Burstin' Bubbles: March 6

As you all know by now, Michigan sits firmly on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, and probably needs at least two more victories (@MINN on Saturday, 1st round of the BTT) to secure a spot in the Big Dance. Burstin' Bubbles will run down the relevant bubble games of the day leading up to the tourney. Jamiemac over at mgoblog has been doing a tremendous job of this, but it never hurts to spread the love a bit:

Michigan's Resume (for comparison's sake ... updated every day, as the RPI numbers tend to bounce around):
18-12 (8-9 Big Ten)
ESPN InsideRPI: 45 (up two from yesterday)
SOS: 11
3-4 vs. RPI 1-25
2-5 vs. RPI 26-50
4-2 vs. RPI 51-100
Signature win(s): Duke (home), UCLA (neutral-site)
Bracket Matrix: Fifth team out; made 16 of 62 brackets.

Yesterday's Bubble Scores:

Villanova 97, Providence 80 (good)
Tennessee 86, South Carolina 70 (good)
Penn State 64, No. 23 Illinois 63 (bad)
Cal 83, Arizona 77 (good)

If not for Talor Battle's game-winning bucket with 0.3 seconds left against Illinois, Wolverine bubble-watcher would've enjoyed a clean sweep last night. Still, it seems like nobody wants to make the tournament this year ... if Michigan takes care of business tomorrow, they're pretty much a lock.

Just one game to keep an eye on tonight:

Creighton (25-6, 14-4 MVC; RPI: 38) vs. Wichita State (16-15, 8-10 MVC): Creighton has a pretty strong resume, including a ten-game winning streak and an 8-4 road record. However, they're second in the Missouri Valley Conference, and may need another victory to wrap up an at-large bid if they can't take the conference tournament title.