Bubble teams aren't worth the trouble

Here's the truth about most of the bubble teams people will be obsessing about for the next week and a half.

They're losers.

Over the last five seasons, only nine teams seeded No. 9 through No. 12 -- your typical seeding for a major-conference bubble team -- made it to the Sweet 16, and last season no team seeded lower then seventh made it.

Take a closer look and you'll see that the ones in that seeding range that manage to win a couple of games are usually so-called mid-majors, or at least not from the power conferences -- teams such as Butler in 2003, Alabama Birmingham and Nevada in 2004, Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2005, and Bradley and the famous George Mason team that made it to the Final Four in 2006.

So track teams such as Kentucky, Maryland, Syracuse, Texas A&M, Ohio State and even two-time defending champion Florida if you'd like, but they probably aren't going to make it out of the first weekend even if they do make the field.

USC -- by taking a split on the Arizona trip with a victory over Arizona -- appears safely out of that territory with an 18-10 record against a challenging schedule, and a 9-7 Pacific 10 mark (with two games remaining) that includes a victory over UCLA. That season-opening loss to Mercer is so long ago, it didn't even save the job of Bears Coach Mark Slonaker, whose contract isn't being renewed after a losing season.

Arizona is a more interesting case, partly because of the Wildcats' 23-year NCAA tournament streak and the unfolding saga over whether Lute Olson or Kevin O'Neill will coach the team next season.

When O'Neill calls it the toughest year of his coaching career, that's saying something: He was an assistant with the Indiana Pacers the season of the brawl with the Detroit Pistons.

Arizona (17-12, 7-9) needs to solidify its case against the Oregon schools and in the Pac-10 tournament next week at Staples Center. But the Wildcats probably will make the field because of a difficult schedule that contributes to a No. 23 Rating Percentage Index ranking and because they played significant stretches without Jerryd Bayless earlier and, more recently, Nic Wise because of injury. Wise is returning to practice this week.

"I think it's probably been trying for everybody, so what I totally admire and respect about our players is how they've handled not only [the coaching] situation but this injury thing and the makeshift lineups," O'Neill said. "It's been an interesting year, is all I can say."