SEC Bubble Watch: March 6

In the SEC

The only SEC action last night was Arkansas playing a wild game against South Carolina and pulling out a 78-74 win. It helps with the Razorbacks' seeding argument for the NCAA Tournament, but it really didn't affect any bubble teams.

The real news was that LSU didn't really suffer at all in the Bracket Matrix for its big loss to Tennessee on Wednesday. The Tigers remain a projected 9-seed, although five of the 101 bracket sources did not include them at all. As long as Arkansas doesn't blow them out and they don't lose a bad one in the SEC Tournament, they're probably in.

Around the Country

There were three games to watch last night, and only one of them brought good news.

Temple, who's in about as precarious position as Texas A&M is right now, blew out East Carolina 70-56. The Owls probably weren't going to lose that one, but the ease in which they won it is not what SEC bubble teams were looking for.

But if that one looked easy, then Davidson's game was a total cakewalk. The Wildcats dominated VCU 82-55, picking up a stellar win and putting them in a tie with Dayton for first in the A-10. VCU is fairly safely in the tournament, so Davison—which had just one team between it and the NIT in the matrix heading into the game—really strengthened its case for inclusion. Being first in a conference the regular season doesn't necessarily mean anything to the committee, and Davidson might not finish there, but it's something in the Wildcats' favor for now.

The one ray of sunshine for SEC bubble teams was Stanford falling 67-62 to Arizona State. The Cardinal was not projected to be in the tournament prior to the game, and now, it probably needs to knock off a Pac-12 heavyweight in the conference tournament to have a real shot. The team is faltering, and last night continued the trend. We probably don't have to worry about Stanford sniping A&M's potential bid.