NCAA Tournament March Madness

#43 UCF

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Projected seed: 6

UCF’s résumé is anchored by a potent offense and a couple of resume-building wins but it is tempered by defensive inconsistency and an ugly home loss to Vanderbilt. The road victory at Texas A&M and a neutral-site win over Pittsburgh show the team can close out important games away from home, and a series of high-scoring nonconference results illustrates how hard they are to contain when they’re clicking. Those bright spots are offset by the Vanderbilt loss and other shaky defensive showings that still hang over the profile, so the upcoming Big Twelve gauntlet—home dates with Kansas and Arizona and road tests at Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Houston and BYU—represents the clearest path to either solidifying or weakening the case. If the offense keeps producing and the defense tightens in those marquee matchups, the resume will look like a strong tournament-level profile; if the team drops the key road and neutral games, the earlier blemishes will take on greater significance.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3Hofstra109W82-78
11/8Vanderbilt8L105-93
11/11Florida A&M340W97-60
11/14@Texas A&M49W86-74
11/17Oakland138W87-83
11/20(N)Pittsburgh90W77-67
11/25Quinnipiac156W102-91
11/29VMI330W82-57
12/7Towson134W86-61
12/17Mercer163W81-63
12/20FGCU178W102-80
12/23FL Atlantic11284%
1/3Kansas1640%
1/6@Oklahoma St6149%
1/11Cincinnati7273%
1/14@Kansas St5848%
1/17Arizona221%
1/20@Iowa St39%
1/24@Colorado7051%
1/27Arizona St7774%
1/31Texas Tech2549%
2/4@Houston1016%
2/8@Cincinnati7252%
2/14West Virginia6772%
2/17TCU5669%
2/21@Utah12369%
2/24@BYU1116%
2/28Baylor2952%
3/3Oklahoma St6170%
3/6@West Virginia6751%