NCAA Tournament March Madness

#273 Pepperdine

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Pepperdine's resume reads like a team whose only reliable path to the NCAA tournament is an automatic bid because its best victories came against modest opponents at home and its most damaging results arrived on the road and at neutral sites against marquee programs. Wins over Rice, Portland and a road victory at Cal State Bakersfield are outweighed by heavy losses at UCLA, at Gonzaga, a one-sided defeat to Saint Mary's and a neutral-site loss at Fresno State that signal the team struggles to win against top competition away from its gym. The pattern of road and neutral-site setbacks makes it hard for a selection committee to reward the profile despite a handful of gritty conference performances, and the remaining schedule offers only a few chances to redeem those bad losses against notable league rivals. Given that balance of quality wins and damaging defeats, the clearest route for Pepperdine to the field is to secure the conference’s automatic spot.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/7@UCLA39L74-63
11/15N Colorado187L88-81
11/18New Orleans202W90-79
11/21SF Austin99L63-60
11/26(N)Fresno St138L76-53
11/29@CS Fullerton186L83-69
12/2Abilene Chr253L71-63
12/6Vermont209L65-56
12/13@CS Bakersfield303W70-62
12/18@Long Beach St236L81-78
12/20Rice237W84-62
12/28Gonzaga10L96-56
12/30St Mary's CA36L72-45
1/2@Santa Clara44L82-63
1/4@Pacific109L74-69
1/8@San Diego196L83-63
1/10San Francisco102L80-60
1/14Portland199W67-63
1/21@Gonzaga10L84-60
1/24@Washington St140L95-79
1/28San Diego196L92-88
2/4@Seattle13114%
2/7Pacific10925%
2/11@St Mary's CA362%
2/14Loy Marymount16137%
2/18@Portland19925%
2/21@Oregon St21427%
2/25Seattle13130%
2/28Washington St14033%