2026 March Madness Thread

[zykarious]

I read somewhere that the committee is too lazy to take into consideration the conference tournaments. UC will have to beat Arizona but I also believe that they will need to at least make the finals in the tournament. I suspect that nothing short of winning it will be good enough. The loss yesterday took a huge beating on the teams hope of being selected in one week.

Chad Brendel likes to claim that, but I've also heard it's not really shown to be true. It's more that bubble teams tend to lose, which doesn't move the needle much.

The question for us, is how far do we need to move the needle? If the committee gives credence to the argument that we are a different team with Jizzle (and with Celestine healthy), we may not need to move it much if at all. In which case, beat Utah and UCF may be enough, losing to Arizona shouldn't hurt us. Compare to other bubbles teams who may take worse losses and not pick up much in the way of wins and I still think there's a reasonable chance we'll sneak in. Need other bubble teams to lose early in their tournaments and few bid thieves.

[longtimefan]

Of course, first we have to beat Utah, and I have a creepy bad feeling about that game.

[kskenyon4]

The ‘Cats only path to an NCAA appearance is to win the BigXII tournament. They do not have a hope for an at large bid. Win or bust.

I find that very hard to believe if they go 4-1. Even 3-1 should be an interesting sunday. 4 wins and they aren't even playing in Dayton...

[longtimefan]

I find that very hard to believe if they go 4-1. Even 3-1 should be an interesting sunday. 4 wins and they aren't even playing in Dayton...

3-1 means they beat Arizona, in that case they’re in. Maybe even 2-1 gets them in based on what other people. They’re only 3-11 in Q1 games, but their best wins are better than nearly all the other bubble teams.