NCAA Tournament March Madness Bubble Watch: California

NCAA Tournament March Madness

#71 California

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Projected seed: 9

California’s résumé is anchored by a signature neutral-site win over UCLA and a handful of respectable nonconference victories, but the profile is undercut by a damaging road setback at Kansas State and a long string of comfortable wins over low-end opponents like Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Fullerton that do little to impress a committee. The team has shown it can score and close out weaker foes, yet the absence of true road or top-tier scalps leaves room for doubt. A slate of league games gives clear paths to change the story, with home tests against programs such as Duke and Louisville and road chances at Virginia and Florida State where resume-defining wins would move California from a hopeful bubble team to a more secure choice. Until those moments arrive the résumé reads as a club with a noteworthy high point but enough soft results and a bad road loss to keep its standing cautious.

Date	Opponent	Ranking	Outcome
11/3	CS Bakersfield	301	W87-60
11/6	Wright St	142	W77-67
11/10	CS Fullerton	279	W93-65
11/13	@Kansas St	79	L99-96
11/18	Presbyterian	266	W67-57
11/21	CS Sacramento	275	W91-67
11/25	(N)UCLA	31	W80-72
12/2	Utah	122	W79-72
12/6	Pacific	123	W67-61
12/13	Northwestern LA	300	96%
12/19	Morgan St	363	99%
12/21	Columbia	129	79%
12/30	Louisville	15	27%
1/2	Notre Dame	60	58%
1/7	@Virginia	23	20%
1/10	@Virginia Tech	64	37%
1/14	Duke	4	17%
1/17	North Carolina	24	39%
1/24	@Stanford	90	47%
1/28	@Florida St	95	50%
1/31	@Miami FL	34	25%
2/4	Georgia Tech	136	81%
2/7	Clemson	26	40%
2/11	@Syracuse	62	36%
2/14	@Boston College	144	65%
2/21	Stanford	90	69%
2/25	SMU	40	47%
2/28	Pittsburgh	108	74%
3/4	@Georgia Tech	136	63%
3/7	@Wake Forest	45	30%