NCAA Tournament March Madness

#114 UC Irvine

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Projection: likely out

UC Irvine projects on the outside because its résumé is driven by wins over lesser opponents and solid road victories at San Jose State, Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Fullerton, while its few true signature chances went poorly; the neutral-site defeat to New Mexico State and the heavy loss to Belmont stand out as damaging results and tight losses at Utah Valley and Northern Iowa highlight an inability to close against better mid-major competition. The best moments, including the neutral win over South Dakota State and its ability to steal games away from home, show the program can travel and fight, but the worst moments leave a gap in quality wins that the committee will notice. The remaining schedule gives clear opportunities — a tricky trip to UC Santa Barbara and several favorable matchups at home and on the road against conference foes — to turn narrow losses into resume-builders and to replace bad results, yet without a marquee nonconference scalp or a signature road win the Anteaters are likely to stay on the outside.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/7Cal Baptist133L69-61
11/15Weber St202W79-70
11/19@Utah Valley104L79-72
11/22Northern Iowa107L70-69
11/25(N)New Mexico St139L57-45
11/26(N)S Dakota St185W64-52
11/30@San Jose St242W72-63
12/4UC Riverside275W73-60
12/6CS Northridge209W85-71
12/19Belmont64L84-58
12/21(N)N Dakota St123W74-73
12/22(N)Norfolk St304W89-70
1/1@CS Bakersfield302W81-77
1/3@CS Fullerton186W86-64
1/8Long Beach St235W74-64
1/10@Hawaii92L67-66
1/17@UC Davis163L75-72
1/22@UC Riverside275W80-66
1/24@UC San Diego106W61-59
1/29Hawaii9252%
2/5CS Bakersfield30291%
2/7@UC Santa Barbara13744%
2/12@Cal Poly27072%
2/14CS Fullerton18676%
2/19@Long Beach St23565%
2/21UC San Diego10657%
2/26@CS Northridge20960%
2/28UC Santa Barbara13766%
3/5Cal Poly27087%
3/7UC Davis16372%