Cal basketball sits outside the bubble in 2017 NCAA bracketology

Bracket Matrix has been pretty close to projecting who makes the NCAA Tournament every year. Right now, Cal basketball has some work to do what to get there.

Cal currently sits on the edge of the bubble. Only four Pac-12 teams are currently making the NCAA Tournament at the moment. Right now Cal sits on the outside of the “Last Four Out”, behind bubble squads like Providence, Kansas State, Rhode Island, temple, Wake Forest, NC State, Texas Tech and Michigan State. Cal not landing a win against Virginia (3 seed), Seton Hall (bubble squad) and San Diego State (not a bubble team) are costing the Bears at this point.

If Cal wants to boost their tournament chances, they’ll get a decent number of shots. However, Cal will play only UCLA (currently a 1 seed) and USC (currently a 6 seed) once, and the games will be in Los Angeles. Cal will play Arizona (5/6 seed) and Oregon (6/7 seed) twice, so a split of that series would come in super handy. Beating fellow bubble squads in Colorado and Stanford could also mean a lot.

Cal fans, what do you see as the best path to a tournament bid?