Bubble Fixes & The Dunk of the Decade

03/19/2024

By: Jeff Yoder

Good Morning!

Us sportswriters were busy debating the biggest bracket bubble snubs yesterday. So that’s what we’re doing today — fixing the NCAA Tournament bubble — before the ‘First Four’ tips off tonight. Plus, a pair of NBA poster dunks broke the internet (we have the poster to prove it), and Blake Snell is heading to the Giants.

Letter Rip

______________________________________________________________________________________

NCAA

Bubble Trouble: Fixing the Bracket

The Top Bubble Snubs of the 2024 NCAA Tournament Bracket

We talk about “the bubble” every year when the NCAA selection show rolls around. For college basketball enthusiasts, you know the bubble as that imaginary force field that encompasses the group of teams within one or two games of making or missing the NCAA tourney (teams 64-72 in a 68-team bracket). For others, it might be confusing. No matter where you stand on bubble terminology, Sunday’s selection show was quite historic in terms of bubbly drama. Some of the teams that were left off the bracket undoubtedly deserved to go dancing. But in order to put them in, someone else had to be left out. So here we are, picking up the pieces and fixing the bracket.

“This year is harder than all my previous years combined. Just gut-wrenching knowing some very good teams will unfortunately not be dancing.” — Jamie Pollard, Selection Committee Member

Automatic Bid-Stealers: Bid thieves were the culprits behind this year’s historic bubble-bursting frenzy. NC State (ACC), Oregon (Pac-12), Duquesne (A10), New Mexico (Mountain West), Yale (Ivy League) and Drake (Missouri Valley) were notable squads who shrunk the bubble. They’re all 10 seeds or higher. By winning conference tournaments, those six teams secured their spots and ultimately pushed the bubble further away and out of reach for other bubble teams. So who took the fall? We can’t send them to the dance, but we can give them their due.

3 Biggest Bubble Snubs

1. Indiana State — The NET Nightmare

One of the biggest snubs came from Terre Haute where the Sycamores of Indiana State (28-6) won the Missouri Valley regular-season and finished with a NET ranking of 29. They also had an exciting must-see player in Robbie Avila (a.k.a. Cream Abdul-Jabbar) who went viral this season. He’s a 6-foot-10, goggle-wearing, slow-footed star who plays a Nikola Jokic-style game. ISU lost in the conference tournament, so there was no automatic bid, and they ended up on the outside with the highest NET ranking ever (29) by a team not in ‘The Big Dance.’ We were all robbed of Robbie Avila.

2. Oklahoma — The Sooner Surprise

Oklahoma was listed by many as the first team out. A number of analysts had them in the tournament as a 10- or 11-seed. The big factor here was that the Big 12 already had eight teams in. The Sooners were 13-1 through the first half of the season, but they finished with a brutal gauntlet of losses to conference foes who were ultimately 4-seeds or better — #1 Houston, #2 Iowa State, #3 Baylor, #4 Kansas. War of attrition. Oklahoma is a talented team, but the conference’s depth just notched too many L’s on the Sooners’ record, and the committee couldn’t find room for a ninth Big 12 bid.

3. Big East — Seton Hall & St. John’s

We have Seton Hall and St. John’s as co-No. 3s on the list, and this one was hard to stomach. Only three Big East teams made it in while three more had a legitimate case for being in the conversation — Seton Hall (20-12), St. John’s (20-13) and Providence (21-13). The Pirates and Red Storm finished 4th and 5th in the Big East, respectively, and they had to watch six teams from the Mountain West go dancing. Doesn’t add up. One could understand Providence falling short, but Seton Hall had wins against #1 UConn and #2 Marquette, and they took a 3-seed (Creighton) to triple-OT. St. John’s caught fire in the last month of the season. They beat Seton Hall in the Big East tourney, and the Red Storm looked like one of those potential 10-seeds who could get hot in March. Mountain West, six? Big East, three? Hmm. Three bids is the fewest from the Big East since 1993.

Fixing the Bracket

Alright, let’s reconstruct this thing. Overall, Oklahoma’s miss kind of makes sense. The Big 12 was too deep. We would’ve swapped two teams to fix this year’s bubble chaos. Six Mountain West teams is just too many. The conference is good, but it isn’t deserving of double the amount of bids as the Big East (3 teams), or more than the ACC (5 teams) and Pac-12 (4 teams). Here’s how we would’ve tweaked the bubble — four Big East teams, four Mountain West teams, and one Robbie Avila. Seems fair.

IN: #10 St. John’s – OUT: #10 Boise State

IN: #10 Indiana State – OUT: #10 Colorado State

Final Seed Tweaks

Beyond the two bubble swaps, there were other seed decisions with some serious issues. Clemson as a 6-seed has to be a typo (and I know typos). Pittsburgh isn’t in the tournament, and Virginia is an 11-seed playing tonight. Both had better records than Clemson in the ACC. Clemson should’ve been an 8 or 9, minimum. The Mountain West seed decisions also didn’t sit well. Utah State (8-seed) won the conference regular season while San Diego State (5-seed) was three games back. Neither of them won the Mountain West tournament. That was New Mexico (11-seed). Make it make sense…

What do you think about the bracket? What bubble teams or seeds would you change?

Email our editor and let us know. We’d love to hear your thoughts and perspectives before the tournament tips off, and we might include them in one of this week’s editions.

CBS Sports: NCAA Tournament Winners & Losers: St. John’s Leads Notable Snubs

USA Today: March Madness Snubs: 6 Teams That Should’ve Made the Tournament

SportsGrid: Bubble Burst! Top 10 KenPom Snubs From March Madness Brackets

______________________________________________________________________________________

NBA

Ant-Man, Anti-Gravity

Anthony Edwards (T-Wolves) & Jalen Johnson (Hawks) Flush 2 of the Most Poster-Worthy Tomahawk Jams You’ll Ever Witness

There it is. We put the full portrait right in the newsletter feed so you could see it in all its glory. Last night’s NBA slate didn’t just deliver some run-of-the-mill basketball, but two highlight-reel poster dunks that broke the internet. Both are worth your time (trust me), but one might go down in history.

Hawks’ high-flyer Jalen Johnson put Lakers’ Austin Reaves in the “Got Moss’d” category last night. It was one of the best and-one poster dunks of the season, and it was the first bucket of the game, too (17 seconds in). Johnson almost jumped over Reaves entirely. And as great as that dunk was, what happened in Utah about an hour earlier was even better.

Timberwolves’ superstar Anthony Edwards dunked John Collins straight into oblivion (seen above). Ant-Man rose higher than a human should and cocked it back with a vengeance. I see shades of Michael Jordan every time I watch him leap like this. His athleticism and skillset is Jordan-esque, and this dunk was downright disrespectful. Edwards (32 pts, 8 rebs, 7 asts) actually dislocated his finger during the jam, but he returned quickly to hit his free throw and complete the and-one. Minnesota has won three straight, and they’re back within a half-game of the West lead.

Dunk Highlights

Poster 1: Jalen Johnson (Hawks)

Poster 2: Anthony Edwards (T-Wolves)

What’s the best poster dunk you’ve ever seen? Reply and let us know.

NBA Scores & Highlights

Cavaliers def. Pacers (108-103)

Celtics def. Pistons (119-94)

76ers def. Heat (98-91)

Bulls def. Blazers (110-107)

Timberwolves def. Jazz (114-104)

Knicks def. Warriors (119-112)

Kings def. Grizzlies (121-111, OT)

Lakers def. Hawks (136-105)

______________________________________________________________________________________

STORYLINES

The Justin Fields Trade Saga

The Bears traded Fields to the Steelers, and one of the central questions of the 2024 NFL offseason has finally been answered. But this move raises other questions, namely: Why couldn’t Chicago get more for Fields than this? (The Ringer)

Scheffler’s $50 Million Milestone

Scottie Scheffler claimed several little bits of Players Championship history with his mesmerizing Sunday 64. He became the 15th golfer to break the $50 million mark on the PGA Tour. And he did it faster than anyone. (Golf Digest)

NHL Power Rankings

Playoff seeding. Just trying to get into the postseason. A lottery pick. Winning the draft lottery so they can have the No. 1 pick. These are the driving factors that make the remainder of the NHL regular season so compelling. (ESPN)

______________________________________________________________________________________

NEWS

San Francisco Giants Sign 2-Time Cy Young Winner Blake Snell to 2-Year, $62 Million Contract (MLB)

Cowboys LB Leighton Vander Esch Retires After 6-Year Career Due to Persistent Neck Injuries (CBS Sports)

Bears Reportedly Turned Down Better Offer Than Steelers’ for Sake of ‘Doing Right’ by Justin Fields (B/R)

Tiger Woods to Attend Meeting Between PGA Tour Players & Saudi Arabia PIF Meeting in Bahamas (SI)

Dodgers Say DH Shohei Ohtani Will Start Throwing Program & Could Play in the Field This Season (ESPN)

Sports Illustrated Strikes Deal With Minute Media Publishing, Parent Co. of The Players’ Tribune (Yahoo! Sports)

Cowboys & Dak Prescott Plan to Restructure Deal to Create Cap Space (FOX Sports)

LeBron James & J.J. Redick to Team Up for Weekly Podcast About Basketball (The Athletic)

49ers Penalized in Next 2 Drafts for Payroll Errors (B/R)

Saints Sign DE Chase Young to 1-Year, $13 Million Deal (NBC Sports)