Ooof. Miami should get in as an at-large, but this is just brutal. There's been enough rhetoric out there to back a mediocre major (cough cough, AUBURN), and as someone who is cool on further tourney expansion, I could envision leaving the Redhawks out as a way to tee up expansion (as opposed to addressing the factors like how no majors wanted to play Miami, and as a result, struggled to create a schedule to get signature wins; or just the over-favoring of high major conferences in general)
I hadn't really paid much attention to this, but your post prompted me to check out their kenpom page. Oy vey, you're right. kenpom93? Best win is home v kp 59 Akron, and that was 76-73?
It is not hard for teams to grab a spot in a pregame showcase that has a couple P4 teams in it. This is on them.
I can't speak to booking nonconference exhibitions. However, this article (which I'm paywalled) is written by a blogger who did an Open Records request and surfaced 20 emails from Miami's Athletic Department trying to book non-con booking this year. The r/CollegeBasketball thread comment did list the schools:
So I guess if they played us they would win and wipe out Indiana since they are a tourney-quality team?
Is beating NU and wiping out Indiana the minimum bar for a 14-16 seed / play-in team?
Part of evaluating a team is projecting how they’ll do in the future. Part of it is evaluating how they’ve already done. You can’t do one of those things and ignore the other, it’s all part of the equation. Predicting how a team will do is useful but hypothetical. A team’s results are concrete. That’s why there’s metrics that look at both. I think there’s general agreement that Miami is not an elite team, which is why they’re being discussed as a 10 or 11 seed. Most teams that go 31-1 would be assured a 1 seed, I think being demoted 10 seed lines is enough of a “punishment” for a weaker schedule.
I have watched them play. They look like an above average MAC team - they aren’t anything special to be frank.
www.cbssports.com
They did what they were supposed to do. They won 30 games. If it was easy to do, you would see it every year in these weak conferences.
Not early in the season and not at their place. Maybe late in the season. The 'Cats certainly wouldn't have won 30 games with Miami's schedule.
I think Martinelli would hang 40 on them and the rest of the team would have an easy time. They did not look like a very talented basketball team but are skilled & disciplined.
Interesting...
It’s the tourney: they could be not very good and still end up in the sweet 16. Anything can happen.
Whether NU wins or losses depends on which NU shows up. Good NU wins, Average or Bad NU losses.
Late-season I believe it. The 'Cats had plenty of problems early season and their defense didn't really click until February. There's recency bias at play here.
You are comparing the gap between a college team and a HS team to the gap between MOH and a tournament team?
If we're going to play the computer rankings game (and each one has its problem), NU is below Miami in the NET rankings right now. I don't worship the KenPom as superior.
Yes, to make a point. If one is measuring the quality of a team as a function of its wins, who they are winning against matters as a first principle.
I'll root for them against any non-B1G team they face in the tournament. And their first game, while it's likely to be their only game, is likely to be their best shot at being overlooked and not prepared for. Even my 'NU wins 4 out of 5' claim still leaves that 1 game.
