4 bids were punched yesterday: Michigan (Big Ten), Loyola-Chicago (MVC), Radford (Big South) and Lipscomb (A-Sun). Glad to see Loyola get rewarded with an excellent season. They are now 28-5. Probably a 14ish seed. Lipscomb (23 wins) and Radford (22 wins) both also had good runner-up regular season campaigns. Each could be a fairly salty 15/16 seed.
2 more golden tickets handed out today:
MAAC: Usually one of my favorite conference tourneys for some reason (all private northeastern schools with high school gyms, I guess it reminds me of high school district tournament time). This year, the top 3 seeds are all out. But perennial league power and last year’s auto bid winner Iona (19-13,11-7) would make for another dangerous 15/16 seed. They face 5 seed Fairfield (awesome mascot- The Stags) at 6pm on ESPN. They are 17-15 overall.
SoCon: 1 seed UNCG (26-7, 15-3) vs 2 seed ETSU (25-8, 14-4). The two best teams in a pretty decent SoCon this year make the final. Should set up as a pretty good game. This is the type of game that championship week is made for. Two 25+ game winners that no one’s heard of.
Monday’s semifinals:
WCC: Same actors, different year. San Fran/Gonzaga and BYU/St Mary’s.
CAA: Probably the league most bent over by realignment, along with the MVC. Top seeds CoC (24-7) and Northeastern (22-9) still alive.
Horizon: 1 seed Northern Kentucky (the Norse!) fell in the first round. 2 seed Wright State (23-9) still alive.
Summit: North Dakota St (15-16) vs South Dakota State (26-6) and Denver or Oral Roberts vs South Dakota (25-7).
Other conference tourney action getting underway:
MAC: Headlined by a high scoring Buffalo (23-8, 15-3) team. They have the most convoluted bracket of champ week, because the MAC is the only conference to use divisions in college b-ball.
MEAC: This conference and the SWAC are the two worst conferences this year (and most years). Almost guaranteed to play in Dayton is the winner of this conference tournament. The top seed is 18-13 Bethune Cookman. Only one other team, Hampton (17-14) is over .500. Yikes.
2 more golden tickets handed out today:
MAAC: Usually one of my favorite conference tourneys for some reason (all private northeastern schools with high school gyms, I guess it reminds me of high school district tournament time). This year, the top 3 seeds are all out. But perennial league power and last year’s auto bid winner Iona (19-13,11-7) would make for another dangerous 15/16 seed. They face 5 seed Fairfield (awesome mascot- The Stags) at 6pm on ESPN. They are 17-15 overall.
SoCon: 1 seed UNCG (26-7, 15-3) vs 2 seed ETSU (25-8, 14-4). The two best teams in a pretty decent SoCon this year make the final. Should set up as a pretty good game. This is the type of game that championship week is made for. Two 25+ game winners that no one’s heard of.
Monday’s semifinals:
WCC: Same actors, different year. San Fran/Gonzaga and BYU/St Mary’s.
CAA: Probably the league most bent over by realignment, along with the MVC. Top seeds CoC (24-7) and Northeastern (22-9) still alive.
Horizon: 1 seed Northern Kentucky (the Norse!) fell in the first round. 2 seed Wright State (23-9) still alive.
Summit: North Dakota St (15-16) vs South Dakota State (26-6) and Denver or Oral Roberts vs South Dakota (25-7).
Other conference tourney action getting underway:
MAC: Headlined by a high scoring Buffalo (23-8, 15-3) team. They have the most convoluted bracket of champ week, because the MAC is the only conference to use divisions in college b-ball.
MEAC: This conference and the SWAC are the two worst conferences this year (and most years). Almost guaranteed to play in Dayton is the winner of this conference tournament. The top seed is 18-13 Bethune Cookman. Only one other team, Hampton (17-14) is over .500. Yikes.
