It is starting to become that time of year. This week starts the annual swoon of college basketball talk, as NCAA Selection Sunday is just a week away. While there will be plenty of time to discuss who deserves to be in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and who should not, the Drake Bulldogs and UC San Diego Tritons have made a strong case to earn a bid even if they don’t win their mid-major conference tournament.
Two Mid-Majors Who Deserve An NCAA Bid Even If They Don’t Earn Automatic Bids
As of Sunday morning, ESPN had 35 of the 69 NCAA Tournament spots accounted for. Seven conferences ( WCC, Mountain West, SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, and Big East) are guaranteed multiple bids this year, leaving 23 remaining automatic bids that still need to be accounted for. SIU-Edwardsville Cougars became the first one conference bid league to secure an automatic tournament bid as they claimed the Ohio Valley Conference title.
Therefore, according to ESPN, 59 spots have been accounted for, meaning nine NCAA berths are “up for grabs.”However, the supposed 10 available NCAA Tournament spots could be fewer by next weekend.
The Memphis Tigers are a “lock to make the Big Dance,” but if they don’t win the American Athletic Conference Tournament, one less spot will be available. VCU is another team with a pretty good foothold on an NCAA Tournament bid, though not as great as Memphis. Again, if the Rams don’t win the Atlantic 10 conference tourney, they will take another “at-large spot.”
Georgia (20-11), Indiana (19-12), and Arkansas (19-12) took huge steps towards securing an at-large bid with victories on Saturday. North Carolina, SMU, Baylor, West Virginia, Xavier, Nebraska, Drake, Boise State, San Diego State, Vanderbilt, Texas, Oklahoma, San Francisco, Dayton, UC Irvine, North Texas, and UC San Diego are the teams on the NCAA tournament bubble.
NCAA Conference Tournament Week
Fourteen of the NCAA men’s basketball conference tournaments are underway. The Ohio Valley Conference will be the first conference to crown a champion in 2025. The OVC championship game is tonight, with top-seeded Southeast Missouri State taking on No. 2 seed SIU-Edwardsville at 8 p.m. (ET).
The Big South, Missouri Valley Conference, ASUN, and Summit leagues will hold their conference tournament title games tomorrow. Drake (29-3), one of the mid-major teams that deserves serious consideration for an NCAA tournament berth, advanced to the MVC tournament final with a 57-50 victory over Belmont on Saturday afternoon. Drake will face Bradley in the MVC final on Sunday.
Meanwhile, UC San Diego won’t get a chance to officially punch its first NCAA Division I Tournament ticket until later in the week. The Big West Conference tournament runs from March 12 to 15 in Henderson, Nevada.
Drake Bulldogs
Drake is enjoying its best season ever and is seeking its third straight NCAA bid and fourth in five seasons. The Bulldogs will face Bradley (26-7), which finished second in the MVC. The squads split their two regular-season games, with each team winning close games on the opposing team’s home court.
Drake’s regular season MVC regular season title was its third straight. The Bulldogs’ 29 victories is a program record under first-year head coach Ben McCollum, bettering last year’s 28-victory season. They also set a school record for most MVC victories with 17.
If Drake falls to Bradley in the MVC championship game, the Bulldogs should be in a good position to earn an NCAA tourney berth. The Bulldogs have outscored their opponents by 11.5 points a game, averaging 70.3 and allowing 58.8.
Drake is 15-1 away from Des Moines, Iowa. The Bulldogs have a NET Ranking of 59 and are 5-0 in Quad I and II contests, including two wins in Quad I games. Their best victory is an 11-point win over Vanderbilt in the Shriners Charleston Classic, while their three setbacks have been by a total of 11 points.
“The plan now has Drake on the verge of making a third straight NCAA Tournament appearance regardless of what happens this weekend in St. Louis,” Travis Hines of the Des Moines Register said. “The Bulldogs would probably have to sweat out Selection Sunday if McCollum doesn’t get a chance to deploy his scissor knowledge at the Enterprise Center, but they’re well-positioned for an at-large bid.
“They’re tied for the most wins and fewest losses nationally with Duke and Auburn (two likely No. 1 seeds) and possess Power 4 wins over Miami (FL), Kansas State, and Vanderbilt, a likely NCAA Tournament team.”
UC San Diego Tritons
UC San Diego (28-4) is having its best season in five NCAA Division I campaigns. UCSD claimed its first Big West regular-season crown after posting an 18-2 record. The Tritons shattered their previous best win marks—they posted a 21-12 record, including going 15-5 in conference play last year.
This year marks UCSD’s second winning DI season. The Tritons own a 78-62 overall record. The Tritons take a school-record 13-game winning streak into the Big West Conference Tournament, where they receive a bye to the semifinals.
UC San Diego has a Net Ranking of 35. UCSD is 15-3 away from San Diego and is 3-3 in Quad I and two contests, picking up two Quad I victories. The Tritons, who have an 18.2 scoring margin, have their best win at Utah State. Meanwhile, their three losses are by a total of 26 points, including a quality five-point setback to San Diego State.
“UC San Diego is by far the best team in Division 1 at both taking care of the ball on offense and forcing errors from opponents on defense, wrote Tim Casey of Forbes. “The Tritons are No. 1 in the nation with a 7.5 turnover per game margin, well ahead of Marquette, which is second at 6.2 per game. They have committed just 8.7 turnovers per game while forcing their opponents into 16.2 turnovers per game. They are third in Division 1 with a 1.83 assist-to-turnover ratio and tied for first with 10.4 steals per game.”
Photo Credit: © Ron Johnson, Imagn Images
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