Conference USA keeps proving the NCAA selection committee wrong. As the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders knocked out the Minnesota Golden Gophers in this year’s most trendy 12-5 upset, it continued a trend that has seen Conference USA teams outperform their seed over the last first years.
Conference USA gets no respect from the selection committee and proves it wrong every year
We’ve seen this trend emerge the last three years.
Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
This started with UAB in the 2015 NCAA tournament. That year, the Blazers won the conference and were given a No. 14 seed before setting out to face No. 3 Iowa State in the opening round. The Blazers, despite being 14.5 point underdogs according to Bovada, ended up upsetting the Cyclones 60-59.
The last two seasons, Middle Tennessee has been the team from the C-USA that has played the role of spoiler to higher seeds. In last year’s tournament, the Blue Raiders, the C-USA champions, were given a No. 15 seed and were set to face No. 2 Michigan State. The Blue Raiders won the first-round game 91-80.
And then on Thursday, we saw Middle Tennessee again enter the tournament as a No. 12 seed, with a matchup against the No. 5 seed Minnesota Gophers. The Blue Raiders were in control of the game throughout and ended up winning by a final score of 81-72. But of course, as we said after this game, although the lower seed won here, this wasn’t really an upset. The Blue Raiders are an absolutely legit team.
They returned two of their top scorers off that roster — Giddy Potts, who led the country in three-point shooting percentage last season, and Reggie Upshaw Jr.
Middle Tennessee then added Arkansas transfer JaCorey Williams, who averaged 17.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Those three players spearheaded a balanced team — the Blue Raiders ranked 54th in the country on offense and 49th on defense in Ken Pomeroy’s pace- and opponent-adjusted calculations.
By winning 30 games, Middle Tennessee had its best season ever. Despite a relatively easy schedule, the Blue Raiders proved their bona fides about as much as they possibly could during the season.
The one thing that no team has done with the three teams featured in this trend is win its next matchup. Middle Tennessee will take on No. 4 Butler in the next round on Saturday. We’ll see if a hot Blue Raider team came improve upon its success this weekend.
See More:
