The day was relatively quiet, but the night was a whole other story. March Madness is truly upon us, and we saw it several times on the night. And as the conference tournaments are still young, it’s a sign of what we can look forward to.
We now have three championship matchups set, with two more of them coming on Friday night, and there was a double dose of surprises in another tournament.
The madness almost got started early, with the first game of the day in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. No. 8 Northern Iowa, usually among the top seeds in the conference, took on regular season champion Loyola-Chicago, and they led for a significant portion of the first half and a little of the second. They were still within striking distance at the last media timeout, but the Ramblers would get the lead up to eight on three occasions after that, including with just under a minute to go, en route to hanging on for a 54-50 win. The next game was an upset, but a mild one as No. 5 Bradley got a late tip-in to knock off No. 4 Drake 63-61. Favorites won the night games, as No. 2 Southern Illinois beat No. 7 Missouri State 67-63 and No. 3 Illinois State beat No. 6 Indiana State 77-70. For the first time in conference history, four schools from the state of Illinois are in the semifinals.
As the evening got going, we first move east to Albany, site of the MAAC Tournament. No. 9 St. Peter’s had a slim 27-25 halftime lead, but pulled away in the second half to knock off No. 1 Rider 66-55 to advance to the semifinals. But that wasn’t all, as the next game saw No. Quinnipiac edge No. 2 Canisius 72-69, putting the top two seeds out of the tournament in the quarterfinals.
We head south for another big development, this time in the semifinals of the Big South Conference Tournament in Asheville. There, regular season champion UNC Asheville had a 12-point halftime lead, but No. 5 Liberty rallied for a 69-64 win to advance to the championship game on Sunday, where they will take on No. 2 Radford, who beat No. 3 Winthrop 61-52 earlier.
And as is always the case, you get a sense that this is just the beginning. There is still over a week to go until Selection Sunday, which means there is plenty of time for more upsets of the sort that we saw on Friday.
Side Dishes
Central Michigan understandably postponed Friday night’s scheduled contest with Western Michigan after a shooting on campus earlier in the day. Two people were fatally shot in a residence hall on campus, and the suspect remained at large with the campus still on lockdown. The game will be played at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Northwood University, which is about 30 miles from Central Michigan’s campus, and only families of the players will be allowed to attend. We send our thoughts and prayers to the families and friends of the victims, as well as the students dealing with this harrowing event.
One Big Ten bubble team has to sweat it out, while another still has life. The teams that fit each description, however, are not the ones you might have expected when Friday began. Nebraska had an opportunity they needed, but Michigan took care of them 77-58 in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. The Cornhuskers will now have to sweat it out despite a 13-5 mark in Big Ten play, the result of a weakened conference and the lack of wins over NCAA Tournament teams. Meanwhile, Penn State kept their hopes alive by knocking off Ohio State 69-68, the third time they beat the Buckeyes this year. The Nittany Lions become a potentially interesting team, as they have three top 25 wins – all over Ohio State – but also four sub-100 losses, all of them to Big Ten teams. Making the win more impressive is that the team bus had a tough time getting to Madison Square Garden, stalling out and then getting into a minor accident with another vehicle. In other action, Michigan State edged Wisconsin 63-60 and Purdue held off Rutgers 82-75.
The Ivy League regular season title and the fourth spot in next weekend’s league tournament will come down to Saturday night’s games. At the top, Harvard and Penn are both tied with 11-2 marks as the Crimson beat Cornell 98-88 in double overtime, while Yale nipped Penn 80-79 in New Haven after a crazy sequence in the final. Yale is the third team in the tournament, while Princeton, Columbia and Cornell all enter the final night tied with a 5-8 mark in league play.
In other regular season action of note, Oklahoma took care of Iowa State 81-60, while Davidson edged Rhode Island 63-61, sending the regular season champions into the conference tournament with two straight losses.
Tonight’s Menu
A marathon day of games is ahead of us, including a couple of rivalry games, and the first NCAA Tournament bid will be handed out as well.
