The tangled string of Christmas lights that is the NCAA men's basketball tournament season is slowly beginning to unravel, and it's not especially festive. This season, the Big Dance is one step forward and two steps back. Just when a team seizes the inside track, it scores 32 points in its next game and falls right back to the pack.
Most of the March Madness discourse is focused squarely on the bubble, which is constantly forming and re-forming like the globules in a lava lamp. Because of this volatility, the bubble seems to be spread thinner than usual—more ripe for bursting, if you will.