{"id":656488,"date":"2026-03-15T03:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T03:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/656488\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T03:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T03:07:09","slug":"umbc-takes-shot-at-auburn-bruce-pearl-over-miami-oh-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/656488\/","title":{"rendered":"UMBC takes shot at Auburn, Bruce Pearl over Miami (OH) controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

UMBC<\/a><\/strong> is back in the NCAA Tournament, winning the America East Tournament championship on Saturday over Vermont<\/a><\/strong>. A former darling of the event, UMBC\u2019s social media was a hit back in the day. Well, it\u2019s once again picking up steam following an automatic bid. First up was a shot at Alabama football<\/strong><\/a>. Now, they have gone across the state to go after Bruce Pearl<\/a><\/strong> and the Auburn Tigers<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust realized the best part of having an autobid is that we don\u2019t need a relative going on TV to explain why we deserve to be in over a 30-win @MiamiRedHawks<\/a>,\u201d the official UMBC Athletics account said<\/a> via X.<\/p>\n

Miami (OH)<\/a><\/strong> will wake up on Sunday with some nerves in the building. Most people believe the RedHawks are going to be safe and in the field of 68, going 31-0 in the regular season. But a loss to UMass in the MAC Tournament put just the slightest bit of doubt into the equation. Some have argued against them in favor of power conference bubble teams.<\/p>\n

None more prominent than Pearl advocating for his former program, Auburn. His son has taken over this year and fell into a late-season slide to put serious doubt into getting into the NCAA Tournament. Some hope did come in Nashville this week, making a bit of a run in the SEC Tournament. Two wins were huge for the Tigers, only to lose to Tennessee<\/a><\/strong> in the quarterfinals on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith\u00a0Miami (Ohio)<\/strong>, here\u2019s the deal,\u201d Pearl said on Feb. 28, being the quote that started this whole ordeal<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cAre we going to select the 68 most deserving teams, or are we going to select the 68 best teams? If we\u2019re selecting the 68 best teams,\u00a0Miami (Ohio)<\/strong>\u00a0is gonna have to win their Tournament to qualify as a champion. As an at-large, they are not one of the best teams in the country. That\u2019s going to be a difficult choice for the committee to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pearl should have another opportunity to stump for Auburn, if he chooses to. He will be a part of the bracket reveal show, which is scheduled to begin around 6 p.m. ET. It\u2019s one of the best nights of the year, getting a look at the bracket after a thrilling season of college basketball.<\/p>\n

You have to imagine at least one team is going to be less than thrilled with the selection committee\u2019s decision. UMBC knows they are safe, while Miami (OH) and Auburn are sweating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UMBC is back in the NCAA Tournament, winning the America East Tournament championship on Saturday over Vermont. A…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":656489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-656488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116230989121468890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}