21 Teams in the Projected Field: 38. Miami-Ohio, 49. Yale, 50. High Point, 51. Stephen F. Austin, 52. Liberty, 53. Utah Valley, 54. UNC Wilmington, 55. Hawaii, 56. North Dakota State, 57. Navy, 58. Troy, 59. Austin Peay, 60. East Tennessee State, 61. Wright State, 62. Merrimack, 63. Portland State, 64. Tennessee State, 65. UMBC, 66. Long Island, 67. Howard, 68. Bethune Cookman
Biggest Development: RedHawks Survive Another Scare
Not surprisingly, the negative narrative about Miami-Ohio’s undefeated season has grown more tiresome as more and more people start paying attention to college basketball and questioning the merits of the zero in this loss column.
Even as they watch results like Indiana’s home loss to Northwestern, Cal’s home loss to Pitt, and Auburn’s home loss to Ole Miss pour in on a near-daily basis, the naysayers keep arguing that any half-decent team could run the table against the RedHawks’ schedule.
If it were so easy, though, why is it that no one in the past three seasons even made it to mid-January with an undefeated record still intact, let alone into early March?
This is uncharted territory, having an unblemished team on the bubble. As long as they keep winning, though, the RedHawks will remain in great shape for a bid.
And despite not having starting point guard Luke Skaljac (wrist) for Friday night’s game at Western Michigan, Miami-Ohio pulled another rabbit out of its hat, rallying from a nine-point deficit with less than seven minutes remaining to improve to 29-0 on a near buzzer-beater by Skaljac’s replacement, freshman Trey Perry.
Just two regular season games remain, at home against Toledo on Tuesday and at Ohio on Friday. Win them both, and the RedHawks will become a lock to dance as far as we’re concerned, as no team with 30 or more wins has ever missed the tournament.
