NCAA Tournament March Madness

#154 Valparaiso

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Projection: need to automatically qualify

Valparaiso looks like a team that must win its conference tournament to reach the NCAA field because its résumé blends a few solid mid‑major victories with damaging losses that a committee will notice. The positives include a road victory at Cleveland State and convincing home wins over Western Michigan, Northern Iowa and Illinois State, but those are offset by a lopsided neutral loss at Kentucky, road setbacks at Marquette and Northwestern and close defeats to Belmont both on the road and at home. With the rest of the schedule offering road tests at Indiana State, Bradley and Illinois State and winnable home dates against Evansville, Indiana State and Bradley the safest path to the bracket is an automatic qualification rather than counting on an at‑large nod.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/4E Illinois309W66-63
11/7@Kentucky32L107-59
11/12Nicholls St247W68-63
11/16Bryant349W68-50
11/19@Cleveland St321W90-75
11/26Southern Indiana324L64-56
11/29W Michigan266W84-55
12/2@Marquette110L75-72
12/13UNC Wilmington117L73-70
12/16@Northwestern62L86-70
12/21Murray St90L85-79
12/29@Northern Iowa112L58-48
1/1@S Illinois124L75-70
1/4IL Chicago136W66-59
1/7Illinois St84W77-71
1/10@Murray St90L92-79
1/13@Belmont67L78-74
1/17Northern Iowa112W54-44
1/21S Illinois124W69-63
1/28Belmont67L78-77
1/31@Indiana St20149%
2/3@Bradley14437%
2/6Evansville28383%
2/9@Drake16040%
2/12@Illinois St8420%
2/15Indiana St20171%
2/18Bradley14459%
2/21@IL Chicago13634%
2/25Drake16062%
2/28@Evansville28366%