Last Night in College Basketball: Miami (OH) is 3 Wins From an Undefeated Season

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Miami (OH) wins again

We are coming up on the end of the regular season, which for Miami (OH) means an attempt at an undefeated one. The No. 21 RedHawks, after winning 74-64 against Eastern Michigan on Tuesday, are now 15-0 in Mid-American Conference play and 28-0 overall — they have three games left on the schedule, against Western Michigan, Toledo and Ohio. Say what you will about the competition that the RedHawks have faced — the MAC is basically right in the middle of the conference rankings — but being undefeated is a rarity. There have been just 20 undefeated teams that have entered the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in its history, and just three of those have done so this century. Just four since 1980. 

[Get to Know a Mid-Major: Mid-American Conference]

The vast majority of these undefeated teams came from 1979 and before. Sure, Miami (OH) hasn’t had to get through Michigan or Duke or Arizona, three heavy hitters that all played and won on Tuesday as well, but it’s not like the mid-majors are consistently spitting out undefeated challengers every year, either, especially since the familiarity of conference play tends to make even great teams appear mortal at least a couple of times per season. 

The RedHawks struggled from deep against the Eagles, shooting just 5-for-28 from 3. They made up for it by crashing the boards and controlling the paint — Miami (OH) had 46 rebounds and 40 points from up close — and by converting turnovers into points, however. The RedHawks were very efficient on that last note, too, as Eastern Michigan turned the ball over just 11 times, yet Miami (OH) picked up 20 points off those plays.

The RedHawks are a tournament-worthy team, even if they aren’t loaded with stars or expected to keep their undefeated streak going deep into March Madness. They are a top-50 team in the NCAA Evaluation Tool and entered play on Tuesday 35th in Wins Above Bubble, with a score of 2.16: that puts them comfortably ahead of teams still fighting to prove that they are deserving of a spot in the field of 64, like Ohio State or USC or Seton Hall. There might even be a place for Miami (OH) even if they don’t win the automatic bid in the MAC tournament, given that rating. It’s been an impressive season for the RedHawks, and every W makes it all the more so.

Missouri upset Tennessee

It’s that time of year where teams on the bubble have to make their move, and Missouri defeating No. 22 Tennessee certainly qualifies. The Tigers came into the matchup ranked 42nd in WAB, in a good position to participate in March Madness — FOX Sports’ Mike Decourcy projected them as an 11-seed on Tuesday, prior to the game — but between what’s left of the regular season and conference tournaments, there is plenty of time left to collapse, too. On a related note, this marked the sixth loss to an unranked team that the Volunteers have suffered this season.

This one was all Mizzou through most of the second half, despite Tennessee leading for far more of the game overall: the Tigers went up, 48-45, on a 3-pointer by junior guard Trent Pierce with 10:37 left in the game, and never gave back the lead. Tennessee kept it close, as the final score of 72-69 reminds, but could not get back in control and eventually ran out of time to do so.

Missouri’s offense was led by T.O. Barrett, who scored a career-best 28 points — the sophomore guard also added 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Senior guard Mark Mitchell contributed 23 points, giving the Tigers the bulk of their points.

The rest of the starters combined for 6, with the bench coming in clutch in their stead: 16 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 steals in 60 minutes. Tennessee, in the end, gave this game away by giving Mizzou too many opportunities to capitalize on mistakes: the Volunteers turned the ball over 15 times to the Tigers’ 8, and Missouri converted those into 23 points. 

Now, Tennessee is in no danger of missing out on March Madness by any means, but the Volunteers are now just 20-8 on the season. The good news for them — comparatively — is that five of those six losses to unranked teams were still Quad 1 matchups: the Vols have dropped games to Kansas, Illinois, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Kentucky again, Syracuse and now Missouri. Small comfort when it comes to Tennessee’s March readiness, sure, but at least these aren’t hugely embarrassing losses to teams that aren’t going to sniff March Madness.

