From Shakespeare's Macbeth.................it was actually Double, Double, Toil and Trouble, but is also remembered/referenced as Bubble, Bubble in centering on the witches' boiling cauldron.
Not to mention, Bubble, Bubble, is the cloak that UCLA is now wearing as March Madness comes hither. Setting aside the question of who better to coach UCLA, the English Bard or the Irish Mick, via historical records, the Swan of Avon towers over CMC by 1" at 5'8".
It's not an irresponsible take that progressively more posters here are adopting the position that UCLA may very well not make the NCAA Tourney. It's folly to try and predict the outcome of each game, but UCLA has no standout victory to date, a metric that is integral to a Dance Ticket. It's why a W over either of our two logical status-boosters, yoo of aay and/or Zaga, would have been huge. No other opponent would have meant as much.
Which brings me to our bubble now stretching concernedly thin. Again, it ventures into the subjective, but having lost 3 of our last 5 games has turned up the heat. In looking at those 5 gms, the 3 losses were against good teams playing at home (Iowa. Wisky and tOSU). Losing those games is not grounds for self-immolation, but it does move the chess pieces of our remaining most challenging opponents from what would be nice wins to: "we gotta show up!"
In a word, our bubble is being stretched measurably thin.
Again, a subjective rendering, but looking at the rest of the regular season, of our 13 games, all BIO matchups, I see 6 difference-makers. Six games which would move the needle upward for us. And, failing to go no better than 3-3 in those games will likely pop our bubble pending the BIO Tourney. Pop our bubble, becuz the other remaining 7 B10 gms are not likely to elevate us to a Dance card.
Before our losing 3 of the last 5 games, those upcoming 6 games that I now see as vital, might have kept us in the convo for March. Play them off even, and we might have had a puncher's chance. However, losing winnable gms to Iowa (6-6 1/2 pt dog), Wisky (3-4 pt dog) and tOSU (4-4 1/2 pt dog), have changed the dynamics of those upcoming 6 tuff gms from playing them off as a fully competitive opponent to likely having to finish over .500 in those 6. Our bubble stretched thinner by losing ALL 3 of those games that were set at odds of only 1-2 possessions, in the context of the following 6 move-the-needle tuffies coming up, in chronological order:
1) Purdue @ Pauley;
2) @ Michigan;
3) @ MiState;
4) Illinois @ Pauley;
5) Nebraska @ Pauley; and
6) rivalry game *****@***** $cum (beating $cum in Pauley doesn't have the same cachet).
Of course, UCLA can still float in on their now overextended Dance bubble. However, it might take some sunny blue skies and smooth sailing to navigate the above 6 games wherein the Wise Guys might well position us as holding the 6-game cumulative short straw...................the above 6 game-changers.
I'd like to think we can represent at the supra-.500 mark of those 6 key matchups but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to harboring my doubts.