BY DOUG FEINBERG
There’s one month until the NCAA Tournament selection show and there are still many teams battling to get off the bubble and into the field.
South Florida (18-8) has won seven straight games, including a triple-overtime victory over Rice last week, to get into the at-large conversation if the Bulls don’t win the conference tournament. They face Charlotte and Memphis this week. Jose Fernandez’s team needed overtime to beat Charlotte the first time they met.
Bubble watch
George Mason at Saint Joseph’s, Sunday. Once again, two of the top teams in the Atlantic-10 meet with second place on the line. The Patriots have won 11 straight games and are 13-2 in the conference. The Hawks lost to first-place Richmond last Thursday and are 11-3 in the league.
Columbia at Princeton, Saturday. First place in the Ivy League will be at stake when the Lions visit the Tigers. The two teams are tied with one loss apiece after Columbia fell to Harvard on Sunday. The three teams are all in the hunt for NCAA Tournament bids. Harvard has the highest NET rating at 34. Columbia is at 42 and Princeton 49.
Key ratings
Belmont: The Bruins are 0-6 against top teams (Quadrant 1) this season, but two of those losses were close with a four-point defeat to Ohio State and a six-point one to Kentucky. They currently are tied for second in the Missouri Valley Conference after losing to Drake over the weekend and have a NET rating of 59.
Top 16 Reveal: The NCAA selection committee unveiled its top 16 teams Sunday to that point in the season and it didn’t take long for the reveal to get upended. UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and Notre Dame were the top four seeds in the committee’s mind. The Gamecocks were routed by UConn a few hours after the unveiling. The NCAA will have one more reveal on Feb. 27.
