The calendar has not yet turned to 2025, but it’s never too early to start looking ahead to March Madness. Today, we’re going to highlight five teams that currently sit “on the bubble” to make the 68-team bracket in March. We’ll discuss where these teams currently stand and what they can do to clinch (or lose) their spot in the field.
Creighton
Greg McDermott’s Bluejays played a really tough non-conference schedule, ranking 55th in the nation according to KenPom. But scheduling tough doesn’t help you a whole lot unless you win the ball games, and Creighton only owns one quality win – at home against Kansas. Getting boat-raced by Georgetown last night doesn’t help things, either. In Conference play, the Bluejays will get a combined 6 games against UConn, Marquette, and St Johns and will likely need to win a few of those to move themselves off of the bubble.
Indiana
If there were an award for most days spent on the bubble in the last decade, the winner would most likely be Indiana. A poor showing in the Bahamas left Indiana with no wins over teams in the projected field through non-conference play. But a brutal Big Ten schedule will leave the Hoosiers with plenty of opportunities to move the needle one way or the other.
BYU
The new-look BYU Cougars currently sit at 8-2 but only boast one win over a KenPom top-150 team, and that is 82nd-ranked NC State. Not exactly an impressive resume, even though the record is solid and we know that this team has talented players like Egor Demin and Fousseyni Traore. The Big 12 season will make or break this team’s tournament hopes, and they open up conference play with a difficult run of Arizona State-Houston-Texas Tech. If BYU goes 0-3 in those games, it will be an uphill battle from there to make the tournament.
SMU
With a roster that was built almost entirely through the transfer portal, Andy Enfield has the SMU Mustangs with a chance to earn their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2017. Their win over fellow bubble team LSU this past weekend was a massive help. The Mustangs open ACC play this weekend, and there are no free wins on that conference schedule, so every win from here on out is another notch in the tournament resume.
VCU
In its history, the Atlantic 10 has historically almost always been a multi-bid league. But with only two at-large berths in the last three seasons, one could argue that the conference is falling off. Well, the A10 performed really well in non-conference play, and a rising tide lifts all boats. The advanced metrics love this VCU team, and if they are able to finish first or second in the A10 regular season, that may be enough to secure a bid. The Rams did just miss out on a potential Quad 1 win at New Mexico, which probably would have had them in the projected field had they won that game.