March Madness '26

[Pickleballgolds]

If they get an 8 or 9 seed, they have a chance to win a game and everyone will be talking about them for 48 hours and the school will sell a lot of apparel. If that puts them against a 1 or 2 next, so be it.
Personally, I hope they win their conference tournament, but I don’t think they will.

 

[Here me roar]

If they get an 8 or 9 seed, they have a chance to win a game and everyone will be talking about them for 48 hours and the school will sell a lot of apparel. If that puts them against a 1 or 2 next, so be it.
Personally, I hope they win their conference tournament, but I don’t think they will.

If OU beats them Friday, which could happen in a rivalry game, I think that would set Miami up really well for the tournament.

 

[Neutral Corner]

The college basketball thread is literally the thread below this one.

One day I got to the point that I couldn't take the long strings of Trump tweets, so I used the button on Della. So the thread was invisible to me.

 

[Roscablo]

I love bracketology stuff and have generally done a good job with who I'm interested in and where they might fall in terms of seeds. Man, Miami is such a tough case for the committee. They honestly do not have an at-large resume at all. That seems almost impossible being 30-0, but man, they don't. The NET and KPI numbers have them on the fringe, the rest suck. They have one Q1-2 game, and it was Q2. They are 16-0 against Q4. They have three non-DI games. Their overall SOS is 282 and their OOC SOS is 360. It is just a really awful resume. The only thing that would give them any edge is the 13-0 in true road games and 14-0 away from home.

But it would be a terrible, terrible look by the NCAA to not put a one-loss team in the tourney that went undefeated during the regular season. It just doesn't happen, even with terrible schedules. There already is a power bias, and the people just don't want a .500 SEC team in over that. They want to see what they can do. I would say you play the schedule you have, but the MAC actually isn't the worst thing out there -- four teams in the top 150, essentially seven in the top 200. So that non-conference must have been absolute garbage, and that is on them.

Anyway, the NCAA is surely going to hope like heck Miami wins their tournament. I can't imagine them not getting in, but it really could be Dayton. They aren't getting a straight at-large as a 12 and I can't see them moving up to a 10 with a loss.

 

[Della9250]

I love bracketology stuff and have generally done a good job with who I'm interested in and where they might fall in terms of seeds. Man, Miami is such a tough case for the committee. They honestly do not have an at-large resume at all. That seems almost impossible being 30-0, but man, they don't. The NET and KPI numbers have them on the fringe, the rest suck. They have one Q1-2 game, and it was Q2. They are 16-0 against Q4. They have three non-DI games. Their overall SOS is 282 and their OOC SOS is 360. It is just a really awful resume. The only thing that would give them any edge is the 13-0 in true road games and 14-0 away from home.

But it would be a terrible, terrible look by the NCAA to not put a one-loss team in the tourney that went undefeated during the regular season. It just doesn't happen, even with terrible schedules. There already is a power bias, and the people just don't want a .500 SEC team in over that. They want to see what they can do. I would say you play the schedule you have, but the MAC actually isn't the worst thing out there -- four teams in the top 150, essentially seven in the top 200. So that non-conference must have been absolute garbage, and that is on them.

Anyway, the NCAA is surely going to hope like heck Miami wins their tournament. I can't imagine them not getting in, but it really could be Dayton. They aren't getting a straight at-large as a 12 and I can't see them moving up to a 10 with a loss.

It's weird because last year they played Michigan and Indiana. I wonder if they got dropped by some people with all the NIL tourneys that popped up and they scrambled to find replacements.

This was from last September before they released their non-conference portion

"Scheduling has been tougher this year,” Steele said. “When I first got here, there was a line from here in Oxford all the way to Cincinnati to play us, and now nobody will play us … We’re significantly better. Everybody’s using these analytical numbers to schedule now, and we’re in this weird area where teams are told not to really play us, which has made it difficult.”

 

[Roscablo]

That's a good point. So teams probably backed out or wouldn't play them, but there had to be something better. They played Air Force, the worst team by far in the Mountain West, and that's the only half name conference they played. The three non DI games probably does show they had a tough time filling or possibly something happened late.

It is a really bad schedule no matter how you shake it and that's what the committee puts their chips in for non power teams now, their OOC schedules.

