[editor's note: Brian has magnificent timing. As DI's last unbeaten goes down, he's Johnny-on-the-spot with news that TWO winless teams still remain.]
The fun part of Reverse Survivor is usually that we get to follow along with a team as it attempts to win a game. After awhile, it becomes more than team against team; in addition to the on-court opponent, the winless squad finds itself taking on that "zero" in the left column.
This year is different. For maybe the first time in the long and storied history of "Reverse Survivor: College Basketball" (this is its third season), two teams have passed the twenty game mark without a win.
Alcorn State and Bryant University both stand at 0-20 as of this moment. The Braves have eleven games remaining on the schedule, six of them at home. Ken Pomeroy gives them a greater than 27% chance in just one of those, when they welcome Southern to town on February 27. If all else goes according to projections, however, Alcorn State will be 0-28 at the time, the players bearing the weight of the winless on their shoulders. They have an 11.76% chance of finishing the season without a win.
The Bulldogs are in better shape: ten games left, with a 40% chance at winning three of them. The best Pomeroy rank of the remaining schools on the schedule is Robert Morris's 219; the worst is St. Francis (PA) at 333. In the interest of continuity, it must be noted that there is a 5.65% chance that they will not win a game this season.
The next game for Alcorn State will be tomorrow, Wednesday, January 27, at home against Jackson State, the second-best school in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Bryant is in action again on Thursday against Fairleigh Dickinson, one of the best remaining opportunities to end this. If nobody wins, both teams play Saturday.