For area college basketball teams, it?s simple. Don?t bother looking at the daily Ratings Percentage Index, the strength-of-schedule numbers or the dozens of so called “bracketologists,” who claim they can predict which 65 teams will be invited to next month?s NCAA Tournament.
Navy, Morgan State, Loyola, and UMBC have just one number that matters: three. That?s how many consecutive games each must win to claim its conference tournament title to make the NCAA Tournament.
For the Baltimore-area foursome, each doesn?t have the luxury of making the NCAA Tournament by being among the best in its respective league. For Maryland?s Terrapins, finishing in the top four or five in the Atlantic Coast Conference should be good enough to be invited to college basketball?s marquee event.
But not for the rest of the teams in the state. For Navy, if the Midshipmen (15-12) don?t win the Patriot League Tournament next month, they?ll watch which ever team does make the NCAA Tournament when the brackets are unveiled on March 16.
The Midshipmen, however, are not alone. For UMBC (20-7), Morgan State (17-9) and Loyola (17-12), what has been an otherwise stellar season for each squad won?t end how each envisioned without winning its conference tournament. That?s because the America East, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference will just send their tournament champion to basketball?s biggest showcase. The rest go home to possibly play in second-tier events known as the National Invitation Tournament and Gazelle Group Tournament.
“Other than the coaches, I?m the only one that?s been to the NCAA Tournament,” said Loyola guard Gerald Brown, who played for Providence when the Friars made the event in 2004. “And I just try to instill in my team [that] it?s a wonderful feeling.”
Of the 65 teams that will make the NCAA Tournament, 31 earn an automatic bid by winning their conference tournament, with the remaining 34 at-large selections picked by the tournament?s committee composed of athletics directors from across the country. The committee often shuns teams from smaller conferences such as the MAAC, MEAC, Patriot and America East in favor of inviting more teams from the bigger, more nationally recognized leagues ? the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-10 and Big 12.
“It?s hard on our level,” UMBC coach Randy Monroe said. “I think we have to win our league [tournament] to get that bid.”
After Loyola, Morgan State, UMBC and Navy each conclude the regular season this week, their NCAA Tournament essentially starts with the conference tournament, where each has to win three straight games to claim the title.
And history is not on their side. It?s been 14 years since Loyola made its only trip to the NCAA Tournament, and a decade since Navy was last invited. Morgan State has never made it as a Division I school, and neither has UMBC, but if the regular season ended today,both would be considered the favorite to win their conference tournaments.
Maryland ? the state?s premier basketball team ? may have the longest odds to reach the NCAA Tournament. The Terrapins dropped into a tie with Virginia Tech for fifth place in the conference standings after getting blown out at Miami on Saturday.
Maryland (17-11, 7-6), which has lost two straight conference games, closes the regular season at Wake Forest (16-8, 6-5) on Thursday, against Clemson (19-7, 7-5) on Sunday and at Virginia (12-12, 2-9) on March 9. If the Terrapins don?t win two of their next three games, they?ll likely have to win the ACC Tournament to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“We didn?t play well down the stretch,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “To lose to Virginia Tech and to lose today you don?t want to do that. The league is very tough.”
