The NCAA Tournament Bubble is a wild and wacky place, not perhaps as strange or convoluted a place as Dom Cobb's "limbo", but damn weird nonetheless. And it is in this world that the 2011 Virginia Tech Hokies mens basketball resides, at least until the 2011 Selection Sunday Show tonight when they will find out whether or not they have been invited to the big kids table, aka the 2011 NCAA Tournament.
As with all bubble teams, the Hokies' resume has been dissected a thousand times over, and all anyone can seem to agree on is that they may or may not be in the Big Dance. Not helpful at all. But what is helpful to Seth Greenberg's crew is Richmond taking care of business today in the Atlantic 10 Tournament Final. A Dayton Flyers win would've most likely kicked Virgina Tech to the NIT.
Just to hit upon the strangeness of the bubble one more time, the same team (Penn State) that hurt the Hokies bubble chances a day ago can now actually help their chances. If Penn State were to win the Big Ten Tournament Title this afternoon it would bump up Virgina Tech's RPI and overall profile, as they beat the Nittany Lions by 10 in early December.