Day 3: Bring Out Your Missouri Jersey

... and Utah. And Memphis. And LSU. And you could probably buy out a sporting goods store with the amount of teams that, as a bubble fan, you need to win today. A look at all the important games today and why they're important (team to root for in bold):

- 11:35: Tulsa/Memphis: This is the Conference-USA final game. If Memphis wins, in all likelihood they will become either a number one or two seed. If they lose, they're in the tournament no matter what. If Tulsa loses, they will be playing in the NIT. 

- 1:00: Mississippi State/LSU: Mississippi State served their purpose by eliminating fellow bubble team South Carolina yesterday. Now, we don't want them pulling a Georgia and winning the SEC championship and stealing a bid. LSU will be in no matter what, so root for them to be one step closer to securing that automatic bid. 

- 3:15: Tennessee/Auburn: This is just about the exact same scenario as the one above, but replace "South Carolina" with "Florida," "LSU" with "Tennessee," and "Mississippi State" with "Auburn."

- 4:00: Maryland/Duke: The Terps are about 75% in as of this point. If they win, they up that to 100%. Of course, for all other bubble fans, this is highlighted as one of the biggest games of the day so they can root against the Terps.

... Then, there's the 6:00 trifecta. Other than the Memphis game, these are the three most important games of the day for Terp fans, and they may be even more important than the Maryland game itself. All three are the exact same scenario, so I'm just going to lay it out here. Team A (on left) is an intruding team. Prior to their conference tournament, they had no aspirations of playing in the NCAA tournament. Now, though, they've won a few games and are in their conference tournament final. Were they to win, they would steal an at-large spot because team B (bold, on right) will be in the tournament no matter what (with the possible exception of Temple). It sounds like a good story, until you realize that bubble spots are hard to come by nowadays. Anyway ...

- USC/Arizona State

- Baylor/Missouri

- Duquesne/Temple

Those are the three. Be in front of your TV or computer from 6:00 to 8:00 if you're any kind of college basketball fan. 

Also, I didn't list them, but remember to root for Utah at 7:00 and Utah State at 10:00 so they can win their conference tournaments and not drop themselves into the at-large field. 

So go Terps, Owls, Sun Devils, Aggies, Utes, Volunteers, and three different types of Tigers (weird, huh?). Today's going to be a huge day.