Miami-Ohio (25-0) (NET: 48)
0-0 (Q1), 1-0 (Q2), 10-0 (Q3), 14-0 (Q4)
One of the stories of the college basketball season has been the RedHawks and it’s not hard to see why. Travis Steele’s team is the last unbeaten in the sport, with an actual record of 28-0 when you include their non-D1 matchups as well. What’s dominated the story line in recent weeks in addition to their continued winning has been the weakness of their resume.
The NET figure is pretty good but would that alone get this team into the Big Dance if they falter in the MAC Tournament. Miami hasn’t played a single Quad 1 game this season thanks to a weak nonconference schedule. The only Quad 2 game was a home win over Akron in early January that doesn’t exactly stand out or compare to other bubble teams.
The good news obviously is that Miami hasn’t lost a single game this season so in that regard they’re in fantastic shape. The issue here is that any loss they take between now and Selection Sunday won’t exactly be a great loss, though it would hopefully be their only loss at the very least.
The RedHawks still have two road games that they need to win, though they’ll certainly be heavily favored in both. Steele and company are hoping they can just win the MAC Tournament, but if they don’t, they really need to win out in the regular season because two losses might be too much with this kind of resume.
Missouri (19-9) (NET: 57)
5-5 (Q1), 4-4 (Q2), 2-0 (Q3), 8-0 (Q4)
It’s been a much better season for Missouri basketball though let’s not plan the parade quite yet. Dennis Gates has done a great job of keeping this team afloat in the SEC and these Tigers look like a team that can cause some damage in March, especially based on their recent results.
They’re up to five Quad 1 wins thanks to three in recent weeks, winning at Texas A&M earlier this month before holding on for tight wins over Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Going further back, the Tigers got SEC play off to a fantastic start by knocking off Florida and winning at Kentucky, building quite the list of nice wins despite a low NET.
None of their losses are really that awful, perhaps the worst of the bunch being a road loss at Notre Dame from nearly three months ago. What stands out is a few of their tough outings, including a 43-point neutral-site loss to Illinois back in December, but games like that won’t keep them out of the Big Dance.
These recent Quad 1 wins have them at 9-6 in the SEC and in pretty good shape, but there’s still a chance to be safer. After an important road game at Mississippi State, the Tigers have two more Quad 1 games at Oklahoma and at home against an Arkansas team that beat them last weekend.