March Madness 2016: Bubble Teams That Will Be Left on the Outside Looking In

Parity defines the 2015-16 college basketball season. Not only is there no dominant team heading into the NCAA tournament, but the bubble situation is a bit murky because so many squads around the country failed to take advantage of a wide-open race.

Being on the bubble is always representative of a campaign of missed opportunities. That said, this year takes that to the extreme. It leaves the door open for the selection committee to make a surprise choice or two since there are so many lackluster resumes hoping to get picked.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at three teams that likely came up just short in their efforts to earn a spot in the 68-team March Madness field.

Syracuse

Syracuse may end up being the team the selection committee spends the most time debating. The Orange, who sport a 19-13 record, haven't done enough to earn a spot based on their results alone, especially after losing five of their last six games down the stretch.

That said, the fact longtime head coach Jim Boeheim sat out a nine-game suspension during which his team went 4-5 could explain some of the problems. Nate Mink of Syracuse.com passed along comments from committee chairman Joe Castiglione, who confirmed that will be taken into consideration.

"In Syracuse's case, we recognize you have a Hall of Fame coach who has assembled his team, knows his team, conditions his coach," Castiglione said. "To pretend he's not a difference-maker would be a mistake."

If the Orange had made a deep run in the ACC tournament with Boeheim on the bench, that argument would have carried a lot more weight in final discussions. Instead, they were eliminated by Pittsburgh, a fellow bubble team, in the second round. That doesn't bode well for their chances.

Syracuse had several chances to bolster its resume down the stretch, whether it was games against Louisville and North Carolina or the conference tournament. It failed to make the most of those opportunities, and that's likely to doom the Orange in the end.

Ohio State

Ohio State rebounded from a forgettable 2-4 start to reach 20 wins. The question is whether enough of those victories came against top-flight competition to warrant a spot in the field. Kentucky and Iowa were the Buckeyes' only wins over teams in the Top 10 at the time of the matchups.

They had three chances over their last five games to change that against Michigan State. The Spartans ended up winning all three of those meetings by at least 15 points, however, which makes it tough for Ohio State to justify a spot.

The final meeting, which came in the Big Ten tournament, was the most lopsided of them all. MSU completely outclassed the Buckeyes en route to an 81-54 beatdown. Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports felt the blowout defeat brought an end to OSU's chances:

Get one of those wins over Michigan State, and Ohio State would have a legitimate case—especially since other teams haven't stepped up to take the final spots. But without that type of marquee win, it doesn't appear head coach Thad Matta's group has done enough.

Tulsa

The story is much the same for Tulsa as it is for Ohio State. The Golden Hurricane reached the 20-win plateau and had some impressive stretches during the regular season. What they lack is a large amount of those resume-building victories.

Aside from splitting the season series with SMU, they didn't face another team ranked inside the top 20 of ESPN's BPI metric. Overall, they went just 6-10 against teams inside the top 100 and 14-1 against everybody else to help boost their record.

If Tulsa was still in the running down the stretch, losing two of its final three games to a Memphis team that went 8-10 in conference play likely ends its hopes. Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports commented after the team's loss to the Tigers in the AAC quarterfinals:

In the end, the selection committee is probably going to reward the teams that took on the toughest schedules and picked up some notable victories along the way. The Golden Hurricane don't fall into that category, thus leaving them on the outside looking in.

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