The loss to Syracuse on Saturday plummeted the Miami Hurricanes profile for the NCAA Tournament. According to TeamRankings.Com, Miami’s chances for making the Tournament dropped from 77 percent before playing the Orange to 56.3 percent currently.
The current three-game losing streak has put the Miami Hurricanes from being in a position to challenge for a top-four seed to in jeopardy of missing the tournament. A week ago Miami was coming off of a tough road loss at Boston College. Their chances for making the NCAA Tournament was 80.4 percent and their most likely seed was eighth according to team rankings.
Many other sites had Miami higher on the NCAA Seed line. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had the Hurricanes as high as a six seed last week. Team Rankings now has Miami listed as the most likely seed line being tenth. The Bracket Matrix Composite now has Miami as the second highest ninth seed.
Many say that the worst seed to be is often the eighth or ninth seed. The winner plays the number one seed in the second round barring a historical upset. Lunardi now has the Hurricanes as a nine seed and falling.
Miami has struggled a lot in games against teams in the top 25. The Hurricanes are 0-3 against the RPI top 25. Those were losses to Clemson, Duke and Virginia. They will have one more chance to add a top 25 win to their resume. Miami plays at North Carolina next week.
Getting to 22 wins could be the key. That’s not going to be easy. That would be four more wins. Miami is currently 18-8. The Hurricanes have road wins remaining at Notre Dame and UNC and home games against Boston College and Virginia Tech.