Three teams punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, and all three were unexpected winners in some way, shape or form. All three show the magic of March, what makes this the best time of the year.
We’ll start with the first one to tip, the Big South Conference championship. Radford was hosting and looking for a second straight title, with Gardner-Webb looking for their first-ever trip to the Big Dance and getting here after knocking off top seed Campbell on Friday. Most of the game was the D.J. Laster show, as the senior forward flirted with the championship game scoring record when he reached 32 points with just under seven minutes to play. The Bulldogs led by seven at that point, but Radford wasn’t going away.
That’s when the support cast took over, especially David Efiayani Jose Perez. They were the key players hitting big shots to keep Radford from getting closer than five points after the first minute of the second half en route to a 76-65 win. Laster didn’t score again, but was 14-17 from the field to lead the Bulldogs to 52 percent shooting from the field.
About halfway through that game, the Missouri Valley championship game got going, and it was a quite unlikely matchup with No. 5 Bradley and No. 6 Northern Iowa battling. The Valley was intensely competitive this season, with three games separating first place from seventh including two teams that tied for the regular season title. In light of that, while unlikely, this wasn’t a shocking matchup as even Loyola-Chicago and Drake, who were the other semifinalists, were far from unbeatable.
In this one, Northern Iowa ran out to a 14-2 lead and ran the lead to 18 less than three minutes into the second half, as they had shut down Bradley for most of the early going. Bradley then scored the next 12 points to get back in the game, then as they were down by one later on, they scored the next six points to take the lead for good and hold off the Panthers 57-54 to win their first Missouri Valley Conference Tournament title in 31 years.
Bradley actually started the season 6-1, including wins over OVC contender Jacksonville State, SMU and Penn State. Conference play, though, was a different story, as the Braves lost their first five games, three of them at home, and was staring at a 3-7 mark just past the halfway point. They won four in a row and six of seven, and had a chance to finish above .500 but lost at Loyola-Chicago to end the regular season. Bradley became the fourth team since the MVC went to 10 teams to start conference play 0-4 or worse and not have to play in the first round of the tournament.
In St. Louis, they were masters of the close game, pulling out three straight one-possession games to win the title. But that is something they have done all year long, as they were 4-1 in one-possession games in the regular season. They will enter the NCAA Tournament having won nine of 11 games.
Finally, the Atlantic Sun championship game featured two teams that were the obvious class of the conference all year long and split their season series with the road team winning each time. Lipscomb hosted since they had the tiebreaker, while Liberty is in their first season in the conference and lost the Big South championship game last year on a shot at the buzzer. The crowd was a record for a game at Allen Arena.
Lipscomb was in a promising position in the first half, building a 28-20 lead, but Liberty scored the final nine points of the half to take a one-point lead into the locker room. The second half was played within a seven-point window for all but the final second, when Liberty had already pushed the lead to two possessions and got two more free throws to close out a 74-68 win, making the road team 3-0 in games between these two teams this season.
It’s worth noting that the first time these two teams met, Lipscomb hammered Liberty by 20 in Lynchburg. It was basically never a ballgame, and it made you wonder if Lipscomb was just that much better than Liberty in a year where there was a fairly clear gap between the top two teams and everyone else, as the next two teams in the standings were five games back in the standings. Liberty showed as the season went on, and then the tournament, that the first meeting was an aberration.
And in the month of March, there are days like this – days when unexpected results happen and unexpected teams with their own stories win big games.
Side Dishes
First, the remaining conference tournament roundup:
- In the CAA quarterfinals, No. 1 Hofstra broke a 49-49 tie with a 13-2 run and coasted from there to a 76-67 win over No. 8 James Madison, then No. 5 Delaware rallied from being down 16 and overcame the largest halftime deficit in CAA history (14 points) to pull out an 85-79 win over No. 4 William & Mary. The evening session started with No. 2 Northeastern running out to an early lead on No. 10 UNCW and cruising to an 80-59 win in which they were 12-26 from long range, then it finished with No. 3 College of Charleston taking care of No. 6 Drexel 73-61.
