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The regular season came to an end for many of the teams on the bubble on Thursday, which is not unusual. Those teams often times need to pull off upsets to advance in their respective conference tournaments by now and not many of those happen.

Not to fear though. Just because a bubble team loses does not mean it has to drop out of the bracket, which is now many people react. The committee still has to fill a 68-team field and every team on the bubble will lose its final game of the regular season.

That said, there are still some interesting and important bubble games Friday.

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

"Double-bubble" game

Utah State vs. Colorado State

Mountain West Conference Tournament, Midnight (CBS Sports Network)


Utah State avenged one of its two bad losses on the season on Thursday night with a convincing win at UNLV. Now, the Aggies can fill the main hole in their tournament resume by beating a quality opponent away from home. Utah State swept San Diego State and split with Colorado State in the regular season on its home floor, but the Aggies best win away from come came at UNLV.

The Rams split the regular-season series with all three of the other NCAA Tournament contenders in the Mountain West, with two of those coming on the road. Other than a blowout loss at Saint Mary's, there are no strong negatives on this resume, but a weak overall schedule could keep them down in the bracket, especially with a loss today.

Other bubble teams in action

1
vs. Michigan in Big Ten Tournament, 11:30 a.m. (BTN) -- Maryland picked up a huge win for their tournament hopes on Thursday when the Terrapins beat Michigan State. Finishing with a record of just one game above .500 would be pretty hard for the committee to swallow. Two games above .500 could be problematic as well, even though Maryland has played a very tough schedule. If not for this being a season with pandemic-shortened schedules, they would have to win the Big Ten Tournament. Another win would erase all doubt.
2
vs. South Florida in AAC Tournament, 12 p.m. (ESPN2) -- The top-seeded Shockers get their AAC tournament underway against the team they played to end the regular season with in USF. Wichita State's resume does not have a lot of quality at the top, but the Shockers do not have anything that can be construed as a bad loss. That has to be true on selection Sunday as well.
3
vs. Cincinnati in AAC Tournament, 3 p.m. (ESPN2) -- SMU will take the court for the first time since Feb. 8, a break of 32 days. The Mustangs are 11-4 with four Quad 2 wins, but the only potential tournament team in that bunch is Memphis. SMU split their season series with the Tigers home-and-home. Their COVID pause canceled both scheduled games with Wichita State, so it remains to be seen whether the Mustangs can put together an at-large quality resume. They certainly cannot without winning Friday.
4
vs. Georgetown in Big East Tournament, 6 p.m. (FS1) -- The winner of this game will go on to the Big East final and have a chance to steal a bid in the NCAA Tournament. For the Pirates, this matchup is unfortunate because they don't just need wins, they need quality wins. Now, they have to win the next game to get one.
5
vs. LSU in SEC Tournament, 9:30 p.m. (SECN) -- Mississippi may have too many mediocre-to-bad losses to overcome, but their SEC Tournament gives them a chance. A win over the Tigers and another over red hot Arkansas would get some attention.
6
vs. UCF in AAC Tournament, 10 p.m. (ESPNU) -- Memphis is coming off a very frustrating loss at Houston to end the regular season. As the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament, they can get another shot at the Cougars in the semifinal. It is hard to see Memphis as an at-large team without a win over Houston.