I was really hoping Delaware won one more game to make this discussion quick and easy.
There have been 20 teams to make the NCAA Men’s BB tourney with losing records, with 7 more making it in at .500. None of the 27 made it out of the first round, losing by an average of 25 points.
It would be nice to compare all of them on kenpom. His ratings started in 1997, but he only makes 2002-present easily accessible online. Here’s a snippet of some of the contenders:
| KenPom data | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Record | NetRating | Rank | Luck Rating | Luck Ranking | |
| St Francis | 2025 | 16-17 | -12.8 | 311/364 | 0.074 | 36/364 |
| Alabama State | 2011 | 17-18 | -13.19 | 303/345 | 0.032 | 100/345 |
| Coppin State | 2008 | 16-21 | -14.41 | 298/341 | 0.065 | 36/341 |
| FIU | 1995 | 11-18 | ||||
| UCF | 1996 | 11-18 | ||||
| Fairfield | 1997 | 11-18 |
Based on the KenPom data I can access, it’s a close race but probably narrowly goes to Coppin State. In the years before KenPom, I’m thinking that Fairfield team is probably the subjective winner. They went 2-12 in the MAAC, then went on a run in the conference tourney taking out the 1,2, and 4 seeds on the way.
Cooper Flag’s injury is certainly a wild card on the main tourney.
If he is not back to 100% by next week, I would take the SEC to win the national championship against the field in a heart beat. Even if he returns, an SEC champion might be at least a 50/50 bet.
BUMP!
Alright everyone! It’s is March Madness!
Seems to be the only interesting time of the year for this sport, as the season is essentially for seeding and getting into this tournament.
So, who’s gonna win it? Does anyone care?
My answers: I don’t know, and I do not care. I might not watch a single game, I definitely won’t fill out a bracket.
But someone has to push the conversation along. So, you’re welcome!
While I might agree with @DeepPurple that the SEC has at least a 50/50 chance of winning it all, I still think they are overrated and didn’t really deserve to have 14 of their 18 teams in the tournament.
And who really believes that there was no bias to include UNC with the UNC AD being the chair of the selection committee. I know they are supposed to have protocols to avoid him influencing things but does anyone really believer that nobody else on the committee was influenced to include them because he was the chair?
On my list of teams that I love to hate and always root against:
Michigan
NC
Notre Dame
Kansas
Auburn (or any other team coached by Bruce Pearl)
So I, too, hate Kansas and NC.
However, to be fair, I think Kenpom is the highest form of predictive modelling available, and he’s got NC at #33, so by that standard, they are legit enough to be in the field.
He weighed in himself a bit here:
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Yeah, be careful how you read this.
Some dude (Jon Rothstein) said NC getting a bid was the worst thing in 20 years.
KenPom said that guy was an idiot for that opinion, because NC actually is better than their record indicates.
Yeah, UNC getting in isn’t the worst thing in 20 years. There was a lot of groupthink this year tossing them out in the court of public opinion. But power rankings can neglect the importance of actually winning games against good opponents, which drives ones “deservability” factor.
Good news is that nyt inherited the old 538 bracket showing the odds for each team to make each round. That way I can make some reasonably educated guesses on where the upsets (a lower seed beating a higher seed) are going to come from.
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So WV governor may sue the NCAA because the Mountaineers didn’t get selected.
Well, it seems UNC is trying to send a message.
Through Saturday, this tournament has been a snooze. No big upsets, no overtime, no buzzer beaters. Only a couple games came down to the final possession. Lets hope today is more interesting
Brought to you by the transfer portal and NIL.
I’m not exactly sure which team is which but the second from the left on the top row is Michigan.
I saw this yesterday and had no idea where Michigan was 
More like March Mehness
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The national nightmare of shittard Bruce Pearl winning a national title has been averted for another year.
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The national nightmare of Duke being in another national title game - and even worse yet, winning it - has been averted for another year.
Things are finally looking up, America.
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Florida Gators men’s basketball: ripping the hearts out of the opposition since [at least] March 2025
“Houston, we have a problem”