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The Miami RedHawks. 30-0. One win away from an undefeated regular season. The only undefeated team in men’s Division-I college basketball. Should be in contention for a No. 1 seed, right? Wrong, apparently, to many.
One of the biggest discussions as the days tick closer to Selection
Sunday is what to do with Miami (OH).
Picture this: Travis Steele and Co. cut down the nets in Cleveland on March 14, and the only question is what seed. But what if they don’t?
There’s an Akron team that is 16-1 in the conference with the lone loss coming to the RedHawks back on Jan. 3. If Miami weren’t having this historic season, the Zips would draw all the headlines from the MAC.
So, if the RedHawks get picked off either in their regular-season finale at Ohio Friday night or at any point in the MAC Tournament, what will the Selection Committee do with them? Should they receive an at-large bid?
The Case For Miami (OH)
We have a team that was undefeated until March. That’s impressive. In fact, no one else in the country reached March with fewer than two losses.
March Madness is all about stories. This RedHawk team is one of the biggest stories in the country. How can you have a 68-team field without them in? You can’t.
Steele has said multiple times that they tried to schedule tough non-conference games, but teams refused to play them. One way to guarantee a high-level opponent is by having the RedHawks in the field. Let them prove their mettle in the NCAA Tournament.
Matt Brown confirmed all of this in an Extra Points newsletter on Thursday morning. Regional Power-5 programs like Pitt, Wisconsin, and Marquette simply refused to schedule Miami despite the effort from the RedHawks’ schedule makers.
Since the turn of the century only two teams who were the last undefeated team missed the NCAA Tournament. (SMU in 2014-15 was ineligible for the Tourney.) Neither one of those teams reached 20-0. The three teams who reached at least 30-0 were all one seeds, and two of them reached the Final Four.
Seems pretty easy, but…
The Case Against Miami (OH)
Miami has played an easy schedule. It has the 196th strength of schedule. It has not played a single Quad-1 game and has just one Quad-2 game on its resume. It has three wins against non-DI opponents and 16 wins in Quad 4.
It’s computer metrics are weak. The RedHawks are 53rd in the NET, 83rd in BartTorvik and 88th in KenPom. They’re luck rating in KenPom is 12th. They’re behind the likes of Syracuse and Notre Dame, who are nowhere close to the bubble. Teams on the bubble are typically at least 20 spots ahead of them.
Miami has also been playing with fire recently. A two-point win at home over Toledo on Tuesday. A two-point win at Western Michigan on Friday. Two-point and three-point wins over Buffalo. A two-point win over UMass. They’re not blowing people out.
A few bounces go the other way, and we’re nowhere close to this discussion.
Time to hear from you. What do you think… Vote below.
