Daily Bubble Watch: Purdue dims Indiana's hopes; four other hopefuls in action

The Hoosiers come up short vs. Purdue on a big night for schools facing bubble implications

It was a relatively quiet Thursday night on the bubble watch and it wasn't hard to understand why. The biggest rivalry in college basketball took center stage, and nobody wanted to have to compete for attention with that game. Of course, that game was ...

Purdue 69, Indiana 64

These rivals played a back-and-forth game that was very entertaining at Bloomington, Ind., despite some spineless officiating late that fouled out the Boilers' Caleb Swanigan and the Hoosiers' Thomas Bryant. Even though a block and a charge are mutually exclusive, the refs called one on each on the same play. That hurt the Hoosiers more because they had been running everything through Bryant and it was effective.

More important, the damages Indiana's fading hopes. The Hoosiers (15-10) host Michigan on Sunday (1 p.m., CBS) before playing four of five on the road. That is bad news for a team that is 1-5 on the road. The decision to play so many bad nonconference opponents is hurting too. Indiana played seven teams ranked in about the bottom 100 of the RPI, which is why the Hoosiers have an RPI of 82 and why they are only 8-10 vs. top 200 teams. Those numbers would send IU to the NIT.

Washington State 70 at Utah 74

The Utes cut it close, but beat the Cougars as they had to do. Utah is two games below .500 against the RPI top 200, so this is a team that not only needs quality wins, it needs quantity wins. Utah may be in a position where the only remaining game it can afford to lose is at Oregon.

Missouri State 62 at Wichita State 80

The Shockers came away with another comfortable win against a MVC foe. Wichita State cannot do much about its remaining schedule. The league is down and potential quality wins simply do not exist. The Shockers only hope for an at-large bid is to keep running up the score and hope the only loss upcoming is to Illinois State.

James Madison 73 at UNC Wilmington 88

The Seahawks did what they needed to do tonight against the Dukes and got some help with College of Charleston in the league race, so now, UNCW is a game clear. The Seahawks now hit the road for three straight in an important stretch in both the conference race and their at-large hopes.

Old Dominion 51 at Middle Tennessee 64

The Blue Raiders bounced back from that bad loss at UTEP to take down Old Dominion. Because of a few bad losses, Middle Tennessee may have to win out to the conference tournament final before it can afford to take another one.

New Mexico State 53 at CS Bakersfield 72

That popping sound you heard? That was New Mexico State's bubble bursting. The Aggies are done as an at-large candidate. They were very long shots to begin with.