NCAA Tournament March Madness

#85 Utah Valley

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Projected seed: 14 (automatic qualifier)

That seed fits Utah Valley because the resume pairs a handful of resume-building neutral wins with several damaging road setbacks that keep the program from climbing higher. The team’s best moments came at neutral sites against Samford, South Dakota State, and UC Santa Barbara and in a clean road victory at Bowling Green, which show it can win away from home and handle respectable nonconference tests. Its worst moments — a heavy defeat at Boise State, a road loss at San Diego State, and a string of conference losses away to Cal Baptist, Utah Tech, and Southern Utah — are exactly the blemishes selection people weigh. Remaining games at home versus Cal Baptist and road trips to UT Arlington, Tarleton State, Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, and Utah Tech give clear opportunities to erase those stains and bolster a résumé that otherwise looks like one built to need the conference title to avoid falling short.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/8@Boise St56L101-77
11/15@Fresno St129L75-74
11/19UC Irvine119W79-72
11/25(N)S Dakota St220W75-52
11/26(N)Samford206W89-45
12/3@San Diego St43L77-66
12/6@Bowling Green143W82-71
12/10Idaho St238W73-69
12/13(N)UC Santa Barbara117W68-53
12/17Weber St209W90-74
12/29Cal Baptist118W73-66
1/1@Tarleton St200W91-85
1/3@Abilene Chr251L85-68
1/8Southern Utah267W89-72
1/10Utah Tech183W92-76
1/17UT Arlington165W86-74
1/21@Southern Utah267L84-70
1/24@Cal Baptist118L78-71
1/29@Tarleton St200W83-55
2/5Abilene Chr251W68-55
2/7UT Arlington165W81-60
2/12@Utah Tech183L81-77
2/19Cal Baptist11871%
2/21@UT Arlington16561%
2/26Tarleton St20084%
2/28Abilene Chr25190%
3/5@Southern Utah26779%
3/7@Utah Tech18364%