- The first conference championship game is in the Ohio Valley Conference, where top two seeds Murray State and Belmont will meet in a rematch of the 2015 championship game (8 p.m.)
- In the America East Tournament, quarterfinal action is on tap with UMass-Lowell at UMBC (1 p.m.) and New Hampshire at Hartford (4 p.m.) in the afternoon, then Stony Brook at Albany and Maine at Vermont (7 p.m.) in the evening.
- The Big Ten Tournament has semifinal action starting with a rivalry game of Michigan taking on Michigan State (2 p.m.) followed by Penn State taking on Purdue (4:30 p.m.)
- Opening round action is on tap in the CAA Tournament in North Charleston, starting with No. 9 James Madison taking on No. 8 Drexel (4 p.m.) and ending with No. 10 Elon taking on No. 7 Delaware (6:30 p.m.)
- The Horizon League has quarterfinal action in Detroit with No. 7 Green Bay taking on No. 2 Wright State (5:30 p.m.), then No. 8 Cleveland State taking on regular season champion Northern Kentucky (8 p.m.)
- The MAAC has its second set of quarterfinals in Albany, with No. 6 Fairfield taking on No. 3 Niagara (7 p.m.) followed by one that should be a dandy, No. 5 Manhattan taking on No. 4 Iona (9:30 p.m.)
- Also with semifinal action is the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, where No. 5 Bradley plays No. 1 Loyola-Chicago (3:30 p.m.), then No. 3 Illinois State takes on No. 2 Southern Illinois (6 p.m.)
- The Northeast Conference has their semifinals, with Fairleigh Dickinson going across the Hudson to take on LIU (noon) and Robert Morris traveling to Wagner (2 p.m.)
- In the Southern Conference Tournament, quarterfinal action is on tap in Asheville. It starts with No. 8 The Citadel taking on regular season champion UNC Greensboro (noon), then No. 5 Wofford takes on No. 4 Mercer (2:30 p.m.) The evening session begins with No. 10 Chattanooga taking on No. 2 East Tennessee State (6 p.m.) and ends with No. 6 Western Carolina taking on No. 3 Furman (8:30 p.m.)
- The Summit League has its first two quarterfinal games in Sioux Falls, with No. 8 Western Illinois taking on regular season champion South Dakota State (7 p.m.) followed by No. 7 Omaha taking on No. 2 South Dakota (9:30 p.m.)
- In the West Coast Conference Tournament in Las Vegas, quarterfinal action starts with No. 6 San Diego taking on No. 3 BYU (4 p.m.), then No. 5 Pacific takes on No. 4 San Francisco (6:30 p.m.) in the afternoon session. The evening session starts with No. 8 Loyola Marymount taking on No. 1 Gonzaga (10 p.m.), and closes with No. 10 Pepperdine taking on No. 2 Saint Mary’s (12:30 a.m.)
- ACC action is highlighted by Miami hosting Virginia Tech (noon), Clemson at Syracuse (2 p.m.), Notre Dame at Virginia (4 p.m.), and the granddaddy of all the rivalries, North Carolina at Duke (8:15 p.m.)
- The Big 12 slate has West Virginia at Texas (noon), Baylor at Kansas State (2 p.m.), Kansas at Oklahoma State and TCU at Texas Tech (both at 4 p.m.)
- Xavier can clinch an outright Big East regular season title with a win at DePaul (noon), while Villanova hosts Georgetown (5 p.m.) and Seton Hall hosts Butler (8 p.m.)
- The Big West regular season title comes down to UC Irvine hosting UC Davis (10:30 p.m.)
- In the Pac-12, Arizona State hosts Stanford (2:30 p.m.), Washington hosts Oregon (4 p.m.), Arizona tries to clinch an outright regular season title as they host Cal (6:30 p.m.), Colorado goes to Utah (7 p.m.) and arch rivals meet as UCLA goes to USC (10:15 p.m.)
- SEC action features Kentucky at Florida (noon), Alabama at Texas A&M (2 p.m.), Georgia at Tennessee and Arkansas at Missouri (6 p.m.)
