Miami basketball bracketology three weeks before bid announcement

With 23 days until NCAA Tournament bids are announced the Miami basketball team is a consensus fifth seed. Miami is 19th in the Associated Press Top 25 and 20th in the USA Today Coaches poll in the current rankings. Miami is 31st in the NCAA Net Ratings but a critical 6-4 versus quadrant on opponents.

The resident bracketologist Joe Lunardi of ESPN has the Miami basketball program as the fifth seed in the East Regional in Albany against 12th-seeded Kent State of the Mid-American Conference in the first round which would be played on March 16. Kent State is 19-5 overall and in a three-way tie in the MAC.

If Miami would defeat Lunardi has a tough second-round matchup for Miami in which they would basically be a road team versus the winner of 13th-seeded Hofstra and fourth-seed Connecticut. The Pride and Huskies are both less than 170 miles from Albany. Miami dealt with hostile crowds during its 2022 NCAA Elite Eight run.

Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has a far more advantageous draw for Miami. Palm has fifth-seeded Miami versus 12th-seeded Southern Mississippi in Orlando which also begins March 16. The Golden Eagles are 15-9 overall and 8-5 in the Sun Belt conference. Southern Miss is 53rd in the Net which is the highest in the Sun Belt.

Palm has the Miami Southern Mississippi winner versus fourth-seeded Marquette or 13th-seed Liberty. Marquette is 19-6 overall and 11-3 in the Big East a half-game behind Xavier. Liberty is 20-6 overall and 11-2, tied for the lead in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The consensus Bracket Matrix has Miami as the lowest fifth seed.

The win 81-59 win over Duke on Monday at home was not only big for the Miami basketball team in the margin of victory it was also another quad-one win for the Hurricanes. At North Carolina on Monday and Virginia Tech on February 21 are the only regular season quad-one games remaining for Miami.

The Hurricanes would get another chance to play a quad-one opponent in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals if they remain in fourth place. The top four teams in the ACC earn a double-bye into the quarterfinals. Miami owns tiebreakers over Clemson and Virginia who are currently tied for first in the ACC with Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh defeated Miami last month. The Panthers and Hurricanes play the final game of the regular season at the Watsco Center on March 4. That could be a huge game to determine the regular season ACC Champion and seeding for the conference tournament. Miami advanced to the ACC Tournament semifinals in 2022.