NCAA Tournament March Madness

#313 Ball St

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Ball State’s profile makes it clear that the most realistic path to the national field is through winning the conference tournament because the resume offers only sporadic positives amid a lot of damaging results. The team’s best moments include a home victory over Louisiana, a neutral-site win over Le Moyne, a hard-fought road escape at Central Michigan and a home closing against Ohio that show the roster can deliver in short bursts. Those flashes are outweighed by a humbling home loss to Wisconsin, an ill-timed road collapse at Lafayette and a string of defeats away at Buffalo and Akron along with a neutral setback at Monmouth that leave little in the way of signature road or neutral wins. The remaining schedule presents several chances to repair the resume, most notably a winnable home date with Northern Illinois, a return meeting with Central Michigan and tough road assignments at Toledo and Bowling Green that could either boost or further erode the appeal, so absent a clear, quality nonconference scalp and consistent success away from campus the committee would look for an automatic conference title as the sure way in.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Louisiana330W75-64
11/11@Wisconsin40L86-55
11/15Ark Little Rock292L68-62
11/22@Indiana St194L70-52
11/28(N)Monmouth NJ213L80-73
11/29@Lafayette316L55-37
11/30(N)Le Moyne266W96-85
12/3@Evansville289L64-52
12/9S Dakota St189L68-64
12/14@Campbell182L69-64
12/20Miami OH89L86-77
1/3@Buffalo184L85-72
1/6E Michigan188L74-52
1/10@Massachusetts183L79-71
1/13@Akron60L87-77
1/16Ohio221W76-71
1/20@C Michigan322W68-67
1/24N Illinois31562%
1/31@Toledo16113%
2/3@Bowling Green1127%
2/7@ULM35863%
2/11Buffalo18434%
2/14Kent14726%
2/17@Ohio22121%
2/21Akron608%
2/24Massachusetts18333%
2/28@N Illinois31540%
3/3@W Michigan25325%
3/6C Michigan32265%