Joe Lunardi explains path for SEC bubble teams to make NCAA Tournament

The SEC has unquestionably the best conference in college basketball this season with several teams already locked in to the NCAA Tournament. However, there are still quite a few schools from the league on the bubble with two weeks left in the regular season.

Texas (16-11, 5-9 SEC), Vanderbilt (18-9, 6-8), Oklahoma (17-10, 4-10), Arkansas (16-11, 5-9) and Georgia (16-11, 4-10) all still have work left to do to earn a bid. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has made a career out of predicting what the selection committee will do and laid out the path for the aforementioned schools in simple terms.

“Al Davis used to say what? ‘Just win, baby,'” Lunardi said on The Paul Finebaum Show. “That’s certainly the case with these SEC bubble teams. But in the bigger picture, what I would suggest to fans of the SEC bubble teams is bubble teams are on the bubble for a reason. If they didn’t have flaws in their resume, they’d be solidly in the field and we wouldn’t be having these conversations. I think because of that, what you tend to see with bubble teams around this time of year is they play about .500.

“So like a winning streak — and that I’ll define as two games, maybe three, in a row — is all it takes to get in and stay in. I think the first rule is win your home games because that’s what the good teams do. And then B), no bad losses. We talked about how that’s really hard to happen in the SEC this year. So short of losing to the No. 16 seed in Nashville, I think for the most part, the league is going to be exempt from that worry.”

Currently, Lunardi has both Texas and Vanderbilt in the field at No. 10 seeds while Oklahoma and Arkansas are listed among the “last four in.” Georgia is left out of the field as the SEC is projected to get 13 of 16 teams in.

The Sooners and Razorbacks got a boost over the weekend as they defeated Mississippi State and Missouri, respectively, to earn quad 1 wins. Both teams will have multiple opportunities over their final four regular season games to add to that.

Texas is coming off of a bad loss to South Carolina over the weekend that marked the Gamecocks’ first SEC win this season. Even with that, however, the Longhorns and Vanderbilt find themselves slightly above Oklahoma and Arkansas in terms of odds to make the tournament. Texas will play the Sooners, Razorbacks and Georgia in their final four games.

Finally, Georgia is free falling and has lost five of its most recent six games. The Bulldogs have a massive opportunity coming up on Tuesday, however, as they will take on No. 3 Florida. They also play Texas and Vanderbilt, which will give them a chance to separate themselves.

It will definitely be an interesting race to the end as these SEC bubble teams attempt to put themselves in position to hear their name called on Selection Sunday.