NCAA Tournament March Madness

#96 Murray St

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Projection: likely out

Murray State’s resume features a few attention-grabbing nonconference moments — a neutral-site win over Akron and a close neutral win over George Washington, plus a true road victory at Valparaiso — but those highlights are diluted by a heavy loss at SMU and puzzling neutral setbacks to Middle Tennessee State and McNeese State that expose defensive inconsistency and leave the profile with too many blemishes against modest opposition. The Racers have shown they can score in bunches but have also traded buckets in games they needed to close out, so the committee will note the lack of consistent top-level victories and the damage of those bad outcomes. With a stretch of difficult road tests at Northern Iowa, Belmont, and Illinois State balanced against several winnable home dates such as Evansville and Indiana State, the simplest path to changing perception is to earn key road wins and avoid more bad losses down the stretch.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3(N)NE Omaha249W85-77
11/7MS Valley St365W108-60
11/11@SMU40L102-91
11/15Nicholls St223W99-79
11/18Ark Little Rock312W89-68
11/23(N)MTSU147L90-87
11/24(N)McNeese St69L73-60
11/25(N)G Washington80W96-95
12/2Morehead St305W84-52
12/6Bellarmine246W81-68
12/13(N)Akron56W115-100
12/18Drake154W81-72
12/21@Valparaiso209W85-79
12/29S Illinois120W84-81
1/1@IL Chicago20869%
1/4Bradley12270%
1/7@Evansville27079%
1/10Valparaiso20985%
1/17Indiana St18884%
1/21@Drake15458%
1/24@Northern Iowa9138%
1/28Illinois St7855%
1/31@Belmont7131%
2/3IL Chicago20885%
2/6@S Illinois12049%
2/9Northern Iowa9160%
2/12@Indiana St18866%
2/15Belmont7153%
2/18@Illinois St7833%
2/21Evansville27091%
3/1@Bradley12249%