This past week, the last of the unbeatens in college basketball finally fell, when Murray State lost at home to Tennessee State, 72-68.
This has started to create a very interesting debate among college basketball people. What do we now make of Murray State?
The Racers had made their way up to #7 in the country, purely because of the undefeated record. Despite this, many people were skeptical of Murray State, mainly because of the quality of opponents that they had beaten on the way to their outstanding record.
The Racers currently have an RPI of 54, which is not too shabby, until you look at their strength of schedule. Murray State's SOS is a whopping 262, giving them easily the lowest of the top 10 teams from last week. To add in to their issues, Murray State plays in the Ohio Valley, a conference that has an average RPI of 158 outside of Murray State.
So now here's the two big questions: Where does Murray State fall in the next poll, and will they make the tournament? Honestly I would not be shocked to see the Racers fall to as low as #20 in the most recent coach's poll, and as for the tournament, I'm not sure if this is a definite dilemma yet.
Murray State is still the heavy favorite in the Ohio Valley tournament, and if they win that, they get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, and from there its just a matter of seeding. What will interest me more is if they lose that tournament. The Ohio Valley has never got multiple teams into the tournament, so Murray State would go from shoo in to bubble team in a heartbeat.
Luckily, the Racers still have a major chance to impress this Saturday against St. Mary's in the Bracketbuster game. If Murray State wins that, I think they punch their ticket to March Madness. If they don't, it may be a very stressful month for the Racers.
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