NCAA Tournament March Madness

#351 NC Central

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

A brutal nonconference slate against major conference powers produced several heavy road defeats that overwhelm the modest positives on NC Central’s résumé, though the team did show it can compete in a couple of spots with a tight home game against Longwood and a solid showing at James Madison. The profile lacks a signature win away from home or on a neutral floor to offset those lopsided losses at NC State, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, and an upcoming trip to Penn State offers little upside while several remaining games against Norfolk State, Coppin State, Morgan State, Howard, Delaware State, Maryland Eastern Shore and South Carolina State represent clear chances to pile up conference victories. From a selection standpoint the headwinds are the severity and location of the tough losses and the absence of a marquee scalp, while the path forward is straightforward: collect road or neutral wins against comparable opponents and seize the winnable games at home to stop the résumé bleeding.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3@NC State27L114-66
11/7@Virginia23L81-62
11/9@Appalachian St247L76-54
11/14@North Carolina21L97-53
11/22@Dayton65L74-55
11/25@SC Upstate257L82-67
12/3@James Madison205L67-62
12/6NC A&T308L69-54
12/9@Kentucky19L103-67
12/20Longwood303L74-72
12/29@Penn St1285%
1/3Norfolk St25433%
1/10@Coppin St36464%
1/12@Morgan St36250%
1/17Howard26735%
1/24Delaware St35464%
1/26MD E Shore34358%
1/31@S Carolina St36150%
2/7@Norfolk St25416%
2/14Coppin St36482%
2/16Morgan St36272%
2/21@Howard26717%
2/28@Delaware St35442%
3/2@MD E Shore34336%
3/5S Carolina St36171%