Bubble Teams, Blame Arizona State

If you’re someone like Maryland, St. Mary’s, Baylor or Penn State, all you needed was for Arizona State to beat USC for the Pac-10 championship, and your chances of getting to the Big Dance were looking good.

An Arizona State win and USC goes to the N.I.T.

But noooooooooooo!

Now the No. 23 Sun Devils loss will have you sitting on pins and needles on Sunday. You’ll have to wait and see if you will be one of the 65 teams to get into the tournament. Your chances became fewer, because the Sun Devils couldn’t hold off USC today in a 66-63 loss USC’s backyard at Staples Center.

It was the first Pac-10 championship for the Trojans (21-12), which advances to the Big Dance for the third straight year. The Trojans waited until the conference tournament to have a good run after going 1-6 in February.

USC trailed by 15 at halftime, and then went on a 29-16 run in the second half. Arizona State had a chance to win it, but Pac-10 Player of the Year, James Harding had one of the worst 50 seconds ever, missing a free throw, layup and three-pointer that could have made the difference.

Freshman DeMar DeRozan scored a game-high 25 points and was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player for USC.

Arizona State finishes the regular season at 23-9, and will no doubt get an invite, along with No. 10 Washington, No. 15 UCLA, and maybe California.

I said maybe. Don’t hold your breath Bear fans.

In the meantime, whichever one of you gets bumped out of the tournament tomorrow, I would suggest sending a dozen thorns to Arizona State.