCAA tournament game, but the feat was accomplished 20 years earlier by a women’s team. Which No. 16 seed knocked off the No. 1 Stanford Cardinal on March 14, 1998?

• Harvard
• Cal State Fullerton
• Montana State
• Furman

Answer: Harvard. Stanford was (and still is) a powerhouse, having reached the Final Four in each of the previous three NCAA tournaments. But the Harvard Crimson were also no stranger to success. The 1998 tournament was the Crimson’s third consecutive March Madness appearance. They had gone 22–4 in the regular season and had the nation’s leading scorer, forward Allison Feaster.

Stanford was missing two of its best players in the game. First, Vanessa Nygaard tore her ACL in the Cardinal’s regular season finale against Oregon State. Then, the day after the bracket was announced, Kristin Folkl, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, was injured in practice.

The injuries torpedoed Stanford’s morale.

“Everyone was totally in the tank,” coach Tara VanDerveeer recalled in a 2015 ESPN interview. “As hard as you tried, there was no enthusiasm. The kids all wanted to move on from here and play pro ball, and they were watching their buddies drop one by one. I think everyone was afraid of getting hurt.”

Harvard, meanwhile, was playing with something to prove. The Crimson players were miffed that they were given the No. 16 seed after their third straight conference championship. They went out and gave the Cardinal everything they could handle, eventually winning 71–67. You can watch the final four minutes of the game here.

It would take 20 years before another No. 16 seed pulled off an upset in the NCAA tournament. Harvard remains the only women’s team to do so.