ESPN's Jay Bilas, Jay Williams reveal which bubble teams should make 2024 NCAA Tournament

The bubble just keeps shrinking as chaos erupts around the country during Conference Tournament week, with a slew of bid-stealers coming through to eat up valuable positions in the NCAA Tournament.

Teams like Oregon, New Mexico and NC State all won auto-bids yesterday, forcing the teams who they beat into at-large territory, thus shrinking the number of at-large spots available now that Colorado, San Diego State and North Carolina occupy those spots. Normally, we hear about a historically weak bubble, but no, in 2024, the bubble is as strong as ever.

So, when Jay Bilas and Jay Williams joined SportsCenter on Selection Sunday morning, they were asked which of these bubble teams he believes needs to be in the tournament. “For me, it’s Pittsburgh,” asnwered Bilas, explaining how hot the Panthers are as the Big Dance approaches.

“Pittsburgh is a team that is playing as well as any bubble team, if not better, and there are teams that bracketologists say are firmly in the field that Pittsburgh is better than right now,” said Bilas. And that recent good play should matter, he says.

“I get what bracketologists to, it’s a wonderful thing. But you have to be able to look at these teams — in addition to the paper, the paper’s important, the record they put up, who they played, who they beat. But Pittsburgh’s a tournament team, there’s no question in my mind. You’ve got guards like Bub Carrington, and you got a shooter like Blake Hinson — they make nine 3s a game — and they have trended upward towards the end of the season.”

But Jay Bilas understands it’s hard to compare one team that’s playing very well to end the year vs. a team who built their resume throughout the year.

“I think that’s the challenge that the committee has. It’s supposed to be the automatic qualifiers and the next best teams. Now, when you start talking about total body of work, or non-conference schedule. It’s one or the other, you can’t start cherry-picking this stuff. But we’re going to see teams get left out, and they’re going to say ‘here’s why.’ And there are going to be teams in the field that have worse metrics in that area than the team they let in.”

After Bilas gave his Pitt pick, Jay Williams admitted Pittsburgh should probably get in over the team he selected, but Williams just wants to see everyone’s favorite mid-major center play in the NCAA tourney.

“There is no better name than Indiana State that deserves to be in this tournament, and Robbie Avila. I mean, look, there’s a reason why they call him Larry Nerd, Cream Abdul-Jabbar, right. Steph Blurry. Like, it’s one of the best names and one of the best stories we have in college basketball.”

Plus, Williams notes that mid-major clubs have more than held their own in the tournament lately.

“As we see teams like FAU, like San Diego State, who are getting to the Final Four, I love miraculous type stories. I’m not sure if they’ll get in, but if they do, that’s a name and a team you should recognize.”

Bilas chimed in to back up Williams and say that Indiana State ought to do dancing because they’re a darn good ball club.

“And they’re really good. They should get in because they’re really good. And they lost a hellacious game to Drake in the Missouri Valley Conference final, and Drake is legit, so you got two legit teams there. That’s going to be the challenge for the committee, to get the best teams after the automatic qualifiers.”

2024 may feature the toughest year ever to try and do that.