After all, the Missouri Valley Conference doesn’t tend to earn many at-large bids.

In fact, UNLV has now gone 13 straight years without even making the NCAA tournament, last season barely finishing with a winning record.

Two years ago, the Syracuse Orange went 14-19, its worst mark since the late ’60s. They made modest progress last season (15-17), but their streak of missing the NCAA tournament reached five years, the school’s longest drought in over half a century.

Since bottoming out in 2021-22 with a 6-26 mark, the Georgia Bulldogs have steadily built the program back into a tournament team, making it to the big dance in each of the last two seasons.

Speaking of the Providence Friars, since winning 27 games and going to the regional semifinal in 2021-22, it’s been a tough slog. They got back to the tourney the following season, but have been shut out since, bottoming out with 20 losses in 2024-25.