Is NCAA atlarge bid a possibility?

It was only a couple of weeks ago that UConn sat in seventh place in the American Athletic Conference standings and staring at arguably the toughest remaining schedule in the league.

Now, there are people talking about the possibility of the Huskies earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Seriously.

First things first. UConn (1412, 9-5 AAC) currently sits tied for third place in the AAC standings with Houston. The Huskies can vault into sole possession of third with a win over the Cougars on Wednesday at Houston’s Hof heniz Pavilion (9 p.m., CBS Sports Network). Conversely, UConn could

find itself in a tie for fourth place if it loses to Houston (18-8, 9-5) and Memphis is able to beat secondplace Cincinnati on Thursday night.

“That’ll be a huge game,” senior guard Rodney Purvis said of the Huskies’ showdown with Houston. “They just played well against SMU, we’re going to their place. (Temple) is a great road win, and hopefully we can get another one on Wednesday.”

UConn is certainly playing for a good seed in the AAC tourney, which will be held next month at the XL Center in Hartford. The top five teams earn a bye into the quarterfinals (SMU and Cincinnati have already clinched byes) and, with sixth-place UCF sitting at 8-7 in league play heading into a game at Temple on Wednesday, the Huskies still have work to do.

But there’s something else UConn is playing for — something that seemed little more than a pipe dream a couple of weeks ago. If the Huskies are able to win their four remaining regular-season games, then win a couple of games in the AAC tourney, they may not even have to win that tourney to earn a berth in the Big Dance. Noted ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, who worked UConn’s lastsecond, comeback win at Temple on Sunday, said the Huskies would be “in the conversation” if they were to win their next six games, then lose in the AAC tourney finals.

Nothing less, Lunardi noted. And even then, nothing would be guaranteed. But the NCAA tourney bubble is remarkably weak this year, and the Huskies would have won 10 of their final 11 games heading into Selection Sunday. Although the selection committee doesn’t officially consider how well a team is playing heading into the tournament, UConn’s spate of good play would be hard to ignore.

UConn’s RPI currently sits at 103. Heck, its record is actually 13-12 in the eyes of the selection committee (that win over Division II Chaminade in Maui isn’t taken into consideration). So how could the Huskies emerge as a bubble team over the next 2 ½ weeks? Well, winning out would mean UConn had accrued wins at Houston (RPI 61), as well as over SMU (16) and Cincinnati (14). The Huskies would likely have to beat either SMU or Cincinnati again in the AAC tourney semifinals, as well.

That would land the Huskies in the finals, where a victory — as unlikely as this appeared just a couple of weeks ago — might not be their only ticket to the Big Dance.

Obviously, it won’t be easy, and the dream can be all but snuffed out on Wednesday against Houston. The Cougars beat the Huskies rather handily (62-46) in their AAC season opener back on Dec. 28 that had the XL Center crowd booing the Huskies at times. (It should be noted that leading scorer and current reigning AAC player of the week Jalen Adams missed that game due to a concussion).

But the dream is still alive for UConn.

“Of course the NCAA tournament is in the back of our minds,” said Purvis. “But we’ve just been playing really well, racking up wins. At the beginning of the year, we started off at the bottom. Now, I think we can get to third. We’re just staying positive, practicing hard each and every day and staying with each other.”