Mid-major basketball: 10 of the biggest mid-major March Madness snubs
By Logan Butts
2014-15 Iona (26-9, 17-3 in the MAAC)
The Gaels had an unfortunately similar pair of years in 2013-14 and 2014-15. In both years, the won the MAAC regular season crown, featured a pair of First-Team All-MAAC players in A.J. English and David Laury, and ended up losing to Manhattan in the MAAC Final.
In both seasons, Iona ultimately did not have enough top-tier conference wins, with their strongest coming at Wake Forrest in 2014-15.
English finally did make the NCAA Tournament, but it was at the expense of the beloved Monmouth squad from 2015-16.
2010-11 Long Beach State (22-12, 14-2 in the Big West)
The 2010-11 Long Beach squad was one of the rare mid-majors that entered the regular season with a little bit of hype.
They followed through with a win over Iowa and a near-upset at North Carolina, only to lose to UC-Santa Barbara in the conference title game.
Losing in the Big West title game hurt, but the 49ers brought back two-time conference player of the year Caspar Ware and future NBA draft pick James Ennis to finally earn that NCAA bid the next season.
2015-16 Saint Mary’s (29-6, 15-3 in the WCC)
The Gaels have had an off-and-on relationship with the NCAA Tournament. They seemingly make the committee discuss every year whether or not the WCC is a two-bid league.
2008 – in, 2009 – out, 2010 – in, 2011 – out, 2012 and 2013 – in, 2014-16 – out, 2017 – back in.
The 2015-16 squad arguably had the best resume of the excluded squads: Jock Landale and Emmett Naar finding their footing as sophomores and wins over Stanford, BYU, and Gonzaga (twice.)
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But, the Zags got the best of Saint Mary’s in the WCC Championship game and the Gaels were left at home. Hopefully Landale and company can find their way back into the big dance this season.