Mid Major Top 25 Week 18

Bracket Buster's Mid Major Top 25 Week 18 on 03/04/24.

Mar 04, 2024

All rankings below are updated as of 03/04/24.

Tournaments are locked in for many Mid-Major conferences and the remaining conferences are wrapping up this week. We had plenty of movement throughout the Top 25 ranks this week as a result of teams clawing for higher seeds and regular season titles.

Conference Title Winners

Indiana State secured their first Missouri Valley Regular Season Championship Title since 2000 with the Sycamores 89-77 win over Murray State. The trees finish the regular season with a 26-5 record overall and a 15-3 conference record, good enough for the #1 Seed in the 2024 Arch Madness Tournament. After suffering a 2-game skid while being ranked #23 in the AP Poll, they bounced back with a 4-game wining streak to remind us why the Missouri Valley Conference is a two-bid worthy conference. Arch Madness starts on March 7th, so we’ll be watching Indiana State and Drake battle it out closely this week.

South Florida notched their first Regular Season Championship Title with a 76-61 win over Charlotte which extended their winning streak to 15 games. Amir Abdur-Rahim continues to prove why he’s one of, if not the best coaches among Mid-Majors and all of college basketball. You can read more about our recent article discussing Abdur-Rahim here. The Bulls look to extend their winning streak to 17 to close out the season against Tulane and Tulsa this week as they work towards the AAC tournament.

McNeese captured the Southland Regular Season Championship Title this week as well with an 83-62 winning over Nicholls. The Cowboys are in the midst of a 7-game winning streak and are looking to extend that to 9 this week with wins over Houston Christian and New Orleans. Shall the Cowboys finish out strong, they’ll enter the Southland Conference Tournament with a 28-3 record.

Appalachian State captured their first Regular Season Championship Title in 45 years with a 80-57 win over Arkansas State this week. The Sun Belt Tournament is going to be a popular watch as App State, James Madison, and Troy are all going to be vying for what might be just a one-bid league with another bid headed towards the NIT.

Samford locked up the Regular Season Title for the Southern Conference with a 92-80 win over The Citadel. The SoCon tournament gets started this week and it’s going to be a highly watched one as UNC Greensboro, Wofford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and others can all be capable of bid-stealing in what will be a one-bid league.

Vermont claimed yet another America East title with a 74-62 win over UMass Lowell. The dominate run for the Catamounts and John Becker continues as they have now won 8-straight regular season titles. The Catamounts are going to be the favorites to lock up the America East tournament, however, watch out for Bryant and UMass Lowell as potential bid-stealers.

The College of Charleston secured the Regular Season titled in the Colonial Athletic Associated this week with a 96-7 win over Campbell. It’s the Cougars first title since 2003 as they closed out the regular season on a 9-game winning streak. Their hot finish to the season helped propel the Cougars into our Top-25 Rankings this week as High Point was knocked out despite winning the Big South due to their recent losses to SC Upstate and Longwood.

Other Movement

The rollercoaster year for Memphis continued as we’ve seen Memphis rise the ranks to #10 in the AP Polls, #1 in our Mid-Major rankings and fall all the way to nearly 100 in the NET Rankings and being unranked in our rankings for the last several weeks. However, the Tigers are pulling back at the right time. On Sunday, they gave up 61 first half points to UAB at home, however, after a 26-2 run, the Tigers were able to bounce back and pull themselves into 4th place in the AAC with a chance to close the gap even more against FAU this week. Their recent performance has them back in our Top 25 rankings, knocking out SMU who has taken a dive with a 3 game losing streak to FAU, South Florida, and UT San Antonio.

New Mexico fell out of the Top 10 as a result of their two-game skid with a 78-77 loss to Air Force & an 89-79 loss to Boise State. You can stomach the Boise State loss who is now ranked #3 in our rankings, however, the Air Force loss is what can kill a bubble team. The Lobos deserve a spot in the NCAA Tournament, so hopefully the committee can look at the remainder of their impressive resume and skip over a one-game slip up that was determined by a margin of just one point.

San Francisco fell to #20 this week after an 86-68 beat down from #23 Gonzaga and a 69-62 loss to Santa Clara. The Dons are now 1-3 in their last four games with losses to both Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s. The WCC Tournament is going to be a blast as these three teams battle it out, however, despite the rest of the Dons success this season, it’s Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga’s Tournament to lose.