March is starting to beckon everyone in college basketball, and especially those who didn’t make the cut last spring. One good way for a program to truly hunger for a spot in the NCAA tournament? Sit at home and watch 68 other teams play in it.
Here, then, are six particularly fascinating teams making loud noises so far in 2026, after not getting past the NCAA tournament door in 2025.
NEBRASKA
On March 9, 2025, the Cornhuskers were blown away at home by Iowa 83-68 for the fifth consecutive loss, finishing the regular season 17-14 and 7-13 in the Big Ten. So low they didn’t even qualify for the conference tournament, which had room for 15 teams in the bracket but not them. You’re missing the NCAA tournament by light years if you can’t even get in your own league’s event.
Nebraska hasn’t lost a game since.
There were four victories in the College Basketball Crown last March and the 19-0 start now, and that adds up to a 23-game winning streak, longest in the nation — and 15 games ahead of anyone else in the Big Ten. The Cornhuskers’ No. 7 Associated Press ranking is their highest in history, and you have to go back to 1965-66 to find the only other season they were in the top 10.
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So Nebraska won’t be missing March this time. New faces are helping do this. The top four scorers average a combined 54.2 points a game and none of them were in the lineup last season. And there is a fresh confidence at crunch time in Lincoln. Nebraska is 4-0 in one-possession games, three of those in the Big Ten. Last season the Cornhuskers were 0-6.
The faithful have waited a long time for this, and their fervor makes it tough on visitors. Among Nebraska’s home wins are 21 points over Creighton, 30 over Wisconsin and 35 over Oregon. Washington trailed by 18 and lost by 10 Wednesday night and afterward coach Danny Sprinkle called it “the best crowd that we’ve played in front of this year.”
MIAMI (OHIO)
Clearly, these guys will not go gently for the first defeat, if one ever comes. Consider the recent days.
Saturday, Eian Elmer’s 3-pointer at the buzzer off an offensive rebound saves the day against Buffalo and forces overtime. Peter Suder’s 3-pointer with just over a second left wins it 105-102. That after 27 lead changes.
Monday, the RedHawks are included in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings for the first time in 27 years. They’ve only been ranked eight weeks in the history of the poll back to 1948.
Tuesday, Luke Skaljac’s layup with 6 seconds left at Kent State rescues the night and sets up another overtime. Miami wins 107-101. The RedHawks score 107 points, shoot 54 percent and commit only six turnovers.
Add that up and you get two games where Miami allowed 203 points, trailed for all but 42 seconds in the last five minutes of regulation in both games and still won twice to go 20-0 — the best start in the history of the Mid-American Conference. They shot 67 percent in both overtimes. There’s a team hard to kill. The RedHawks had not scored 100 points against a MAC opponent in 24 years, and now they’ve done it three times in eight days. They had not won a game when giving up 100 points in nearly four decades. They just did it two games in a row.
(They also missed 22 free throws in those two games, which is asking for trouble).
Something special is afoot, but the nagging question — especially given these narrow escapes lately — is what happens if Miami runs up a glittering record but then gets picked off in the conference tournament? Could this all be for nothing on Selection Sunday? The MAC hasn’t been granted a second team in the bracket with an at-large berth this century. The last time was 1999. The team that benefitted? The Miami RedHawks.
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VIRGINIA
Tony Bennett was suddenly gone as coach and the Cavaliers were 15-17 last season, the first losing record in 15 years.
Then the new faces came to town. Ryan Odom as coach. Yep, the same Ryan Odom whose No. 16 seed UMBC sent No. 1 seed Virginia into infamy in the 2018 NCAA tournament. It was like having a lion one day show up on the side of the zebras. Odom hit the portal and the recruiting trails hither and yon. Only four points returned from last season. The starting lineup includes graduate transfer guards from BYU and San Francisco and imported freshmen bigs from Germany and Belgium. A top reserve played his high school basketball less than a mile from campus in Charlottesville.
The Cavaliers are 16-2, and their only loss in two months was in triple overtime at Virginia Tech. There is a tweaked style to the way Virginia conducts business.
Bennett’s program thrived on stern defense and casual scoring. Worked well enough to have four 30-win seasons and get a national championship. The Odom version still plays defense but has stepped on the gas at the other end. The Cavaliers visited No. 20 Louisville the other day — their first ranked opponent of the season — and blasted off 14-0. It ended 79-70. They’ve hit 80 in 13 games, the most in 25 years. In 16 seasons from 2009 to 20025, Virginia reached the 90-minute mark four times. This team made it to 90 four times in the first 12 games. The national champion Cavaliers of 2019 averaged 71.4 points a game. The current number is 84.0.
SAINT LOUIS and GEORGE MASON
At the moment they’re setting a torrid pace for what might be one of the best duels at the top in any conference. Both are 18-1. Both are 6-0 in league play. Neither has lost since Dec. 6.
Saint Louis entered the AP Top 25 this week for the first time in five years. Tough to get much offense going against the Billikens since they lead the nation with a 35.5 field goal percentage defense. Tough to stop them at the other end, for that matter. They’re also first in scoring margin and fifth in rebound margin and shooting. They’re the only Division I team in the nation with six players averaging double figures in scoring. Had Stanford not tossed in a 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds left back in November to beat them 78-77, they’d be standing next to Arizona, Nebraska and Miami as the last of the unbeatens.
George Mason celebrated New Year’s Eve by beating La Salle 80-75 and making no turnovers. Zero. Zilch. Only five Division I teams have done that in the past 22 years. The Patriots seem a steady bunch. Earlier this season, leading scorer Kory Mincy made 48 free throws in a row. This team, whose only loss was 11 points to Virginia Tech in December, have picked a fine anniversary year to have the best start in school history. It was 20 years ago that the Patriots stunned the nation by barging into the Final Four, taking a machete through the blue-blood jungle of Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn. One of the guards leading the charge was Tony Skinn. Now he coaches the team.
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George Mason hasn’t seen the inside of the NCAA tournament in 15 years, though the Patriots were in the A-10 title game last March, losing 68-63 to VCU and having a chance to tie in the last 10 seconds. That can stick with a program for a while. Saint Louis hasn’t been there since 2019. The two teams could make a scintillating A-10 tournament championship pairing, but first they might have to decide the regular season championship between them. They don’t meet until March 7.
VILLANOVA
True, it’s only been three years without an NCAA tournament, but but we’re talking Villanova. You have to go back two decades to find that kind of drought. Jay Wright retired and the program that had worked so hard to be considered among the elite promptly went a very ordinary 56-48 the next three seasons and 31-29 in the Big East. As so-so as it gets.
The Wildcats are better than so-so at the moment. Kevin Willard’s first team is 15-4 and has risen to No. 24 in the KenPom ratings. Villanova won Philadelphia’s Big 5 competition, which used to be a given but not recently. Also, the Wildcats are off to a rather oddly created 6-2 start in the Big East, going 2-2 at home in league play but 4-0 on the road. The perfect road mark will get a severe test Saturday at UConn. But however that goes, they’re clawing toward a March they haven’t seen lately, just like all these teams.
