NCAA Tournament March Madness

#127 UC Irvine

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

UC Irvine’s résumé reads as a mixture of upside and damaging inconsistency, with solid neutral-site tournament wins and road victories like the one at San Jose State showcasing the program’s ability to win away from home, while ugly results at home to Cal Baptist and Belmont and a poor neutral outing at New Mexico State leave lasting blemishes. Tight losses at Utah Valley and Northern Iowa show the team can hang with better opposition but also highlight missed chances that a committee will remember. The remainder of the Big West schedule supplies plenty of repair opportunities with home dates against CS Bakersfield and CS Fullerton and other winnable conference matchups, yet tough trips to Hawaii and UC Davis represent tests that will be judged more harshly. In short, the defense of the profile rests on those quality road and neutral victories, but the severity of a few bad losses and continued inconsistency mean the margin for error down the stretch is very small.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/7Cal Baptist142L69-61
11/15Weber St212W79-70
11/19@Utah Valley98L79-72
11/22Northern Iowa86L70-69
11/25(N)New Mexico St145L57-45
11/26(N)S Dakota St185W64-52
11/30@San Jose St219W72-63
12/4UC Riverside280W73-60
12/6CS Northridge198W85-71
12/19Belmont74L84-58
12/21(N)N Dakota St147W74-73
12/22(N)Norfolk St284W89-70
1/1@CS Bakersfield295W81-77
1/3@CS Fullerton232W86-64
1/8Long Beach St24283%
1/10@Hawaii9628%
1/11@Hawaii9628%
1/17@UC Davis17250%
1/22@UC Riverside28071%
1/24@UC San Diego9326%
1/29Hawaii9649%
2/5CS Bakersfield29589%
2/7@UC Santa Barbara16449%
2/12@Cal Poly23964%
2/14CS Fullerton23281%
2/19@Long Beach St24265%
2/21UC San Diego9347%
2/26@CS Northridge19856%
2/28UC Santa Barbara16470%
3/5Cal Poly23982%
3/7UC Davis17272%