NCAA Tournament March Madness

#291 Ball St

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Ball State’s résumé forces a simple conclusion: its best route to the NCAA tournament is through the Mid-American’s automatic bid because nonconference play produced a damaging loss at Wisconsin, tough road setbacks at Indiana State and Lafayette and neutral-site trouble at Monmouth that leave almost no signature victories outside the league. The team’s strongest moments came in conference with road wins at Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Central Michigan and home victories over Massachusetts and Central Michigan that demonstrate an ability to win away from home and finish tight games. Those positives are undercut by multiple bad results to Akron, Buffalo and Toledo that would make an at-large case difficult to justify. With limited opportunity to manufacture a marquee nonconference win, the practical path to the tournament runs through winning the league’s automatic spot.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Louisiana315W75-64
11/11@Wisconsin25L86-55
11/15Ark Little Rock308L68-62
11/22@Indiana St201L70-52
11/28(N)Monmouth NJ187L80-73
11/29@Lafayette327L55-37
11/30(N)Le Moyne296W96-85
12/3@Evansville305L64-52
12/9S Dakota St216L68-64
12/14@Campbell190L69-64
12/20Miami OH90L86-77
1/3@Buffalo205L85-72
1/6E Michigan242L74-52
1/10@Massachusetts198L79-71
1/13@Akron60L87-77
1/16Ohio227W76-71
1/20@C Michigan271W68-67
1/24N Illinois333W58-53
1/31@Toledo136L73-55
2/3@Bowling Green149L77-52
2/7@ULM350W73-68
2/11Buffalo205L63-53
2/14Kent156L75-68
2/17@Ohio227L69-57
2/20Akron60L78-65
2/24Massachusetts198W74-73
2/28@N Illinois333W79-43
3/3@W Michigan276W74-71
3/6C Michigan271W85-69