Give Me Miami (OH) Over Indiana in the NCAA Tournament

When does common sense take over in college basketball?

Some want the NCAA Tournament to be expanded, but has anyone been paying attention over the past few weeks, actually thought for a second or two about that?

If so, they'd realize that 68 teams being in this NCAA Tournament is already too many.

Miami (OH) Drops First Game, Out of MAC Tournament

An entire discussion has taken place in recent weeks about whether or not Miami (OH), who went undefeated in the regular season, deserved a possible at-large bid.

The Redhawks tore through the MAC and went unbeaten before falling in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament on Thursday.

Seemingly as soon as that score went final, some college basketball fans and analysts began making the case for others to take that tournament bid.

Indiana Has No Business Being in NCAA Tournament

For one second let's look beyond quad-1 or quad-2 and simply just look at results.

Indiana dropped six of its last seven games to close the year, only beating a lowly Minnesota team on senior night in Assembly Hall.

More often than not, Indiana wasn't even competitive in those games, and didn't win a single game away from Bloomington since January.

Yet, there are those out there that think Indiana deserves to have its name called when the NCAA Tournament field is announced on Sunday evening.

Nick Shepkowski's Quick Thought

At what point do we stop rewarding a team simply for playing in a major conference?

Indiana was given every chance in the world to wrap up an NCAA Tournament bid, but failed to show up game after game. Regardless of the difficulty of the opponent, Indiana gave away it's right to play in the tournament that decides the national champion.

What I know about Indiana after watching this team for the last four months, is that isn't going to make any real noise in the NCAA Tournament.

It doesn't play well away from Assembly Hall against decent teams, and last time I checked, Bloomington, Indiana wasn't on the list of host sites for tournament games this year.

You can tell me all you want about how Indiana, or several other teams from the Big Ten, SEC, or Big 12 played all these great opponents.

At some point having a dozen or more losses has to matter for something.

Chances are great that even if Miami (OH) gets in, that it'll be out of the NCAA Tournament in a game or two.

I know I trust Miami (OH) to show up and compete, even if its overmatched in the NCAA Tournament, though.

After watching the 2025-26 Indiana Hoosiers down the stretch, I certainly can't say the same about them.

Consider this my "Rudy" jersey scene. Just instead of placing my jersey on a table, I'm telling the NCAA Tournament committee to leave Indiana out and put someone else in, specifically Miami (OH), who might actually threaten to show up and be interested in playing.