NCAA Tournament March Madness

#276 UC Riverside

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

UC Riverside’s resume leaves no room for a soft landing because it contains only a handful of resume-building moments and several headline-grabbing setbacks, so the only clean path to the NCAA field is to win the Big West tournament. The season’s bright spots — road victories at San Diego and Cal Poly and a home win over Cal State Fullerton — show the team can win away from home and punch above its weight, but those scalps are outweighed by lopsided losses at power programs like UCLA and BYU and a heavy home defeat to Hawaii that signal glaring offensive and defensive inconsistencies. Close defeats at home to UC San Diego and Cal State Bakersfield and losses on the road at UC Irvine and UC Davis further dilute the profile, so the remaining slate — including home tests against Long Beach State and Cal Poly and difficult road trips to UC San Diego, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and Hawaii — represent limited but meaningful chances to rebuild credibility; absent a run through the conference tournament those chances are unlikely to erase the damage already done.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/6@North Dakota280W74-70
11/11@New Mexico42L82-68
11/15North Dakota280L76-74
11/18@Cal Baptist133L80-57
11/21@San Diego196W85-71
11/24Grambling279W83-74
11/29@Utah Tech215L77-69
12/4@UC Irvine118L73-60
12/6@Cal Poly269W88-84
12/13@BYU15L100-53
12/20@St Thomas MN127L92-78
12/23@UCLA39L97-65
1/1Hawaii91L88-45
1/8@CS Bakersfield303L67-66
1/10UC San Diego108L69-66
1/15@Long Beach St236L88-73
1/17CS Fullerton186W81-72
1/22UC Irvine118L80-66
1/24@UC Davis167L74-66
1/29Long Beach St23652%
1/31Cal Poly26960%
2/5@CS Fullerton18623%
2/7@CS Northridge21026%
2/12UC Santa Barbara13732%
2/14@UC San Diego10810%
2/19CS Bakersfield30368%
2/21UC Davis16738%
2/26@UC Santa Barbara13715%
2/28CS Northridge21047%
3/5@Hawaii918%
3/6@Hawaii918%