Utah-Colorado bubble battle

What a huge win for Utah. There is only so much season left for the Utes, who don’t quite rate as a tournament team yet — they are in "First Four Out" territory, basically — so racking up as many wins as possible in what time remains is paramount. Picking up a W against Colorado — which, entering play on Tuesday, looks primed for making the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament but is far from a sure thing — is exactly what Utah needed.

Utah won, 67-64, on the strength of a strong second half. Down 33-26 at the half, the Utes scored 23 points in the third quarter and then outscored Colorado, 18-16, in the fourth to add to the 1-point lead they entered that final frame with. Utah never trailed in the fourth, though it came close on multiple occasions — the win pushed its WAB score to -0.12, so close to breaking even and looking like a tournament team to the Selection Committee, while Colorado is now ranked 41st there at 0.93.

Senior guard Lani White starred for Utah, putting up a game-high 21 points while going 3-for-7 from 3, to help the Utes shoot 50% overall from deep. Colorado could only muster 34% shooting as a team, two starters scoring exactly 10 points, and while junior guard Desiree Wooten did pick up 16 off the bench, it also came on a dreadful 5-for-19 shooting performance — luckily, Wooten also had 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 4 steals and a block, but the shots were not falling for her nor her teammates, and it cost the Buffaloes against Utah.

Saint Louis lost again!

No. 23 Saint Louis rattled off 18 wins in a row, lost in a huge upset against Rhode Island, then seemingly righted the ship against VCU the next time out. Maybe not, though! The Billikens faced off against Dayton on Tuesday, and got pushed around in the first half in a way that they just never recovered from. Saint Louis has now lost two of its last three, and is in danger of falling out of the poll because of it. Luckily for the Billikens, they are still atop the Atlantic 10, VCU is the team that most threatens their winning the A-10 tournament and the conference is likely to send two teams to March Madness, anyway. Still! Not exactly the time you want to see cracks forming, is it?

[Get to Know a Mid-Major: Atlantic 10]

Sophomore forward Amael L’etang was the star of the show for the Flyers, thanks to a career-high 26 points that powered a double-double: L’etang also had 10 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and 3 blocks in his 30 minutes. While he made just 6 shots from the field, he kept drawing foul after foul, and sank 12 of 15 free throws.

About the only thing that Saint Louis did better than Dayton was rebound: they turned the ball over more often, shot worse (40% to 47%), hit fewer 3s at a lower rate, fouled significantly more often, and, as a result, led for basically none of the game at all. The Flyers jumped out to a 25-point lead in the first half, which the Billikens did eventually narrow down to 11, but in the end would lose 77-62.

Dayton is a little too far from the bubble for this to matter to them outside of regular-season pride just yet, but who knows? If this is the start of a meaningful run, there is plenty of regular season and conference tournament left for fortunes to change.

Dybantsa, Wright can’t do it all

BYU, now without Richie Saunders, needs all the help it can get. Star freshman forward AJ Dybantsa has been stepping up to fill the gap on points, rebounds and assists, and on Tuesday he scored 29 points against UCF with 8 rebounds. Sophomore guard Robert Wright III had 20 points — albeit on a poor 7-for-21 — with 4 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal. Other than that, BYU got very little: freshman guard Aleksej Kostic added 14 points off the bench, but overall there just wasn’t enough coming from the Cougars to stop UCF.

The Knights scored 97 points on 56% shooting, which included a stunning 14-for-28 from beyond the arc: BYU might have been able to score in bunches — or, at least, a few players did — but the Cougars just aren’t going to thrive much in the post-Saunders era without more from its defense. UCF never trailed, not once, in this game, and while BYU narrowed what had been a 36-point lead to just 97-84 by the end, the game was never actually as close as that suggests.

To be fair to BYU, UCF is a top-50 team by NET, but you can say that about basically every possible opponent the Cougars are going to have from here on out. They will need a far better defensive performance in future matchups if they want the season to continue for long beyond the end of their scheduled games.

