The Weekend Weave: Let’s start handing out the Dance tickets

Coastal Carolina's Sam McLaurin hopes to give the Chanticleers the first bid Saturday. (AP/The Sun News)

Here are the five games that will be deciding our first automatic bids for the 2010 NCAA Tournament. Yep, it’s already that time. Can you believe it? Why, it seems like the NFL season just ended. Perhaps the Olympics masking another chunk of the season made it all go by so much faster than we realized. But March is well underway and it’s time for college basketball to shake off the nerves and get out their on the stage, in front of everyone.

• Winthrop-Coastal Carolina (Big South), Saturday, 4 ET.
• Kennesaw State-Eastern Tenessee vs. Mercer-Jacksonville (Atlantic Sun), Saturday, 6 ET.
• Murray State-Eastern Illinois vs. Morehead State-Tennessee Tech (Ohio Valley), Saturday 8 ET.
• Missouri Valley finals are Sunday at 2 ET. We’ve got eight teams still in the hunt as of now, so I’m not listing ‘em all off.
• Cornell’s inevitable win tonight, against Brown, will clinch the Ivy League title and give the Big Red the first bid of 2010.

Love watching the small teams in the small gyms win their small-conference trophies. If you’re gambling on these games, you’ve got problems, though.

Now, onto other matters. Namely, more bubble.

—Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech tip off tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. It’s a game that’s not available nationally, and maybe that’s better for both of these teams, because the loser of this one is in serious, serious doodoo. The teams have combined to drop seven of their last nine games. Loser is out of the picture, and if it’s Virginia Tech, there may be no chances left, not even an ACC title-game appearance.

—Syracuse-Louisville offers up a chance for the Orange to remain in the hunt for the overall No. 1 seed and the Cardinals to clinch a bid with a win. No way Pitino’s team gets left out if it beats SU twice. This is the last game in Freedom Hall, by the way.

Florida-Kentucky: C’mon, the Gators have no shot at winning this game.

—UAB-UTEP (Saturday, 9 ET) offers the Blazers one more chance to stay on the bubble. A loss would mean Mike Davis’ team would’ve accumulated a 23-7 record but not beaten Memphis or the Miners. That won’t be good enough, even with a win over Butler on the resumé.

—If you have a soft heart, feel for Mississippi State, which is still in need of two more wins to get a bid. Well, Tennessee comes to town Saturday and it won’t be easy. How much sleep will Jarvis Varnado and Dee Bost get tonight, knowing they’re going to have to be the ones to lift this team?

—West Virginia-Villanova is a great game that doesn’t mean anything. Whoever gets further next week in Manhattan is going to end up with the better seed.

Lock the bids up

Florida State can by beating Miami.

Oklahoma State can by beating Nebraska.

Florida can by beating Kentucky at Rupp. But, c’mon, the Gators have no shot at winning this game.

No negotiations

Va. Tech: waving goodbye to the field?

Lose here and it’s title or NIT-bound.

Connecticut simply has to win at South Florida (Saturday, 2 ET) or face winning the Big East tournament. It would have a 7-11 record in the Big East with a loss here. Road game, too. You can’t convince me there’s been a more Jekyll-and-Hyde team this year than the Huskies.

Charlotte can’t blow another big game, like the one it has against Richmond (Saturday, 2 ET), lest it be faced with winning the Atlantic 10 tournament.

Memphis: gotta continue to win at home over Tulsa (Saturday, 1 ET).

Rhode Island isn’t in and would be permanently out if it doesn’t win at Massachusetts (Saturday, 4 ET). I don’t think it wants to do the hard thing: run the table in the A10.

Notre Dame is looking better but needs to take out Marquette (Saturday, 2 ET) in Wisconsin. Fighting Irish probably still need two more wins this season to feel somewhat comfortable, three to be cemented in.

Mississippi has a tricky test, playing at Arkansas (Saturday, 4 ET). I promise you at least two of the teams I’ve listed in this section will lose Saturday, and I fear Ole Miss is the ripest fruit in the bag.

Arizona State simply has to win at home against putrid UCLA (Saturday, 4 ET).

Longhorns move into double-digit seeding with a loss against Baylor.

Though I think it has no shot, some do, and so Washington simply has to win on the road against Oregon State (Saturday, 8 ET).

Utah State simply cannot afford a home loss to New Mexico State (Saturday, 9 ET).

Keep on your radar

Clemson-Wake Forest is something I have very little interest in, other than to see if Wake’s tailspin continues.

Texas-Baylor is a game with two teams going in distinctly different directions. Longhorns move into double-digit seeding with a loss here.

Still playing for the overall No. 1, let’s see if Kansas can manage to pull off a win in Columbia when it plays Missouri. Not an easy thing to do after the emotional game against K-State earlier this week.

As for UNC-Duke, well, it wraps up a year that was somewhat underwhelming for ESPN’s “GameDay.” Has this road show used up its usefulness? I don’t think so, but I wonder if it’s ultimately making money for the network. The Kentucky game was the apex and K-State would be No. 2, but a lot of these games this year were duds. I’ve got an interview with Rece Davis coming late next week. I’ll ask him about that.

On the tube nationally …

SATURDAY

West Virginia at Villanova, CBS, noon

Texas A&M at Oklahoma, ESPN, noon

Florida State at Miami (Fla.), ESPN2, noon

Kansas at Missouri, CBS, 2

Syracuse at Louisville, ESPN, 2

South Carolina at Vanderbilt, ESPN2, 2

UCLA at Arizona State, CBS, 4

Texas at Baylor, ESPN, 4

Big South Conference championship game, ESPN2, 4

Wyoming at UNLV, Versus, 4