21 Teams in the Projected Field: 33. Miami-Ohio, 49. Liberty, 50. Yale, 51. Stephen F. Austin, 52. UNC-Wilmington, 53. High Point, 54. Hawaii, 55. Cal Baptist, 56. Austin Peay, 57. North Dakota State, 58. Portland State, 59. Navy, 60. East Tennessee State, 61. Merrimack, 62. Appalachian State, 63. Wright State, 64. Tennessee Martin, 65. Long Island, 66. Bethune Cookman, 67. Howard, 68. NJIT
Biggest Development: Lengthy winning streaks continue
The biggest winning streak is, of course, the one you already know about. Miami-Ohio improved to 25-0 with its 16-point win over Ohio on Friday night. There has been a lot of debate lately over whether the RedHawks deserve to be in the at-large conversation, but most seem to agree that if they get to 31-0 before losing in the MAC tournament, they’ll get in.
But Miami-Ohio isn’t the only team in this tier that hasn’t suffered the agony of defeat recently.
Liberty pushed its winning streak to 16 games with road victories over New Mexico State and UTEP. The Flames are one of just three teams still making a run at an undefeated conference season, along with Miami-Ohio in the MAC and Saint Louis in the A-10. Even if they do go 20-0 in Conference-USA play, though, it is almost certainly still Auto Bid or Bust for the Flames, who took three losses in nonconference play.
Stephen F. Austin picked up its 12th consecutive win on Monday night against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Lumberjacks have now won 19 of 20, the lone loss a tight one at McNeese on Jan. 5. Could be a dangerous No. 12 seed if they keep it up.
Two other double-digit winning streaks belong to Winthrop (11) and Central Arkansas (10). Incredibly, though, neither the Eagles nor the Bears are actually leading their conference, with Winthrop half a game behind High Point in the Big South while Central Arkansas sits one game behind Austin Peay in the Atlantic Sun. In each case, there will be a head-to-head showdown in the next two weeks to potentially determine who gets the No. 1 seed in each conference tournament.