Monmouth didn't necessarily have to be near perfect in conference. They had to be near perfect against teams like Canisius and Manhattan. I don't believe that there is any team in the tournament that would have dumped three games at that level. Princeton certainly didn't. Which is why I think they had a better resume (and were a better team) than Monmouth. Yale didn't either. Those are schools that were a lot closer to perfect than Monmouth.

Simply put, if you play enough of these kinds of games against teams in the 200–250 range, you’re going to lose some. It’s nearly inevitable if you’re of bubble-team quality. So, it’s therefore implausible to expect Monmouth to go 19–1 or whatever against its league schedule (plus have everything else they accomplished out of league, to boot).