NCAA Tournament March Madness

#71 Northern Iowa

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Projected seed: 13 (automatic qualifier)

Northern Iowa’s profile is built around a stout defense and a late neutral-site surge in the conference tournament that featured wins over Evansville, Illinois State, Bradley and Illinois Chicago, and it includes resume-boosting road victories at Murray State and UC Irvine that show the team can handle hostile environments. Those positives are tempered by damaging trips to St Mary’s, Belmont and Valparaiso and by blemishes such as the loss to Wichita State that leave the résumé with too many ugly results against quality opposition. With precious little runway to add a signature nonconference scalp, the committee will be forced to balance the value of the defensive identity and the league wins against the absence of a marquee victory over a high-major opponent and the impact of those road and home setbacks.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/6CS Northridge175W86-57
11/9S Dakota St220W65-58
11/14Furman191W70-54
11/18N Illinois333W70-57
11/22@UC Irvine104W70-69
11/25(N)Loyola-Chicago280W72-51
11/26(N)Tulsa55L63-60
12/6Wichita St88L74-69
12/13Oakland168W75-63
12/17@IL Chicago105W60-54
12/22@St Mary's CA24L63-58
12/29Valparaiso156W58-48
1/1Indiana St201W75-66
1/4@Evansville308W62-48
1/7Belmont68L78-65
1/10@Bradley123L75-69
1/13IL Chicago105L69-61
1/17@Valparaiso156L54-44
1/21@Illinois St103L59-54
1/24Murray St122W81-76
1/28@S Illinois117L65-50
1/31Evansville308W71-55
2/6Bradley123W61-49
2/9@Murray St122W89-60
2/12@Belmont68L91-86
2/15Drake197W86-62
2/18@Indiana St201W81-60
2/21S Illinois117L59-57
2/25Illinois St103L71-69
3/1@Drake197W75-53
3/5(N)Evansville308W68-59
3/6(N)Illinois St103W74-52
3/7(N)Bradley123W73-69
3/8(N)IL Chicago105W84-69