The Miami Hurricanes are listed in the group of next four out in the latest Bracket Matrix for the NCAA Tournament. The Hurricanes have lost four of their last five to fall out of the latest NCAA composite bracketology.
The Bracket Matrix is a site that gathers a consensus of the NCAA Tournament projections from the bracketology sites around the web. In their own words, the Bracket Matrix:
"“The Bracket Matrix tries to collect most bracketologists’ opinions of how the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament bracket will look like each year. This page measures how closely each bracketologist matched the work of the selection committee. This emphasizes seeding as much as picking the correct teams in the field.”"
All of the sites are updated as of January 23. The Hurricanes are listed as a ninth seed or below on all of the sites that have them in the tournament. Miami faces a crucial stretch that commences tonight with a game against Boston College at the Watsco Center. Miami then hosts North Carolina and Florida State in a three game homestand.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi is the only major college basketball site that has the Hurricanes in the NCAA Tournament. He has the Hurricanes as an 11 seed and falling. Lunardi has Miami matched up with six seed Xavier in the West Region in the NCAA Subregional pod in Sacramento. The winner according to the resident Bracketologist would play the Oregon-Winthrop winner.
Miami has a balanced schedule the rest of the way. They have plenty of opportunity to build their resume with wins they will be expected to get and against teams that are ranked. The games against Ninth ranked North Carolina and number ten Florida State in the next week are crucial.
Miami has won 21 of their last 22 games at home. The one loss was in their last home game nearly two weeks ago to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish withstood a Miami second half comeback to a get a 67-62 win.
The Hurricanes are currently 81st in the RPI. They are 12-6 overall. The committee looks strongly how teams play on the road and neutral sites. They also look at their record against the top 25, top 50 and top 100, plus strength of schedule.
Miami is 8-1 at home 2-3 on the road and 2-2 on neutral sites. One of those “neutral” site wins was against Winthrop at American Airlines Arena, something the committee will likely consider.
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The Hurricanes are 0-4 against teams ranked 1-25, 1-1 against 25-50, 2-0 against teams 51-100, 2-0 against teams 101-199 and 7-0 against teams 200 or below. Miami has seven of their 12 wins against the lower third of Division I. The Hurricanes need to start piling up wins against the teams they should beat and throw in a few upsets.
They have a solid strength of schedule ranked 96th. Their most impressive win came against number 49 Pittsburgh, but the Panthers are in tailspin. After Miami defeated them 72-46 on January 14, Pitt has continued to crash. Pitt is in the middle of a five game losing streak. That included a 106-51 home loss to Louisville on January 24.
The upcoming games against UNC and FSU plus a rematch with February 25 at the Watsco center are arugably the most important games remaining on the schedule. The ‘Canes need to win at least two of those three, plus win the other remaining home games to get in the NCAA Tournament.
Next: The Miami Hurricanes Entire 2017 Football Schedule is Out
Six of the Hurricanes next eight games are at home before they finish the regular season play three of the last four on the road.