It is the final week of the regular season and the last chance for teams on the bubble to help themselves before the conference tournaments. Or, at least avoid hurting themselves.
Every bubble team in action Thursday was trying to avoid a damaging loss.
Utah 74, California 44
Well, that was embarrassing. California was a no-show in Salt Lake City on Thursday night, losing by 30 points in a game that was not as close as the score would indicate. The Bears are lucky that is not the final impression that they will leave on the selection committee. Cal could really use another top 100 win, but its next chance will be against the Utes (again) in the Pac-12 tournament.
Middle Tennessee 70, Florida International 67
The Blue Raiders survived a scare from the Panthers, eking out a win when a loss would have ended their at-large hopes. MTSU may be able to survive a loss in the conference tournament, but the Blue Raiders need to get there unscathed.
UT Arlington 72, UL Monroe 57
A nice and comfortable win for the Mavericks, as you would expect against at team ranked 311 in the RPI. UT Arlington will be the top seed in the Sun Belt tournament. In the meantime, the Mavericks are attempting to avoid bad losses. So far, so good.