- In Albany, the MAAC semifinals started with No. 1 Iona handling No. 5 Siena 73-57, then No. 6 Monmouth pulled away from No. 2 Canisius 73-59.
- Home teams were winners in the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament, as No. 1 Colgate beat No. 5 Navy 80-70, then No. 2 Bucknell got 23 points and 14 rebounds from Nate Sestina as they pulled away from No. 3 Lehigh 97-75.
- The Southern Conference Tournament had a couple of dandy semifinal games, which makes sense considering it’s been a good year there. No. 1 Wofford got a good test from No. 4 East Tennessee State and held off the Buccaneers 81-72, then No. 2 UNC Greensboro trailed for the bulk of the second half against No. 3 Furman, then went on a 12-0 run to go from down five to taking the lead for good in a 66-62 win.
- The second set of quarterfinals in the Summit League Tournament took place on Sunday, with No. 4 North Dakota State using a big second half to top No. 5 Oral Roberts 86-73 and No. 3 Purdue Fort Wayne ran away from No. 6 South Dakota 96-70.
Houston had already clinched the top seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, and on Sunday they used an 11-0 run to take the lead for good and pulled away from Cincinnati 85-69. The Cougars win the conference outright by two games.
Iowa will go into the Big Ten Tournament needing to stop the bleeding as they closed out the regular season with their fourth straight loss, this one a 93-91 overtime setback at Nebraska. They aren’t alone, though, as Ohio State also lost 73-67 in overtime to Wisconsin for their third straight loss.
A question for Kansas State this week will be the health of big man Dean Wade, who experienced some discomfort in his foot during the Wildcats’ win over Oklahoma on Saturday. Wade has missed time this season due to foot issues, so the Wildcats are likely to proceed with caution as it pertains to the senior playing in the Big 12 Tournament this week. They are clearly better with him in the lineup, but the NCAA Tournament is ahead and that is naturally a bigger priority.
Tonight’s Menu
This evening is highlighted by two more tickets to the NCAA Tournament being punched.
- First up is the Southern Conference championship game between No. 1 Wofford and No. 2 UNC Greensboro (7 p.m.)
- Later, the MAAC has its championship game in Albany between No. 1 Iona and No. 6 Monmouth (9 p.m.)
- The semifinals of the CAA Tournament in North Charleston have No. 1 Hofstra battling No. 5 Delaware (6 p.m.) and a rematch of last year’s championship game as No. 2 Northeastern battles No. 3 College of Charleston (8:30 p.m.)
- The Horizon League Tournament also has semifinal action on tap in Detroit starting with No. 1 Wright State battling No. 4 Green Bay (7 p.m.) and ending with No. 2 Northern Kentucky taking on No. 3 Oakland (9:30 p.m.)
- The MAC Tournament gets underway with first round action at campus sites. No. 12 Western Michigan visits No. 5 Central Michigan in a battle between two teams that just met a couple of nights ago and No. 6 Eastern Michigan hosts No. 11 Ball State (7 p.m.), with later tips being No. 9 Miami (Ohio) visiting Akron (8 p.m.) and No. 7 Northern Illinois hosting No. 10 Ohio (9 p.m.)
- The MEAC Tournament gets underway in Norfolk with No. 6 Savannah State taking on No. 11 Delaware State (6 p.m.)
- In the Summit League Tournament semifinals, No. 4 North Dakota State will take on No. 8 Western Illinois (7 p.m.), then No. 2 Omaha will take on No. 3 Purdue Fort Wayne (9:30 p.m.)
- The semifinals of the West Coast Conference Tournament will close out the night with No. 1 Gonzaga playing No. 8 Pepperdine (9 p.m.) and No. 2 Saint Mary’s taking on No. 7 San Diego (11:30 p.m.)
