IF YOU'RE ON THE BUBBLE, YOU MIGHT BE EXCLUDED FROM THE BUBBLE.

It's about time for the college basketball experts to start speculating about which teams are locks for the tournament, which teams probably lack the record, and which teams might be in or out, depending on whether or not the bubble pops.  This season, though, there are plans to hold the tournament (its cancellation last year being part of the original panicked fifteen days to slow the spread) in Hoosierland.

The NCAA announced [January 4] that its showcase event — the Division I men’s basketball tournament, all 67 games of it — will be played entirely in or near Indianapolis. The hope is to limit the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic cancels the wildly popular and lucrative tournament for a second consecutive season.

“There are a number of world-class facilities in a close location and that was critical because you have to run a large number of games simultaneously that you can manage and control,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said. “There were a number of cities that were very interested in hosting this event, but the immediate opportunity to do this in Indianapolis was pretty self-evident for several reasons. For one, we were already going to be there.”

Indiana have been under more reasonable restrictions than Illinois, although I suspect the reason to keep people inside might be more about the weather than about exposure to viruses.

Dozens of restaurants of hotels are within walking distance of Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, and Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and WNBA’s Indiana Fever. Many of those businesses and venues are connected by skywalks that allow players, coaches or fans to stay indoors.

Hinkle Fieldhouse, the historic home of the Butler Bulldogs, and the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, where the IUPUI Jaguars play, are just short drives from the downtown area. Mackey Arena at Purdue and Assembly Hall at Indiana also are about an hour’s drive from downtown.

All of those venues are slated to host games.

The tournaments for Divisions II and III will also take place in Indiana: Evansville for Division II, and Fort Wayne (ever hear of the Zollner Pistons?) for Division III.