Santa Clara (10-6) (NET: 71)
1-2 (Q1), 2-2 (Q2), 2-2 (Q3), 5-0 (Q4)
Surprisingly, Santa Clara’s current Quad 1 win is a road win at McNeese State that came in early December after a 3-5 November that really hurt their at-large potential. It’s not quite over, as they have picked up decent Quad 2 wins over Bradley and TCU as well.
The problem comes from the losses, which included Quad 3 home defeats against North Dakota State and Stanford. That tough November also featured losses against Arizona State, Nevada, and Washington though the only loss since the end of November was a thriller at San Francisco right before New Year’s.
We’re mentioning this for all of the teams in this conference, but the WCC definitely has opportunities for teams to grow their resumes in the months ahead. Specifically, the Broncos get Quad 2 home games against Oregon State and San Francisco this week and have a host of Quad 1 chances later in the year.
That NET is far too low for consideration right now, especially with a pair of tough Quad 3 losses. The Broncos need to stockpile wins in league play, beat the lower-tier teams handily, and take care of business with some meaningful wins against the other bubble teams in the league.
UC Irvine (13-2) (NET: 55)
0-1 (Q1), 2-0 (Q2), 6-1 (Q3), 4-0 (Q4)
These Anteaters started the season 9-0 including three road wins, but the win at Northern Iowa was their best of the season and remains a Quad 2 victory. They did pick up another Quad 2 win at Belmont a month later, but there isn’t exactly a marquee win highlighting this resume.
That unbeaten start to the season died in Corvallis in what could possibly be the only Quad 1 game of the season for the Anteaters. That loss to Oregon State wasn’t bad, but the 16-point loss at Duquesne the following weekend is a real anchor, especially if the Dukes aren’t competitive in the A-10 this season.
A real opportunity rises this weekend at UC San Diego for a matchup that would currently be Quad 1, but who knows what’ll happen as the season progresses. Clearly, the Big West isn’t going to give the Anteaters the resume-building potential that they need at this point.
The NET is in good shape but it likely will start going in the opposite direction during conference play. UC Irvine needs to win basically all of their games to have any chance here, especially without any wins that scream out for their inclusion in the NCAA Tournament.