With every men’s college basketball Division I conference in the country shifting into league play for the 2022-23 season, we’ve reached a bit of a dividing line in terms of team résumé-building. Therefore, it’s time to put a marker down on a few key metrics — if only as a comparison to what really matters in about 10 weeks.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you
A year ago, Texas A&M made the most noise about its 2022 NCAA tournament snub. The Aggies had finished the season on a strong note, winning their last four regular-season games and then reaching the SEC tournament final with additional victories over Florida, and eventual tournament participants Auburn and Arkansas.
At the end of the day, however, the NCAA selection committee apparently could not get past their nonconference schedule ranking of 262. Agree or disagree the decision, the committee has been remarkably consistent over the years in separating the final at-large candidates by drilling down on this point.
The following schools appear to have missed the memo in 2022-23. All of these are potential bubble teams come Selection Sunday:
Glad to see Texas A&M learned its lesson.
Smartest guys in the room
At the other end of the spectrum are the non-power conference schools looking to maximize their NCAA tournament seeding and selection prospects. So let’s give our Bracketology gold stars to the following schools:
Winning the right games …
Scheduling, of course, is the easy part of the equation. Winning the games that get you into the tournament is where the rubber hits the road. It’s still early, of course, but here are the top performers to date in combined quad one/quad two victories:
The other end
Next are the teams that have prevailed — excessively, the committee might say — at the other end of Division I:
No place like home
Believe it or not, there are still three teams yet to play a true road game, although all have managed one or more neutral-site contests. Most have also survived this with their NET rankings still intact:
Road warriors
Finally, props to a few teams that have come up extra big in true road games. Let’s remember that, historically, home teams generally win about 70% of the time. Bucking that trend are: