Weekly NET: NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Chair Makes Path Even Harder For Cincinnati

Some rough quotes for the Bearcats chances of making the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

CINCINNATI — The Bearcats' path to the NCAA tournament got even harder this week based on quotes to The Athletic from NCAA Tournament selection committee chairman Charles McClelland.

Cincinnati is down to its lowest NET rating of the season as of this writing (45th nationally) and McClelland made it clear teams like them aren't a lock to make the tournament with a .500 conference record.

“We spend a significant amount of time discussing this exact topic,” McClelland said to The Athletic about strong conferences with teams that played light non-conference slates. “It’s always good for the game to play good nonconference schedules. If teams are going to play a weak nonconference schedule, it makes it critically important for them to do well in their league games. Even in the loss at Houston, it was a hard-fought game, and I think the nation could see, even if they watched just that one game and not the entirety of the season like we do, that Iowa State is a very good team and certainly deserving of the seed we gave them.

“But if you do play a weak nonconference schedule and then you get into the league and don’t win those games against the best teams and are just kind of floating there at let’s say 9-9 … just because you have a tremendous amount of wins doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a way into the tournament.”

Gulp...

That means Cincinnati has to go 5-0 down the stretch to finish 10-8 in Big 12 play. 

Overall, TeamRankings gives Cincinnati a 22% chance of earning an at-large bid.

As of February 22, UC is on just 21 of 105 verified projections on The Bracket Matrix. UC hasn't won consecutive Big 12 games this season, let alone gone on a five-game winning streak in the league.

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