Best suited team for NCAA tournament?

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Bradley is built for the NCAA Tournament where games are defensively tighter. Bradley can effectively suffocate a team’s top shooter and Rienk with his size and BBIQ will give P5 teams trouble. I like Bradley to pull a 13/4 or 12/5 upset*.

* The exception being Saint Mary’s, who I think is a Final Four team that could be stuck on the 4/5 line and will blowout whichever 12/13 seed they face.

[Majik45]

I think your 3 best teams for the NCAA tourney are Drake, Bradley and Belmont. SIU would have an outside shot as well. To advance in the NCAA tournament, you need 1 of 3 things:

1. A star that can just go off and carry you to a win (Drake with Devries)
2. Be able to shoot the lights out from 3 and get hot for a game or two (This is Belmont)
3. Have a suffocating defense that makes it really hard to score (Bradley and SIU)

Drake with their experience and having the start power is probably best suited. Belmont could easily win a game if they get hot from 3.

Unfortunately, I don't think Bradley and SIU have as good a shot at winning a game. Bradley doesn't have the guard play and is prone to turnovers which could lead to easy baskets against a power 5 school. SIU probably relies to much on Domask and Jones to score to have a great shot at winning as well. If you shut them down, they will struggle to score enough to win.

[usmcsaluki]

SIU (true road win at NET #35 Oklahoma State) and Drake (neutral win against NET #46 Miss State) have already proven they can beat likely higher seeded NCAA tourney teams this year, assuming both make the field though OSU is currently projected in by Joe Lunardi.

[squirrel]

While you need guards for success, you also need size to make a run in the tournament. Bradley has both, even though their backcourt is on the weaker side.

But I also believe Bradley has yet to play its best basketball.

[Dawgbit]

Muila is 180 degrees from where he has been since coming to SIU. He was hurt and not really a factor until the last few weeks. But he certainly is a factor now.

[Countrypanther]

Drake at Bradley on Feb 26th will be a fun game. And will be the answer to this question.

[ColonialBulldog]

Northwestern just got a Quad 1 win at 11-12 (3-10) Ohio State. There needs to be outrage. There needs to be a demand for transparency as to what the NET Formula is. There is not a single good faith basis for keeping that formula secret. There needs to be lawsuits in the vein of the Boise State antitrust claims if something doesn't change. It's just not a fair playing field and it's extremely costly.

[municup14]

So if Drake loses only 1 more conference game,makes it to the finals of Arch Madness
do they make the Tournament as a at large.Just wondering what everyone thinks about this.

[DUBulldog]

So if Drake loses only 1 more conference game,makes it to the finals of Arch Madness
do they make the Tournament as a at large.Just wondering what everyone thinks about this.

Not a chance

[ColonialBulldog]

So if Drake loses only 1 more conference game,makes it to the finals of Arch Madness
do they make the Tournament as a at large.Just wondering what everyone thinks about this.

Not a chance

I think if Drake finishes the regular season 5-0 you might hear some bubble chatter but that's the most optimistic I think you can get. Reminder that Drake was 25-4 and was basically the last team in back in 2021.

I do think if the Bulldogs can win Arch Madness and only lose one remaining regular season game, there is hope for getting up to the 11 seed line. But even that's reaching.