Is next season NCAA Tournament or bust?

If Craft and our other key contributors do end up returning, are we satisfied with anything but a trip to the Big Dance in 2026? We should have made some sort of postseason tournament this year, and I think at the beginning of this season, that would have thrilled just about every one of us.

We got so close last week; it was a crushing end to a phenomenal season. We got close, and now let’s punch it in. The pieces are in place, Steele will be in his 4th season, and we should be one of the favorites, if not THE favorite next year. Barring major transfers and/or injuries, I’ll be disappointed if we’re not dancing in '26.

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=>No.

It it Sweet 16 or bust.

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“Jermaine woulda gotten us to the Elite 8.” - theman

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Next year’s national championship game is on my birthday.

No pressure, gentlemen.

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Bust because travis loses games he shouldn’t like he did this year to Eastern Michigan and western Michigan

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Good point. Those games had a major impact on the season.

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Yeah because late Saturday night I was definitely thinking “Damn. That was a brutal loss. But what really irked me were those meaningless regular season losses to EMU and WMU.”

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Nearly all Akron front line players return …

Maybe, lets see what the portal looks like once they are done.

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Yeah, I’d be surprised if nearly all of their vets return.

It’s not the result. It’s the trajectory.

=>Yeah nobody is announcing their jumping in the middle of the NCAA tournament.

Seriously I would expect us to be in March Madness next year. We can beat Akron, our team is young and if we keep everyone they will be a lot better next year. Akron might get better, but I doubt they have as much potential as we do. Our weakness is rebounding, this simply a little more muscle and toughness and Miami could be a really good MAC team that can compete in Quad 4 and up. We could use a Danny Horace type portal guy, but this team is good.

A Will Felder or John Estick?

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