NCAA Tournament March Madness

#101 Hawaii

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Projection: likely out

Hawaii’s profile reads like a team that can dominate the teams it should beat yet still lacks the signature victory to quiet skeptics, with the program’s best moment coming in a gritty road performance at Oregon that showed it can compete away from home and its worst nonconference mark being the loss at Arizona State that left no marquee scalp on the résumé. Most of the wins on the ledger come against lower-tier opponents and those results protect the team’s overall body of work but do little to move the needle in a selection room that prizes neutral-site and true road victories against strong opponents. What matters now are the remaining opportunities away from the friendly confines of home: trips to UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis present the kind of wins that would change the narrative, while home dates against conference rivals mostly function as maintenance to avoid damaging slips. Put simply, the team has shown it can win regularly within its orbit and can hang with a power-conference opponent, but until it collects a notable road or neutral victory over a respected opponent the résumé won’t have the quality signature that committees look for.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/4@Oregon83L60-59
11/9East Texas A&M299W100-74
11/12MS Valley St365W88-56
11/14Manhattan304W86-56
11/15Utah Tech241W68-62
11/20Arizona St82L83-76
11/28North Dakota336W92-55
12/4UC Davis166W75-69
12/6CS Fullerton28792%
12/7CS Fullerton28792%
12/13UTEP23888%
12/14UTEP23888%
1/1@UC Riverside26776%
1/3@UC San Diego9738%
1/10UC Irvine12569%
1/11UC Irvine12569%
1/15@Cal Poly22371%
1/17@UC Santa Barbara14755%
1/22CS Bakersfield28992%
1/23CS Bakersfield28992%
1/25CS Northridge24088%
1/29@UC Irvine12548%
1/31@Long Beach St27077%
2/7UC San Diego9760%
2/8UC San Diego9760%
2/12@CS Bakersfield28979%
2/14@CS Northridge24073%
2/19Cal Poly22387%
2/20Cal Poly22387%
2/21UC Santa Barbara14775%
2/22UC Santa Barbara14775%
2/26@UC Davis16660%
2/28@CS Fullerton28779%
3/5UC Riverside26790%
3/6UC Riverside26790%
3/7Long Beach St27090%
3/8Long Beach St27090%