CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — SMU coach Andy Enfield believes his Mustangs did enough to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament at large, despite being eliminated from Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Wednesday’s second round by No. 24 Louisville.
“We believe we deserve to be a part of it,” Enfield said. “But it’s not our decision, and we just hope (the selection committee) will look at the entire schedule.”
Advertisement
The Mustangs (20-13) entered the day with a NET rating of 37 and were 4-8 in Quadrant 1 games leading a playoff resume. On BracketMatrix.com, SMU was in the field as the No. 11 seed on the site’s average of 87 simulated projections Wednesday night.
SMU was also among the bottom four teams in the field according to projections from analytics site T-Ranketology on Wednesday night.
EMS beat Syracuse 86-69 in the first round of the ACC tournament before losing to Louisville 62-58.
The Mustangs played both games without BJ Edwards because of an ankle injury, but he is expected to return for the NCAA Tournament, Enfield said.
Advertisement
Enfield said SMU’s schedule should be taken into account.
“I think as far as the strength of our schedule, the fact that we’ve scheduled four SEC teams in a row, none at home, and we have these quality wins in Quad 1 and Quad 2, that our resume is probably better than some of the other teams in this area with where our NET is right now,” Enfield said.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Register here And here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll And https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
