Welcome to the Bubble

Virginia fans aren't used to being on the bubble.  It's been a long time since we've been there.

Note: just found THIS PAGE on ESPN.com.  It's worth a click.

Looking back in time, we weren't close in either of the last two years, and Dave Leitao's last season (2008-09) was a disastrous 10-18 grease fire.  2007-08 was Sean Singletary's last year (wow, it's been that long???), which ended up a disappointing 17-16 with an "epic" run in the CBI.  2006-07 was our last trip to the Tournament (wow, it's been that long???), but we were never really on the bubble that season, with a hearty 11 wins in the conference before we wilted a little bit down the stretch.  2005-06 and 2004-05 were .500-type seasons.  The last time were were kinda on the bubble was 2003-04, when we won 17 games, but only managed six ACC wins.  We were on the bad side of the bubble that year; it was more wishful thinking than actually being in tourney contention.  2002-03 was also a .500 season, and 2001-02 was a 16-11 season that culminated in the NIT.  2000-01 was the last time we were on the bubble - and I mean really ON THE BUBBLE - and we ended up making it in as a 5-seed despite losing eight of our last 11 games.  You might remember that season was the year we got dumped out of the postseason via the 5-12 upset against Gonzaga.  Our prior NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1997, when the Harold Deane / Curtis Staples / Courtney Alexander / Norman Nolan team was crushed by Iowa in the first round.  1995, of course, was our last impressive run, turning a 4-seed into an upset over 1-seeded Kansas and an Elite Eight appearance.  But I digress...

It hasn't been a good 17-year run for our basketball program since that '95 team's success, but this year it seemed like we finally had the substance to make a return trip to the Big Dance and maybe make a little noise once we got there.  We were (still are) ranked and had earned some degree of national respect.  Things were looking very good... until we crapped the bed at home against the Hokies on Sunday night.  So welcome to the bubble, Virginia fans.  Our RPI is decent, but our strength of schedule sucks and our "quality wins" are losing their quality.  We are a bubble team.  We ARE a bubble team.  Poke it HERE and take a look for yourself.

With the book on how to defend us (double and triple team Mike Scott, force our ice-cold shooters to make shots) now in mass production and distributed to every coaching hack on the East Coast, the time to circle the wagons and embrace bubblehood is upon us.

The reason I'm posting this now is make sure that everyone in Wahooze Nation (that's right people, we're a freaking nation now) is self-aware of the situation the Virginia Basketball team is now in.  The margin for error is shrinking, and with FSU and NC State on the come, the road ahead is not easy.

It's a freaking battle that lies ahead.  A knuckles-bloodied, jaw sore, skin-under-the-fingernails fight for survival.  It's a soul sucking siege from today to Selection Sunday.  And if we want to see our beloved Cavaliers in the NCAA Tournament, it's going to take some boys becoming men on our basketball team, along with the second testicle descending for our basketball fanbase as well.  No more losses in JPJ Arena, no more losses to inferior teams.  It's a fight for survival.  Kill or be killed.

Eight more wins.  That's what we need to get to the Dance.  Eight more wins.

Any fewer than eight?

Pop.