NCAA Tournament March Madness

#238 UMBC

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

UMBC’s body of work shows a team that reliably beats the low end of its schedule but struggles to prove it can hang with better opponents, so the clearest path to the NCAA field is through the America East tournament. The Retrievers have collected the expected wins over teams like Coppin State, Binghamton, NJIT, Wagner and Delaware State and flashed toughness with road victories at Bucknell, Maine and New Hampshire, yet they were exposed in true road tests with a heavy loss at George Washington and another poor outing at South Florida and they couldn’t get by Buffalo at home while falling short at Dayton and Georgetown. The remaining slate — home games with Vermont, Albany and Bryant and trips to Massachusetts Lowell and NJIT — offers chances to add the kind of road and neutral wins that would alter their profile, but as it stands their best moments are modest and their bad losses leave them needing the automatic berth to be sure of the field.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/8@Dayton97L77-71
11/11@Morgan St353W81-79
11/16Wagner324W71-70
11/19@G Washington77L89-52
11/29Delaware St359W71-57
12/3@Georgetown83L90-81
12/6@Bucknell331W73-66
12/9Buffalo188L83-79
12/12Army338L63-60
12/21@South Florida58L94-69
12/29@Coppin St364W93-59
1/8Maine349W69-62
1/10New Hampshire335W75-74
1/15@Bryant355L79-74
1/19@Binghamton362W78-60
1/22NJIT303W87-74
1/24MA Lowell319W79-56
1/29@Vermont222L64-55
1/31@SUNY Albany326W68-65
2/5Binghamton362W79-62
2/12@Maine349W78-62
2/14@New Hampshire335W85-63
2/19Vermont22258%
2/21SUNY Albany32680%
2/26Bryant35590%
2/28@MA Lowell31960%
3/3@NJIT30354%