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Give Me the Miami RedHawks in the NCAA Tournament Over the 11th-Best SEC Team
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Not sure how much this is on Philly sports fan radars, but Miami (OH) went undefeated in the college basketball regular season at 31-0. Then they lost in the opening round of the MAC tournament to fall to 31-1, which had some people questioning their tournament status.
Reason being – they didn’t play much of a schedule. Their best win is against a 27-5 Akron team. They’ve got a road win against 24-8 Kent State and defeated Horizon champ Wright State. That’s basically it. They finished 0-0 in Quad 1 games, 2-0 in Quad 2, 11-1 in Quad 3, and 15-0 in Quad 4. They’re ranked 296th out of 365 teams in ESPN’s strength of schedule metric and 93rd in the basketball power index.
For what it’s worth, it seems like most of the experts have the RedHawks still getting in despite the early conference tournament exit. ESPN has them as an 11 seed in the Midwest. CBS has them as a 10 in the West. Most of the arguing has taken place on social media and assorted television shows:
The issue is more about Miami’s loss making the MAC a two-bid league. If Akron gets the job done, it will be a little easier to swallow, but whenever a conference tournament favorite goes out, somebody gets knocked off the bubble.
Thing is, the bubble isn’t very good this year. You’ve got Missouri, SMU, Texas, Oklahoma, and Auburn in the mix, and three of those squads are in the bottom half of the SEC. Auburn finished 17-16, but beat ranked St. John’s, Arkansas, and Florida. They played a murderer’s row type of schedule, top 5 in SOS.
So it’s really the same question we ask ourselves every year. How do we stack the top mid-majors against lesser power conference teams? Do you want to see a Cinderella like Miami get into the tournament or the 11th-best SEC team? I think we’re all in agreement that neither Miami nor Auburn is good enough to win it all, and if that’s the case, then give me Miami in the dance and give me two A10 teams as well. As neutral observers, we’ll take the 31-1 small team over the 17-16 big team for storyline purposes alone. Think about how many people would be paying attention to Miami as the tournament kicks off.
Better yet – how about Miami vs. Auburn in the big dance? Now we’re cooking with gas!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com