NCAA Bracket 2015: Predictions for Bubble Teams Before Conference Tournaments

Sometimes, taking care of business before conference tournaments is just not enough for teams on the bubble. 

Sometimes, though, it is. Look at North Carolina State, a bubble team before upending Louisville and North Carolina on the road in late February.

That's how bubble teams get it done, folks.

Others are not so fortunate. Even big wins to end the season are not enough. Not only must a bubble team secure a few wins in its respective conference tournament, it must also receive help via struggles by other teams on the bubble.

Of course, those big wins don't help all that much if you end up getting blown out by a team near the bottom of your conference—as the very same NC State did at Boston College on Saturday.

Before tournaments begin in earnest and really help to sort out the bubble situation, let's take a look at some of the more debatable teams that could swing either way on Selection Sunday.

Davidson (21-6)

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Hello, Cinderella.

The Davidson Wildcats rest right on the bubble, a byproduct of an epic run at just the right time.

Winners of seven straight, the Wildcats most recently knocked off George Washington, before that taking down fellow bubble team Rhode Island on the road, 60-59.

There, the Wildcats shot 41 percent from the field behind a game-high 21 points from Tyler Kalinoski, the team's leading scorer, who helps the team as a whole to rank eighth in the nation at an average of 79.6 points per game.

Clearly, the Wildcats are an explosive team that can run up the score in a hurry, if not keep pace with some of the best teams in the NCAA bracket.

What puts Davidson over the edge? Jack Gibbs, whose absence with a knee injury resulted in two losses against ranked opposition for the Wildcats. He's back and hit the game-winning shot against Rhode Island, earning him honors, per William Geoghegan of Independent Newspapers:

The Wildcats are healthy and firing on all cylinders at just the right time, which will see them to the tournament.

From there, anything is possible.

Prediction: Davidson makes the tournament.

Texas (17-12)

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Perhaps now is the time to stick the proverbial fork in the Texas Longhorns. 

Once a trendy Final Four pick, thanks to the arrival of Myles Turner, the Longhorns now tout a disastrous 6-10 mark in Big 12 play and are losers of four straight.

Granted, the schedule did not do Texas any favors, as all four losses came at the hands of ranked opposition—Oklahoma, Iowa State, West Virginia and Kansas. All losses were close, but the last seems to have hurt Rick Barnes' team the most.

"Seems like you're fighting as hard as we are, everything is going against you," Barnes said, per The Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "We can take a lot of plays and say this, that or whatever, you look at the numbers, you have a pretty even game."

Part of the problem seems to be a lack of identity on offense. Turner, the reason for such high hopes, seems underutilized, attempting just 30 shots over the course of the four-game skid.

Barnes and Co. need to find a solution in a hurry. Texas is now a whopping 2-11 against the RPI Top 50, per ESPN's RPI.

Right now, it is hard to see how Texas turns things around. The Longhorns still throw down with No. 19 Baylor and clearly may have issues in the conference tournament. To expect Texas suddenly to change after a season of struggles may be asking too much.

Prediction: Texas misses the tournament.

Temple (20-9)

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Scroll a bit up in those alphabetical RPI rankings and find the Temple Owls, 1-6 against the RPI Top 50.

Good luck trying to figure out the eye test.

A December 77-52 upset of then-No. 10 Kansas is great, but what about a complete and utter February 22 collapse at Tulsa in which the Owls shot 24.6 percent from the field in a 55-39 loss?

To be fair, Temple last trotted out at home and scored a 66-54 win against Houston and closes the season against Eastern Carolina and Connecticut. But the erratic behavior and the fact both Tulsa and SMU swept the Owls makes it hard to get behind them as tournament entrants.

Senior Will Cummings needs some help if things are to turn around. He leads the team in points (13.8) and assists (4.2) and is second on the team in rebounds (4.2). Even his 5-of-7 effort with a team-high 15 points was not enough in that ugly recent loss to Tulsa, though.

Barring a drastic change and an epic sudden competitiveness against the best teams in the American Athletic Conference, Temple has the look of a team about to burst, not sneak in on Selection Sunday.

Prediction: Temple misses the tournament.

Stats and info are courtesy of ESPN unless otherwise specified.