Four Mid-Majors Chasing First NCAA Tournament Bid in 2024-25
Discover four mid-major teams with a shot at making their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024-25. Can they make history this March?
Every March America’s eyes fall on a fun underdog in the NCAA Tournament. It’s the part of the sport that makes March Madness what it is. Whether it’s Farleigh Dickenson or UMBC knocking off 1 seeds as 16 seeds or Loyola Chicago making a run to the Final Four, the underdogs are the incredible stories that become forever memories.
This season, there are four teams that have the potential to earn their first bids to the NCAA Tournament in their schools’ history. Let’s explore each of these four teams:
High Point Panthers
It might be a bit of a surprise to some, but the High Point Panthers have never made a NCAA Tournament. They’ve been close a number of times including a heartbreaking loss in the Big South Tournament to the eventually champions in Longwood last season after a 27-9 overall performance in the regular season.
The Panthers lost leading scorer Duke Miles to the transfer portal where he is now headed to Oklahoma, however, they retained the rest of their top scorers, including Kezza Giffa. Giffa averaged 16.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.9 assists last season on 40.7% shooting overall. He’ll be the go-to guy once again for the Panthers this season. Kimani Hamilton also returns and bringing his 14.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.2 steals on 46.9% shooting averages from last season. Abdoulaye Thiam averaged 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, Trae Benham averaged 8 points, 4.6 rebounds, and Juslin Bodo Bodo averaged 7.1 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks.
This is an incredibly deep team that returned all of their top talent except for Duke Miles. On top of the returning talent, Alan Huss had an impressive portal experience, brining in Terry Anderson from Lamar, D’Maurian Williams from Texas Tech, Chase Johnston from Florida Gulf Coast, and Bobby Pettiford Jr. from East Carolina.
Terry Anderson averaged 13.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game for Lamar last season. That was good enough to earn a spot of the Second Team All-Southland last season.
D’Maurian Williams didn’t see much playing time at Texas Tech last season, however, he spent his first two seasons at Gardner-Webb where he averaged 14.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists as a sophomore and was a member of the Big South All-Freshman team in 2021.
Chase Johnston averaged 9.7 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 1 assist per game for Florida Gulf Coast last season. Unfortunately, his season was cut short due to injury after just nine games. In his prior three seasons, Johnston averaged 13.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.4 steals with Stetson and FGCU.
Bobby Pettiford averaged 7.8 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 3.4 assists on 45.3% shooting last season for the East Carolina Pirates. He started out his career at Kansas where as a sophomore he appeared in 32 games off the bench, averaging 2.2 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists.
The Panthers also picked up a highly touted forward out of Canada in Simon Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt was a two-time Canada West All-Start and made the All-Canadian team in 2023. He averaged 16.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.9 assists across two seasons at the University of Manitoba. Hildebrandt had an offer from Oregon previously, but elected to stay in Canada, however, he’s now headed to High Point, North Carolina.
The High Point Panthers are the clear favorites to start the year in the Big South and this could be the year they finally break through and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons
Similar to the High Point Panthers, the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons have been close, but have never made an NCAA Tournament. Last season, the Mastodons started off hot at 11-1, but scuffled in the Horizon League finishing 11-9 in conference.
Top scorers Jalen Jackson, Rasheed Bello, and Quinton Morton Robertson are all returning this season. Jackson averaged 15.7 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.6 steals (49.7% shooting overall and 41% from 3pt). Bello averaged 14.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1.9 steals (45.5% shooting overall and 34.8% from 3pt). Morton-Robertson averaged 13 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.3 steals (42% shooting overall and 40.4% from 3pt).
Key rotation pieces Eric Mulder, Maximus Nelson, and Corey Hadnot are returning as well. Mulder averaged 6.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game. Nelson averaged 6.3 points, 2.3 rebounds. Hadnot averaged 6.2 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.5 assists.
They picked up some nice pieces in the portal: Trey Lewis from Loyola Chicago, Chandler Cuthrell from UT San Antonio, and JUCO All-American De’Vion Lavergne.
Trey Lewis didn’t see much playing time as a freshman in Chicago. He averaged just 1.8 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 0.5 assists across ten games for the Ramblers.
Chandler Cuthrell averaged 4.9 points and 4.4 rebounds for the UT San Antonio Roadrunners last season. Lavergne averaged 13.6 points, 2.9 rebounds, and three assists per game last season in JUCO.
The Mastodons are running it back for the most part, but picked up some solid rotation players and an excellent JUCO athlete in the portal to help deepen their roster further. The Horizon League is often unpredictable, but there’s no doubt the Mastodons will be hungry from some success after building off a solid campaign last season.
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Quinnipiac Bobcats
The Quinnipiac Bobcats are coming off their best record in a season in school history at 24-10 last season. The Bobcats finished as the MAAC Regular Season Champions, but were upset by the eventual conference tournament champions in Saint Peter’s in a heartbreaking 62-60 loss. However, they have a chance for redemption this season as they were just selected as the preseason favorites for the MAAC once again.
They’ll be without start Matt Balanc this season, however, they retained key contributors Amarri Monroe, Paul Otieno, and Savion Lewis. Monroe averaged 12.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.8 steals and one block per game last season. Otieno averaged 11 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals and one block per game. Lewis averaged 8.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game.
They also kept Alexis Reyes and Doug Young. Reyes averaged 7.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.5 assists per game. Young averaged 6.3 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game.
The Bobcats picked up Ryan Mabrey in the portal. Mabrey had a solid first two seasons at Miami Ohio where he averaged 7.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists across a combined 58 games. As a freshman, he was named to the All-MAC freshman team.
Unlike many teams this day and age, the Bobcats picked up four freshman as well to add to the roster. They already have three commitments for next season as well, including one of the top JUCO players in the country in Lateef Patrick, Jr.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats, similar to Purdue Fort Wayne, are for the most part running it back with a similar roster to last season. They won the MAAC last year, so they’ll certainly be looking to finish the job this season and make the NCAA Tournament for the first team. Head Coach Tom Pecora is building something special out east.
Southern Illinois Edwardsville
The Southern Illinois Edwardsville Cougars have seen Brian Barone start to right the ship. The Cougars finished with over a .500 record the last two seasons for the first time in program history and they aren’t stopping there. If you missed it, I wrote a deep dive into their roster and season expectations which you can read below:
The Cougars are retaining Ray’Sean Taylor and his 13.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.2 steals per game who will certainly lead the team once again this season. However, Head Coach Barone had an impressive offseason in the transfer portal.
Barone picked up some underrated players from JUCO and Division II to fill out his roster. Myles Thompson and Ring Malith are both coming in from one of the most successful JUCOs in the country last season in Barton College. Malith averaged 12. points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists per game. Thompson averaged 7.1 points, 5.5 rebounds per game.
Jamir Price is incoming from Minnesota State - Moorhead where he averaged 14.5 points, 4 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game. The Dragons were ranked #2 in the country last season and Price was a key piece to their roster.
If you are interested, I encourage you to read more about their roster construction in the article linked above. This is an intriguing rebuild that if successful, should be modelled by other small schools across the country.
The Ohio Valley Conference is going to be wide-open this season as many teams were dismantled in the transfer portal or saw their coaches take jobs elsewhere. As a result, this allows a school like SIUE to shoot for the stars and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
Good article. I think The Citadel is the only SoCon team never to make the tournament and I don't expect that to change this year.