Betting Predictions for Five 2019 March Madness Bubble Teams

We’re working our way through the second half of conference play in NCAA men’s basketball, which means that we’re just a few weeks away from March Madness — the tournament that welcomes 68 teams but crowns just one champion. One of the biggest questions in the weeks leading up to the tournament each year has to do with “bubble” teams — teams that are right on the edge of getting berths after all of the automatic qualifiers (winners of conferences either through the regular season or at the conferences’ end-of-season tournaments) have taken their slots. Here are five teams on the bubble right now that you should learn more about as you prepare your March Madness betting for the Big Dance.

Betting Predictions for Five 2019 March Madness Bubble Teams

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— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) 14 de febrero de 2019

Washington (19-5, KenPom #37)

Washington went to Arizona State for their last game having won five straight — and five straight against teams in the NET top 100. However, they lost down there, adding questions as to whether they can qualify as an at-large win. They did win at Oregon, but the quality of that win is in doubt as the Ducks keep losing, and as Arizona State slides, that loss could get worse as well. The Huskies need to finish the regular season strong; if they rattle off seven straight wins, they will get in. However, it would take just one more bad loss to send them to the NIT (unless they win the Pac-12 tournament, of course).

North Carolina State (18-7, KenPom #39)

The Wolfpack have won just three games in their last seven, with losses at Louisville and North Carolina and at home to Virginia and Virginia Tech. There’s not a lot of shame in those losses, but they are piling up. They have beaten Clemson, Syracuse and Pitt in that stretch. But they rank last in the nation in non-conference strength of schedule, but they also have a bad loss to Wake Forest. It helped that they pushed Virginia to overtime, and their only impressive win is over Auburn — who has not beaten anyone impressive. Beating Syracuse was nice (since the Orange beat Duke), but Syracuse isn’t even really considered on the bubble right now. If the Wolfpack can win four of six down the stretch, they should be in. But can they?

Ole Miss (17-7, KenPom #40)

There was a time when the Rebels sat at 14-3, but since then they have lost at Kentucky, at Alabama and Florida, lost to Mississippi State and Iowa State at home, while they have won at Georgia and at home against Texas A&M. Neither of those two wins has a lot of quality, and they will need to win at home against Tennessee or Kentucky if they want to find themselves on the top half of a bracket. They need to win out against the likes of Missouri (home and away), Georgia (home), Arkansas (away) and South Carolina (away) if they want to stay off the bubble.

Lipscomb (20-4, KenPom #33)

The Bison are 11-0 in the Atlantic Sun Conference, including a 20-point win at Liberty. That’s the same Liberty team that went to UCLA and won and almost beat Alabama in Huntsville. If the Bison can complete the sweep against Liberty, they should get into the Big Dance even if they lose to Liberty in their conference tournament. They have a road win over TCU (and the Horned Frogs are seeing their own fortunes rise). They did lose at Clemson — but Clemson is surging too.

Oklahoma (15-10, KenPom #41)

If you’re wondering why Oklahoma’s season feels a lot like last year’s, you’re far from alone. Last year, they started out 14-2 and then dropped seven of nine, including a bad loss at Iowa State (who was a lot worse than they are this year). This year, they started 13-3…and have lost seven of nine, including a bad loss to West Virginia (this year’s basement dweller in the Big 12). They are 3-9 in conference play, and their best wins are at home against Wofford (who are better than you think), at Northwestern and in a neutral-site game against Florida. None of those are top-tier wins. Oklahoma still has a chance to clean up their mess, with games at Iowa State, TCU and Kansas State and home tilts against Texas and Kansas. They need to win at least two of those, as well as their home game against West Virginia, if they want to keep their bubble from bursting.