Why undefeated Miami (Ohio) could should win out to punch NCAA Event ticket

[ad_1] It's arduous to consider the lone remaining undefeated workforce in Division I males's faculty basketball this late within the season is the Related Press No. 21 Miami (Ohio) RedHawks out of the MAC.

That's under no circumstances a knock on this system or the convention as an entire. Nevertheless, the MAC is historically a one-bid league for the NCAA Event, and Miami (Ohio) has not even reached the Large Dance for the reason that 2006-07 season, so this was not precisely on everybody's radar earlier than the season started.

With that stated, the RedHawks (28-0, 15-0 MAC) simply defeated Japanese Michigan, 74-64, on Tuesday night time to maintain their undefeated season alive with solely three regular-season video games remaining.

In the event that they win out and enter Choice Sunday unblemished, Miami (Ohio) will probably be a lock as the automated qualifier out of the MAC. If it loses one in all its ultimate three video games or within the convention event, all of that work could in the end not be rewarded.

Miami (Ohio) could possibly be omitted altogether with a loss Historically, most groups with an undefeated document at this level within the season are top-five or top-10 and sometimes locks to be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed within the event. Miami (Ohio) is a a lot totally different case.

The RedHawks have performed one of many best schedules in all the nation with zero video games in opposition to Quad 1 opponents and just one in opposition to Quad 2. A balanced scoring assault with seven gamers averaging 10 or extra factors per recreation, led by sophomore guard Brant Byers (14.6 PPG) and senior guard Peter Suder (14.6 PPG), has been the important thing to their success, however it nonetheless might not be sufficient if they don't win out.

Once you have a look at a lot of the groups on ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi's bubble, it's straightforward to make the case that every of them had greater than sufficient alternatives in opposition to high quality competitors and easily didn't do sufficient to earn their spot within the 68-team area.

Groups like Auburn (15-13, 6-9 SEC) and Ohio State (17-10, 9-7 Large Ten) have confronted a lot stiffer competitors, however struggled in opposition to Quad 1 opponents. The Buckeyes, particularly, are 0-9 in such video games, leaving them squarely on the bubble from right here on out.

From struggles in opposition to Quad 2 opponents to poor schedules and missed alternatives in big-time moments, every of the groups on bubble watch aren't protected by any means and must be frightened.

One metric that could possibly be in Miami (Ohio)'s favor is Wins Towards Bubble (WAB), which calculates how the common bubble workforce would carry out in opposition to one other workforce's schedule. In response to David Cobb of CBS Sports activities, the RedHawks had a WAB rating of two.16 earlier than their most up-to-date win over Japanese Michigan, which ranked thirty fifth and acknowledges them for having greater than two victories than the common bubble workforce would in opposition to an identical schedule.

Miami (Ohio) has improved in each season below head coach Travis Steele, simply lacking out on the NCAA Event final season when it misplaced to Akron within the MAC Championship Sport. Ought to they enter the NCAA Event undefeated, the RedHawks would solely be the twenty first workforce to ever achieve this and the fourth with a minimum of 30 wins.

That alone speaks to how uncommon it's for a workforce to have the success that Miami (Ohio) is having. The stress, although, is firmly on this system to stay undefeated as a result of that can doubtless be its greatest — and certain solely path — to qualifying for the NCAA Event.