Xavier fan’s bubble cheering guide: March 1

There’s not a lot of action tonight, but rooting against one of these teams tonight should be second nature for Xavier fans.

By Joel D Mar 1, 2019, 5:55pm EST

Auckland Blues Block Party — They’re in bubbles.

For those of you who don’t follow Jon Rothstein on Twitter, allow me to welcome you to March. Every year, media hacks like to crowd around their keyboards and declare this year’s selection the Weakest Bubble Ever. While that’s a great argument against ruining the best sporting event in the world by expanding the field, it’s also usually not true. Bubble teams are always uninspiring (except when Xavier’s on the bubble); otherwise, they’d be locks.

Anyway, we’re continuing our annual tradition of breaking down every bubble game in March. This year is extra special, as X could use for every other team in at-large consideration to lose all the rest of their games. Ready to cheer against some teams? Today has a great game to get you into that mood.

URI at Dayton, 7pm, ESPN2

Boy howdy do I love cheering against Dayton. They’re probably just off the bubble right now, but that still puts them on Xavier’s radar. The Flyers are 19-9 but have a really thin resume. They don’t have to strength at the top of it to sustain too many more bad losses; dropping a home game to URI would certainly qualify.

Lipscomb at North Alabama, 7pm, no TV

Liberty at NJIT, 7pm, no TV

This is where we are, Xavier fans. Two A-Sun teams have borderline cases for the tournament. If they meet in the final of the A-Sun tournament with neither of them having lost between now and then, there’s a chance that turns into a two-bid league, which is obviously bad news for the Muskies. Neither of these games is televised for reasons that I trust are obvious, and neither of them is likely to have a huge impact on the tournament when taken on its own, but a loss for either of Lipscomb or Liberty surely has them chasing the auto bid or bust.

Cornell at Yale, 7pm, ESPN+

Like the above, Yale is lingering in the bubble adjacent zone. One more loss would have to put them needing the automatic bid to get in. Cornell barely has a pulse, but Cal beat Washington last night, so I guess anything is possible. As per the norm in these situations, cheer for the decent team to wither on the vine.