Miami (OH) makes NCAA Tournament as last team on bubble
· Yahoo Sports
We have the answer to one of the most divisive questions in college basketball.
After completing an undefeated regular season and losing in the first round of the MAC Men's Basketball Tournament, Miami (OH) made the NCAA Tournament field as the last at-large team. The 11-seeded RedHawks will face fellow 11-seed SMU in the First Four (played in Dayton, less than an hour from Miami's campus) for the right to make the tournament's true first round.
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Miami's run through KenPom's 269th-ranked strength of schedule led to questions about its fitness for the field in the case of a loss in its conference tournament. Former Tennessee and Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl argued that the RedHawks should not make the tournament without winning the MAC Tournament and the accompanying automatic bid.
Nicole Auerbach and John Fanta reacted to Miami making it in on the bubble Sunday night. Both argued that the RedHawks were deserving, noting that the results have to matter as opposed to power conference teams that lose double-digit games. They also noted that Miami had a better Wins Above Bubble rating than power teams on the bubble such as Auburn and Indiana.
For Auerbach, it was also key that Miami (OH) tried to schedule power teams this season, but that those teams were not willing to play them.
"At some point, we have to look out for the mid-majors in this sport," Auerbach said. "You can't have them getting raided, as they are with the rosters every single year, and no one playing them, and then saying 'You can win all your games, and you lose the one in the conference tournament this one week each year, and all of it is negated.' You can't have that happening."
For Fanta and Auerbach, it was clear that Miami (OH) belonged in the field. The relative weakness of the bubble raised another point.
"This is the latest example that the NCAA Tournament has no business expanding," Fanta said.
Expanding the tournament has been a topic of discussion the last few years, but NCAA senior vice presidentDan Gavitt told reporters in February that those talks will be paused.
"If the tournament expands, it's just going to make it easier for mediocre power conference teams to get in," Auerbach said.