CBB Bubble: who's in and who's out

The CBB season is coming to an end, and teams are scratching and clawing to boost their resume to sneak into the tournament.

The bubble is going to shift a lot in the next four weeks, with conference tournaments and a strong end-of-season schedule taking some teams out of the race, so I see four teams just making it and four that just missed.

TEAMS IN

TCU

The streakiest team in the country, only losing to Michigan by four and beating Iowa State, but also losing to New Orleans and Notre Dame.

I see TCU comfortably in on their strength of schedule and the number of quad one victories, but if they get a first-round matchup in the Big 12 tournament, they could go out early.

If they do make the tournament, they will be one of the scariest teams to play.

Missouri

The Tigers are in a very competitive SEC conference and have come out relatively unscathed, with a winning conference record.

To make the tournament, it will come down to how they finish out their schedule and playing ranked Arkansas twice is a big boost if they can win one of those games.

If Missouri does make it, I don't see them going far because of how bad their backcourt is, with their top 6 scorers being guards.

Santa Clara

With three games left on Santa Clara's schedule and coming off a close loss to Gonzaga, they're gonna need to either beat Saint Mary’s on the road or make it to the finals of the West Coast Conference.

It's gonna be difficult to make this happen, but I'm very confident in this Santa Clara roster. Having a great guard in Christian Hammond and a solid backcourt of Elijah Mahi and Allen Graves, they are built for the big games.

California

The last team in is the Golden Bears, being 60 in net rating, they have a lot of work to do, but with a very light schedule to end the year, along with a good seed in the ACC tournament, I think they can sneak in if a couple of teams ahead of them choke.

Cal has looked shaky in February, so I wouldn't be surprised if they fell out of the race, but I believe in the team that upset Miami, Stanford and UNC in a four-game span.

Last Four out

UCLA

As a current 10 seed, it would take a lot for UCLA to miss the tournament entirely, but there are a couple of things pointing towards a collapse.

They are coming off two straight blowout losses, even though they were both ranked. The locker room looks all out of whack as the coach benched one of his players late in a game for a rough foul on a breakaway lay-up.

Along with a tough end-of-season schedule, having to play Illinois, Nebraska and USC twice.

If they string off a few losses late in the season and don't win two or more games in the Big Ten tournament, UCLA will be the first team out.

Saint Mary’s

Saint Mary’s tournament lives are gonna come down to how they play Santa Clara.

I believe only one of those two teams will make it, and Saint Mary's, which almost lost to Seattle U, will just miss the cut.

They still have to play Gonzaga and Santa Clara to end the season, along with a conference tournament where they might have to run into those teams again if they come out of that stretch going one for three. It will be tough to justify putting them in over Santa Clara.

Georgia

Georgia is another 10 seed that peaked way too early. The Bulldogs started the season on fire, going 12-1 in out-of-conference play, but since the end of January, Georgia has gone 2-6 in their last 8 games.

This slide shows no sign of stopping, and in a very contested SEC, I could see them being the odd man out if they don't perform well in the conference tournament.

Ohio State

Ohio State is coming off its best win against a white-hot Wisconsin team, an original that convinced me enough to be my last team in, until I looked at the rest of their schedule.

Along with being on the outside looking in on the current poll, they have to play two top-15 teams, Iowa and Indiana, both of which are tournament squads if the season ended today.

If they do not win at least two of those games, they will have a first-class ticket to the NIT, unless they make a run in the Big Ten conference tournament.

Michael Fechter is a first-year journalism major. To contact him, please email maf6740@psu.edu