NCAA Tournament March Madness

#241 Rice

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Rice's profile makes it obvious why the safest route to the NCAA field is to secure the conference automatic berth: the Owls have flashes that matter, most notably a gritty road victory at Wichita State, a neutral-site win over Oral Roberts and a resilient road showing at UT San Antonio, but those highlights are offset by damaging defeats such as the heavy loss at Tennessee and the rout at Tulsa alongside nonconference setbacks that did little to build a resume. Close defeats to Memphis and Temple show the team can compete in tight spots, yet the lack of multiple high-end wins and the presence of ugly losses away from home leave the at-large case thin. A stretch of remaining games that includes a home date with Tulsa, trips to East Carolina and Charlotte and a critical road test at UAB represent the final chances to add a signature result, so the most realistic path to March is to win the conference tournament and take the automatic spot.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/7@Oregon90L67-63
11/11SF Austin95L81-69
11/14East Texas A&M288W71-64
11/17@Tennessee23L91-66
11/20Tarleton St176L90-74
11/24(N)Kennesaw159L89-84
11/25@FGCU214L78-63
11/26(N)Oral Roberts310W81-62
12/3Texas St271W77-72
12/13Arkansas St154W77-76
12/20@Pepperdine267L84-62
12/31@Tulsa59L97-48
1/3Memphis97L76-70
1/7@Wichita St99W66-64
1/11Charlotte179L74-73
1/14@UT San Antonio348W89-73
1/21Temple144L69-65
1/25Tulsa5917%
1/28@East Carolina28048%
1/31@Charlotte17928%
2/4North Texas13338%
2/8@UAB11917%
2/11FL Atlantic9326%
2/14East Carolina28070%
2/22@Tulane19030%
2/25South Florida8022%
3/1@Temple14422%
3/4@North Texas13319%
3/8UT San Antonio34886%