Double double-doubles for Troy

Troy is unlikely to make it to March Madness unless it wins the Sun Belt’s automatic bid — the Trojans are 59th in WAB, which is at least 10 spots worse than optimism can make up for — but on Tuesday it tried to show why it might very well be conference champion. The Trojans took down Arkansas State, 61-54, powered by a pair of impressive double-doubles from senior forwards Fortuna Ngnawo and Zay Dyer. Both players scored 14 points each, while Ngnawo had 18 rebounds and Dyer had 16 — Ngnawo added a pair of assists and blocks each, while Dyer also contributed a steal and a block.

Troy finished with 64 rebounds, doubling up on Arkansas State’s 32. Despite the Trojans shooting just 35%, all those second-chance opportunities added up, as did ripping the ball away from the Red Wolves. Troy had 20 offensive boards and another 44 defensive ones, and it helped make up for an incredibly sloppy 30-turnover game for the Trojans.

It’s this push and pull of dominating aspects and clear issues that will make it impossible for Troy to get into March Madness without an automatic bid, but it’s now 15-2 and atop the Sun Belt conference — the Trojans might end up bringing their best-in-Division-I rebounding to March regardless.

Indiana’s bubble dreams take a hit

Indiana has not been anywhere near expectations this season, but there is still time to salvage the season and go on a run. There is a little less time now than there was yesterday, however, as the Hoosiers lost to Northwestern. While there was controversy over a non-call late — sophomore guard Angelo Ciaravino appeared to grab the wrist of Tucker Devries with 1.1 seconds left on the clock, but there was no whistle and no bucket — Indiana’s problems ran a lot deeper than a blown call. If the Hoosiers had not missed 11-consecutive shots in a row in the second half, for instance, a single missed call would not have represented the difference between winning and losing.

And it was more about the lost opportunity there, too, since even if there had been a call, Northwestern was up 71-68 at the time, meaning Indiana would have needed to make the first free throw then miss the second and score, all with 1.1 seconds left — meaning, no time for second chances. A possibility for sure, but simpler would have been to go, say, 2-for-11 during the 0-for-11 stretch. To not be in the position of losing to Northwestern — which improved to 4-13 in Big Ten play with the win — in the first place.

Senior forward Nick Martinelli was at the forefront for Northwestern, of course, with a game-high 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting. He is once again leading the Big Ten in scoring, at 22.6 points per game, which is also good enough for sixth in all of Division I — if Indiana had been able to slow him down even a little, it’s also a different ballgame, but instead he scored above his average by more than the Hoosiers lost by.

Indiana picked up a Quad 3 loss here, which has real consequences in NET — Indiana dropped from 36th to 40th — and are now 43rd in WAB, at 1.19. That’s still worthy of the tourney, but the Hoosiers have to play well enough against No. 13 Michigan State, Minnesota and Ohio State — also fighting on the bubble — and then put on a good-enough showing in the Big Ten tournament to not damage their standing further. All of this would have been a lot easier with a W against Northwestern, is the thing, but instead, the Wildcats picked up their first Quad 1 victory of the year, and Indiana’s situation is worse for it.

A 34-point game

San Jose State picked up a win over Air Force, and while that is a matchup that at this point in the season means very little — the two are a combined 3-31 in Mountain West play — one performance in particular did stand out. Sophomore forward Adrian Myers led all scorers with 34 points on Tuesday — not just in this game, but across Division I men’s and women’s basketball. Myers, who propelled the Spartans to a W over the Falcons, went 11-for-18 from the field, hit 8 of 9 from deep and picked up 7 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals and a block. All of that resulted in the top GameScore across men’s and women’s D-I ball, too.

Even with Myers going off, the final score was 86-80: Air Force shot 51%, sank 8 3-pointers and 14 free throws, and did so while dominating in the paint, 42-26. It wasn’t enough with Myers having not just a career-best performance, but also tying the program record for 3s in a single game while scoring the most points any Spartans player has since 2021.