6 men’s college basketball teams who could steal a bid come Selection Sunday

Will we see these teams make the field of 68 come Selection Sunday?

Per usual, there will be a handful of tournaments this postseason where a heavy favorite goes down and a team no one expected to crash the Big Dance does so by claiming its conference’s automatic bid. In a few of these cases, the beaten favorite (or this year, favorites) will have a resume strong enough to still warrant inclusion in the field of 68. In those instances, the Cinderella league champion will wind up “stealing” a bid from a non-automatic qualifier that would have been in the field otherwise.

More so than any year I can remember, it seems like the mid-major leagues with an at-large candidate have two of them. That’s comforting for bubble boys from major conferences, but exciting for the prospects of a three-bid WCC or a three (four?)-bid AAC.

If you’re a fan of Indiana or Ohio State or Arkansas or some other team being talked about by Joe Lunardi on a daily basis right now, here’s who you’re rooting for over the next two weeks:

1. Saint Mary’s (West Coast)

For the third straight year, the Gaels have won the WCC’s regular season title and will be the No. 1 seed in the league’s postseason tournament. Whether they win their second straight WCC tournament title or go one-and-out, Randy Bennett’s team will be comfortably in the field of 68 for a program-record fourth consecutive year.

2. Gonzaga (West Coast)

The Zags have one of the weirdest tournament resumes of any team in recent college basketball history. The predictive metrics say Gonzaga is one of the 10 best teams in the country. Their actual win/loss results say they are … far from that. Regardless, they’re going to be dancing for the 25th consecutive year, the third-longest streak in the sport.

3. Memphis (American Athletic)

“They’re not a mid-major. They don’t belong in this post. Keep their name out of your mouth.”

Whatever. They’re going to hear their name called on Selection Sunday whether they win the American tournament or not, and that’s all that matters.

4. Drake (Missouri Valley)

The Bulldogs are unquestionable one of the best stories in college basketball this season.

After more than a decade of dominating the Division-II level at Northwest Missouri State, Ben McCollum finally got his shot at the D-I level when Drake offered him their head coaching position last spring. Bulldog fans weren’t certain that a D-II coach was the right choice to replace Darian DeVries, who bolted for West Virginia after an extremely successful run in Des Moines. They were even less sold when McCollum announced that he would be bringing four players with him from Northwest Missouri State, and that those four players would all be starters. Some fans sent angry emails to athletic director Brian Hardin, and others started mockingly referring to the program as “D-II Drake” on social media.

It’s worked out pretty well.

Drake’s 27 wins are tied for the most of any team in the country, and they recently wrapped up just their third outright regular season conference championship in their 111-year program history.

Despite all this, Drake has played just one Quadrant-I game all season (a neutral court win over Vanderbilt) and would instantly become one of the most debated at-large candidates in the country if it fails to cut down the nets in St. Louis.

The Missouri Valley has given us a 1-seed vs. 2-seed championship game in each of the last four seasons, with Drake winning as the 2-seed the last two years. Bubble boys should be pulling for the Bulldogs to win this thing, but if they’re going to lose, you want them to lose early.

5. UC San Diego (Big West)

In their first year of NCAA tournament eligibility, the Tritons have been spectacular. They currently sit at 26-4 overall, they have multiple Quadrant-I victories, and they are No. 35 in the NET — just one spot behind two-time reigning national champion UConn.

People will have questions about UCSD if they lose in the Big West tournament, but if that loss were to come against a very strong UC Irvine team in the championship game, the Tritons would have a pretty strong case to hear their name called on Selection Sunday.

6. San Francisco (West Coast)

USF’s at-large chances probably died with their regular season-ending loss to Gonzaga. HOWEVER, sometimes the Committee gets a little wild with their final at-large selections. If the Dons were able to knock off the Zags in the WCC semis and then lost a competitive game against Saint Mary’s in the championship, there’s certainly a chance they could earn a bid over a power conference bubble team that lost early in its own conference tourney.