NCAA Tournament March Madness

#262 E Kentucky

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

The projection that Eastern Kentucky will need the conference’s automatic berth follows directly from a résumé with very few signature victories, several damaging road blowouts and a remaining league slate that offers only modest chances to change the narrative. Their brightest moments are road wins at Eastern Illinois and Jacksonville State and steady home wins over North Alabama, Central Arkansas and Bellarmine that show the offense can carry them at times. The worst moments are the heavy defeats at Vanderbilt and Wichita State and painful road setbacks at Kentucky and Illinois State along with a home loss to WKU that underline a defense that can be exposed away from campus. Upcoming conference dates at Central Arkansas, Lipscomb and North Alabama and home opportunities against FGCU, Stetson, West Georgia and Queens give them room to improve but most of those are chances to accumulate the kind of wins that only slightly nudge a committee’s perception. With thin top-end résumé credit and several damaging losses away from home, needing the automatic bid is the sensible projection.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/10WKU176L87-79
11/12@Vanderbilt12L92-62
11/18@Kent139L93-78
11/22Mercer141L95-83
11/24@N Kentucky170L82-71
11/29Wofford217L83-77
12/3@Illinois St84L89-78
12/10@E Illinois309W68-59
12/13Miami OH88L79-69
12/17@Jacksonville St197W62-59
12/21@Wichita St96L88-57
1/1@Queens NC188L91-89
1/3@West Georgia329L88-76
1/8North Alabama334W88-80
1/10Cent Arkansas184W79-75
1/15@Austin Peay163L74-72
1/17Bellarmine290W89-69
1/22@North Florida340L87-85
1/24@Jacksonville289L81-76
1/28Austin Peay163L90-82
1/31@Cent Arkansas18424%
2/5FGCU22853%
2/7Stetson32074%
2/11@Lipscomb15019%
2/14@North Alabama33457%
2/18West Georgia32976%
2/21@Bellarmine29045%
2/25Queens NC18846%
2/28Lipscomb15037%