Bubble Watch Heading Into March 7th

It was a relatively quiet night for the bubble. We won't have any automatic bids handed out until at least Friday (and perhaps not until Saturday), but UCLA did seal up at least an at-large bid. That means that we're now up to 22 NCAA Tournament bids locked up, with 46 still to be earned.

Memphis is a lot closer to the bubble than most people realize. In fact, they'd already be on the bubble if not for their upset of Louisville over the weekend. So they're still in the Field of 68, but without a ton of room to spare.

There were no changes in the bubble itself tonight (still 16 teams fighting for 8 spots), but despite no bubble teams in action on Friday, there will be games with bubble implications. If your team is at risk of falling into the NIT, you're now a big fan of both Harvard and Wichita State.

Teams that move up a group are colored green while teams that drop a group are colored red. Here is how the bubble stands as we head into March 7th:

Tournament locks (22 teams):
Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia, Creighton, Villanova, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Wichita State, San Diego State, Arizona, UCLA, Florida, Kentucky

Automatic bids yet to be awarded (32, of which 23 are not projected to be won by teams currently locked into the Tournament):
AAC, America East, ACC, Atlantic Sun, A-10, Big East, Big Sky, Big South, Big Ten, Big 12, Big West, Colonial, CUSA, Horizon, Ivy, MAAC, MAC, MEAC, MVC, MWC, NEC, OVC, Pac-12, Patriot, SEC, SoCon, Southland, Summit, Sun Belt, SWAC, WCC, WAC

Teams that look safe (8):
SMU, UMass, Saint Louis, VCU, Iowa, Ohio State, Kansas State, New Mexico

Teams definitely in the Tournament... for now (11):
Memphis, Pittsburgh, George Washington, Saint Joseph's, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Harvard, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Gonzaga

The Bubble (16 teams for 8 bids):
Clemson, Florida State,  Dayton, Georgetown, Providence, St. John's, Xavier, Minnesota, Nebraska, Toledo, California, Utah, Stanford, Arkansas, Tennessee, BYU

Best of the rest (11):
Marquette, Indiana, West Virginia, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Green Bay, Stephen F Austin, North Dakota State, Missouri, Georgia, LSU

Long shots (14):
Maryland, NC State, Richmond, Illinois, Middle Tennessee, UTEP, Ohio, Indiana State, Boise State, UNLV, Oregon State, Washington, Mississippi, Saint Mary's