Bubble Watch: 3/7

If you haven't been paying attention to the bubble up until this point, you probably should be now, because Xavier's loss against Villanova put their tournament position on a precarious ledge. My gut tells me X would still be in if the tournament started today, but it doesn't, so the Muskies have work to do at MSG.

In other bubble news, Louisiana Tech pounded to stuffing out of Rice, which won't help them at all. Richmond needed to beat VCU to hang onto the bubble, but they lost instead. That should eliminate the Spiders and at least quell some of the ridiculous talk about how good the Atlantic 10 supposedly is now.

Tomorrow's bubble action is sparse, to say the least, but we're starting to get into conference tournaments as well. Bid thieves abound, and that's the kind of foolishness X doesn't need right now. Cheer against the teams in bold and trust me in that their demises will help Xavier's odds.

1:05 PM Evansville vs (2) Wichita State* ESPN3
It doesn't matter if you think Wichita State should be a one-seed or not, you need to be cheering for them to go undefeated in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. If they lose, they're in the tournament anyway and the MVC becomes a two-bid league. That would be bad.

7:30 PM Harvard at Yale
This is borderline academic, but there is a scenario in which Harvard could fail to get the Ivy League's automatic bid but still sneak in at-large. That is something that we can't have happen. If Harvard wins this game, they win the automatic bid. Once they do that, the Ivy League can go back to lacrosse and secret societies and Xavier can rest easy knowing they're pulling a lone entry into the tournament.