To reach March Madness, the Loyola Marymount Lions basically need to run the table in regular season and get wins over Saint Mary's and Gonzaga, and probably make conference finals to snag an at-large bid. They lost at Kansas, UNC, and Louisville; they won at Pittsburgh and beat Xavier in the Diamond Head Classic Tournament in Hawaii (Xavier was missing 2 suspended players from the Cincinnati fighting incident). They're at 13-9 with an RPI of 108, and have a long way to go if they plan on making the tournament. Their signature victories are against UCLA (which isn't looking so impressive) and St. Louis back in November; their best win probably came against BYU. This is hardly the resume you want going into the tournament.
They'll try and get another test outside of conference, although it's not the most formidable foe they could face. Bracketbusters were announced today, and LMU drew an okay, but hardly impressive opponent.
The Crusaders travel to LA to play Loyola Marymount Feb 17 in ESPN Bracketbuster.Looking forward to seeing the West Coast alums.
— Mark LaBarbera (@ValpoAD) January 30, 2012
The Valparaiso Crusaders hardly have the type of resume that would push LMU over the top. LMU will have to keep on trending upward and likely keep on winning to stay alive.