As the bubble continues to shrink, there will be fewer and fewer games in this column. However, it's been a few weeks since there were any on a Monday. but there are two huge opportunities for teams that are desperate for big wins.

Sunday did not have many games either, which is typical, but they were mostly important ones. Before we get to Monday, let's look back at the bubble teams in action Sunday.

Stanford beat Colorado 72-64: The Cardinal picked up their second best win of the season over the Buffaloes, which have now lost three straight. Stanford is not out of the woods yet though. It still has two games in Oregon before the Pac-12 Tournament.

Cincinnati lost at Houston 68-55: There is no real shame in losing at Houston, but the Bearcats are still trying to make up for four bad losses, so a sweep of the Cougars would have been nice. Cincinnati needs to win out to avoid yet another bad loss, then see what it can do in the AAC Tournament.

Indiana lost at Illinois 67-66: The Hoosiers played a lot better at Illinois than they did at Purdue on Thursday, but still came up just short in what would have been a bid-clinching win. They will still be safe if they win their last two games, both at home, but Wisconsin has been playing very well of late.

Rhode Island lost to Saint Louis 72-62: The Rams took their second worst loss of the season and that is only because it will be near impossible to come up with one worse than the loss at Brown. Rhode Island has a home win over Providence and very little else to suggest this is an NCAA Tournament team. However, Dayton visits next, so there is still hope.

Here are the bubble teams in action Monday. All times Eastern

TeamGameTime (TV)Bubble breakdown
NC STATE at Duke7 p.m. (ESPN)The Wolfpack just can't seem to stop losing to mediocre or worse teams. Eight of their 11 losses are to teams that are not going to the NCAA Tournament. Most recently, they lost to North Carolina, meaning they were swept by the last-place team in the ACC. However, sweeping Duke would start to make up for all that.
TEXAS TECH at Baylor9 p.m. (ESPN)The Red Raiders were ranked in the AP Top 25 last week, but I can't account for that. If they can win at Baylor though, everything changes. Texas Tech is 18-11 overall, but just 10-11 when you take away its Quadrant 4-heavy schedule. That could end up being what does the Red Raiders in. They still have to face Kansas, so they could enter the Big 12 tournament at 10-13 vs Q1-3. Nobody has ever received an at-large bid that was three games below .500 against that group of teams, and only one ever got in at two games below .500 (Temple, 2016).