 

[micropolitan guy]

Their coach wasn't wrong. Miami was very good last year (25-9, MAC finalist). Coaches aren't stupid, so nobody in P4 scheduled them, not wanting to risk a loss to a mid-major. No Cincy, not Xavier, not Ohio State, all in-state rivals in the past.

Their women's team has a great record too, 24-5 or something.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Their coach wasn't wrong. Miami was very good last year (25-9, MAC finalist). Coaches aren't stupid, so nobody in P4 scheduled them, not wanting to risk a loss to a mid-major. No Cincy, not Xavier, not Ohio State, all in-state rivals in the past.

Their women's team has a great record too, 24-5 or something.

Second-most MBB & WBB wins in Division I.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

That's a good point. So teams probably backed out or wouldn't play them, but there had to be something better. They played Air Force, the worst team by far in the Mountain West, and that's the only half name conference they played. The three non DI games probably does show they had a tough time filling or possibly something happened late.

It is a really bad schedule no matter how you shake it and that's what the committee puts their chips in for non power teams now, their OOC schedules.

There are high majors and even upper tier mids (A-10, etc) backing out of games with very good mids who are never going to go 30-0. I totally believe Steele when he says no one will play them and can't even imagine what the next few months are going to be like trying to fill out a '26-27 non-league sked.

 

[Roscablo]

There are high majors and even upper tier mids (A-10, etc) backing out of games with very good mids who are never going to go 30-0. I totally believe Steele when he says no one will play them and can't even imagine what the next few months are going to be like trying to fill out a '26-27 non-league sked.

Honestly just another example of college sports being completely broken. Like a game against Miami of Ohio isn't breaking anyone. Play them at home or neutral.

 

[Roscablo]

But even if they were totally hand tied the NCAA will tell them their schedule sucked and that's why they don't deserve things.

 

[Batman]

Fun in the Sun Belt tournament, where South Alabama and Coastal Carolina started brawling in a women's game. One of the officials got knocked out, eight players were ejected and four players got one-game suspensions. A player from Coastal was suspended for the rest of the season, for what that's worth. Coastal lost the game and with a 14-18 record I'm guessing they're not going to get any bids to the NCAA or WNIT or whatever the hell other tournament is out there.

South Alabama-Coastal Carolina brawl injures ref, forces 8 ejections

 

[micropolitan guy]

Fun in the Sun Belt tournament, where South Alabama and Coastal Carolina started brawling in a women's game. One of the officials got knocked out, eight players were ejected and four players got one-game suspensions. A player from Coastal was suspended for the rest of the season, for what that's worth. Coastal lost the game and with a 14-18 record I'm guessing they're not going to get any bids to the NCAA or WNIT or whatever the hell other tournament is out there.

South Alabama-Coastal Carolina brawl injures ref, forces 8 ejections

I guess it just means more in SBC women's hoops.

 

[maumann2]

"No, that's not what I meant by boxing out your opponent."

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

Did the sickos @TheSportsPredictor and/or @Cosmo have Chicago State tonight?! I'm sure the Cougars were getting a lot more than the four points by which they lost to top-seeded LIU in the NEC quarters. That would have been right up there with the biggest conference tourney upsets of the month.

 

[HanSenSE]

Are the brackets in the. SBC women's tourney as bizarre as the men's?

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Chicago State was supposed to lose by double digits. LIU just whipped ‘em by 17 a week ago.

I was too busy with my Webb shooters to bother with the Cougs. Some dude who shoots two free throws a game shot two of them in tonight in the closing seconds and the Runnin’ Bulldogs cover their eighth straight AND live to beat the spread once more. You can’t spell USC Upstate without upset.

 

[dixiehack]

Fun in the Sun Belt tournament, where South Alabama and Coastal Carolina started brawling in a women's game. One of the officials got knocked out, eight players were ejected and four players got one-game suspensions. A player from Coastal was suspended for the rest of the season, for what that's worth. Coastal lost the game and with a 14-18 record I'm guessing they're not going to get any bids to the NCAA or WNIT or whatever the hell other tournament is out there.

South Alabama-Coastal Carolina brawl injures ref, forces 8 ejections

It’s the audio dipping out because they got a Facebook notification about a homeless ministry event on Good Friday that makes it art.

 

[Batman]

It’s the audio dipping out because they got a Facebook notification about a homeless ministry event on Good Friday that makes it art.

That was the only version I could easily find that had audio and an extra 30 seconds of hijinks.

 

[dixiehack]

Oh not complaining.