Yesterday's Qualifiers
No tournament championships yesterday.
Already in
- Atlantic Sun: Central Florida
- Big South: Winthrop
- Ivy League: Penn
- Ohio Valley: Eastern Kentucky
- SoCon: Chattanooga
Waiting to hear from the committee
- Northern Iowa(36)
- Arkansas-Little Rock(60)
- Davidson(62)
The Rest of the Conference tournaments
America EastVermont(23)'s Taylor Coppenrath is unreal. He drops 34 on Binghamton in a 76-65 rout just one day after scoring 33 on Maryland-Baltimore County. Unfortunately, Coppenrath has plenty of time to cool off. The Catamounts take on Northeastern University(43), the school that launched the careers of both Jim Calhoun and Rick Pitino, Saturday in the America East finals.
ACC
The ACC kicks off it's tournament on Thursday, but the seeds are now in place. North Carolina(4) clinched the top seed in the upcoming tournament with a close win against arch-rival Duke.
Bubble team Georgia Tech(37) and alleged bubble team Virginia Tech (120) have byes. Miami(58) and Maryland(49) play first-round games Thursday.
The complete bracket can be found here.
(Note to VA Tech: Fat chance, Turkeys. there's no way you can sneak an RPI that high by the committee even if you are 4th in the ACC)
Atlantic 10
T minus 2 days until the tournament kicks off. More tomorrow.
Big East
Tournament starts Wednesday. Boston College, of course, is the #1 seed. We'll see if 8 Big East teams are playing well enough to be in the field.
Unfortunately, one of the downsides of the conference tournaments, from a major conference perspective, is that it helps eliminate the middle-of-the-pack teams from NCAA tournament contention.
Big Sky
Portland State(160) takes on Weber State, who's most famous victory was against Georgetown in the NCAA tournament some years back, tomorrow. The Vikings were projected as a #16 seed in the latest Lunardi bracket.
Big 10
Despite a great performance from a spirited Ohio State team with nothing to play for except knocking off the last unbeaten, Illinois is still the #1 seed in the tournament, which kicks off thursday.
Big XII
Cheap Seats' Big XII Tournament Preview, Part 1
Colonial
Old Dominion(33) extracts a measure of revenge on Hofstra and advances to the tournament final. The Monarchs take on Virginia Commonwealth in the championship today. (6:00 P.M. ESPN)
Horizon
Top seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee takes on Detroit (as in "The University of", not the NBA champion Pistons) tomorrow.
Metro Atlantic
Niagra survives a scare against Iona and advances to today's championship against Rider. (8:00 P.M. ESPN2)
Mid-American
Tournament starts today at campus sites. Bubble teams Buffalo, Akron, Kent State, and Ohio are all in action, but not on TV.
Mid-Continent
Maybe God likes Oral Roberts this week. The Tulsa televangelist's eponymous school, the #1 seed in the Mid-Con, watched the #2, #3, and #4 seeds lose in the first round and now have to get by #5 seed IUPUI today and the winner of #6 Oakland(MI) and #7 Chicago State tomorrow to get to the dance.
(I hope the religious among us realize that I'm making a joke here. I personally don't believe God favors anyone in an athletic contest, even if He does give the participants the requisite talent)
MEAC
As I'm typing this, the MEAC Tournament is getting underway in Richmond, Virginia. The winner is projected to play the Play-In Game.
Missouri Valley
Wow! What happened here?
Upset Alert #1: Southwest Missouri State (50) scalps another tournament hopeful, ousting Southern Illinois(16).
Upset Alert #2: Creighton(48) knocks off #2 seed and bubble team Wichita State(46).
As soon as they can clear out the wreckage of Wichita State's tournament dreams, the Bluejays and Bears will square off in the Missouri Valley final tonight. (8:05 P.M. ESPN)
And don't try and tell me that you had a Creighton-SMS tournament final to begin with. I'm not buying it.
Northeast
As soon as I try to pump up Monmouth's(182) coolness by mentioning the school's brief cameo in the movie Clerks, they go out and lose to Wagner. *sigh*
#2 seed Farleigh Dickinson(165) survives a challenge from LIU-Brooklyn and will face Wagner in the championship game.
Patriot
Lehigh takes #1 seed Holy Cross(45) to overtime, but fails to pull off the upset. Holy Cross now hosts Bucknell Friday for the Patriot League title and automatic bid.
SEC
Florida upset Kentucky yesterday, but Kentucky's top seed in the upcoming tournament was assured.
Tournament kicks off Thursday.
Southland
Tournament starts tomorrow. Top seed and top RPI: Northwestern State, who take on Texas-Arlington. #2 seed Southeast Louisiana, who tied Northwestern State for the regular season title, faces Texas State.
Sun Belt
No major upsets yesterday. Top seed Denver(98) plays Western Kentucky(56) today. WKU won the last meeting 82-79, so Denver U. will be looking to extract some revenge. Louisiana-Lafayette(44), the top remaining RPI, takes on Florida International in the other semifinal.
Speaking of Denver U, their defending NCAA Champion hockey team clinched the top seed in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament. As far as I can research, DU has never won basketball and hockey conference championships in the same season.
West Coast
The two best teams in the WCC, Gonzaga(10) and St. Mary's of California(28) square off tonight. (11:00 P.M. ESPN)
By the way, is there another St. Mary's that plays Division I sports? I know there's 3 Loyolas, 2 St. Francises, and 2 Miamis in Division I, which is why you have to put the state in parentheses when you list the school. (although for Miami (FL), you can leave it off the "(FL)" and everyone will know which one you are talking about).
WAC
The Tournament begins today, but neither Nevada(26) or UTEP(52) are in action until the Second Round on Thursday.
Tomorrow: Big XII Tournament Preview (AM), Conference Tournament Watch (PM)
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