After the Mountain West started the madness with close calls and a big upset on Thursday night, Friday had more lower seeds winning. The Missouri Valley Conference took the cake there, as Adam Glatcak has been covering, with lower seeds winning three of the four games, but they had some company.
And while lower seeds winning didn’t rule the day, it certainly led the way as three more championship game matchups are set. Two will be on tap Saturday.
The Missouri Valley started the day with a stunner as No. 8 Drake became the first team to knock off a No. 1 seed in the quarterfinals, and it wasn’t close as they blew out No. 1 Northern Iowa 77-56. Adam Glatczak has more on this, and right behind this game was the only chalk game of the day in St. Louis as No. 4 Bradley sent No. 5 Southern Illinois home with a 64-59 win. The Salukis were once right there in the mix for the top spot, but after a seven-game winning streak they end the season by losing four straight and six of their final seven games.
It continued at night, with No. 7 Valparaiso getting the game-winner in the final seconds for a 74-73 overtime win over No. 2 Loyola-Chicago, then No. 6 Missouri State pummeled No. 3 Indiana State 78-51, pulling away in the second half. The Bears remind us that they are very capable, having been picked as the favorites in the conference preseason poll, but a tough non-conference schedule that began with the Charleston Classic and continued against the likes of LSU, Murray State and VCU might have dealt them a bit of a confidence hit when many of those games were losses. But they are a battle-tested bunch in addition to having the talent and experience to win.
The Big South saw their top seed go down on Friday night as No. 5 Hampton controlled the game all along and fought off an attempt at a late rally by No. 1 Radford to advance with an 86-78 win in a game that featured a few stars. Jermaine Morrow had 36 points and 10 assists and Benjamin Stanley added 26 points and seven rebounds for the Pirates, who shot over 55 percent from the floor including 12-24 from long range, while Big South Player of the Year Carlik Jones had 33 points in the losing effort.
Hampton will take on No. 2 Winthrop, who knocked off No. 3 Gardner-Webb 78-66 earlier in the day. Winthrop now gets a home game as the higher remaining seed. Radford is the first team that will definitely be in the NIT, although Northern Iowa could end up there but the thinking is the Panthers have a strong enough resume to still go dancing.
The Mountain West had a little less heartburn for their two winning teams on Friday, although it wasn’t lacking. No. 1 San Diego State was tied with No. 5 Boise State at halftime, and the Broncos are very capable. But Malachi Flynn (22 points) and the Aztecs broke away in the second half to take home an 81-68 semifinal win, and they will take on No. 2 Utah State, who ended No. 11 Wyoming’s great run with an 89-82 win to close out the night. Sam Merrill had 27 points and seven assists and got good help from big man Neemias Queta with 21 points, and the Aggies rode a solid first half to the win.
And as can be expected, the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament had two good ones in the semifinal round. No. 1 Belmont took care of No. 4 Eastern Kentucky 60-50, ending a nice second season at the helm for A.W. Hamilton in Richmond, then one of the most highly-anticipated games of the night followed. There, No. 2 Murray State slowly pulled away from No. 3 Austin Peay 73-61 to move on, getting 24 points from Tevin Brown. Terry Taylor had a great game in the losing effort for Austin Peay with 27 points and 14 rebounds, and this sets the stage for another in what’s fast becoming one of the best rivalries in college basketball on Saturday night for an NCAA Tournament bid.
The Southern Conference had a mild upset as No. 9 VMI took care of No. 8 Samford 96-78, but it will pale in comparison to a lot of what happened in conference tournament action (as will No. 6 Wofford handling No. 10 The Citadel 93-76 in the other first round game). But it all sets the stage for what is sure to be a wild week-plus to come leading up to Selection Sunday.
Side Dishes
The only other conference tournament with action was the West Coast Conference, which held second round action in Las Vegas. There, No. 5 San Francisco blasted No. 8 Loyola Marymound 82-53 and No. 6 Pepperdine beat No. 7 Santa Clara 84-73 behind 21 points and 16 rebounds from Kameron Edwards.
Yale has clinched the Ivy League regular season title by virtue of their 72-61 win at Dartmouth and Brown coming up with a big 64-55 win at Harvard on Friday night. Yale is two games up, and Harvard still has plenty to play for as Princeton blew out Columbia 81-58 at Jadwin Gym to even things up at 9-4 for second place. Brown needed that win since Penn handled Cornell 78-64 in the other game on the evening to stay even with them at 7-6, and as Penn has most of the tiebreakers the Bears will need to win on Saturday night to have any shot at snagging the fourth spot.
Other results of note: Akron won the MAC regular season title outright by edging Kent State 79-76, and they got a little extra margin as Buffalo edged Bowling Green 88-84; NC State blew out Wake Forest 84-64 in Raleigh; Richmond went on the road and knocked off Duquesne 73-62; St. Peter’s beat Iona in a dandy 69-66, while Siena won the MAAC regular season outright by taking care of Monmouth 86-72; and Davidson beat VCU 75-65 to drop the Rams to a previously unfathomable 8-10 in the Atlantic 10.
Kansas sent in its reply to the NCAA’s notice of allegations against the program that was served in September, and let’s just say they are not seeing eye to eye with the governing body. The school is challenging every allegation related to the basketball program, saying that there is no support for the allegations. The biggest is that they dispute that Adidas and any of its employees are boosters, and they note that during the big trial, employees did their best to conceal their activities from the school. As is usually the case, at this point there is still a long way to go and nothing with this case will be resolved before the season is over.
We now know a little more about why Nebraska suspended Cam Mack for Thursday night’s loss at Michigan. The sophomore guard was cited earlier in the week by Lincoln police for negligent driving and leaving the scene of an accident, as he and the other driver in the accident waited for police, but Mack left before they arrived.
Chicago State will play in the WAC Tournament next week for both men’s and women’s basketball, which will be held March 11-14 in Las Vegas. The school canceled its final regular season games amid fears of the coronavirus, and had been debating whether or not to play in Las Vegas before deciding to go on Friday.
Tonight’s Menu
The first two NCAA Tournament bids go out on the last full Saturday of the season, and that along with regular season finales and earlier conference tournament action all adds up to a lot of basketball to take in.
- The Mountain West Conference Tournament has their championship game for the first NCAA Tournament bid as No. 2 Utah State battles No. 1 San Diego State (5:30 p.m.)
- A little after that will be the Ohio Valley Conference championship game, and it should be another great one between No. 1 Belmont and No. 2 Murray State (8 p.m.)
- The America East Tournament gets going with quarterfinal action at campus sites as No. 5 New Hampshire visits No. 4 UMBC (1 p.m.), No. 6 UMass-Lowell visits No. 3 Hartford (5 p.m.), No. 8 Maine goes to No. 1 Vermont and No. 7 Albany heads to No. 2 Stony Brook (7 p.m.)
- The CAA Tournament gets going with first round action as No. 8 Drexel battles No. 9 UNCW (4 p.m.) and No. 7 Elon takes on No. 10 James Madison (6:30 p.m.)
- In the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in St. Louis, the semifinals have No. 8 Drake taking on No.4 Bradley (3:35 p.m.) and No. 7 Valparaiso takes on No. 6 Missouri State (6:05 p.m.)
- Semifinal action is on tap in the Northeast Conference Tournament as No. 3 Sacred Heart heads to No. 2 Saint Francis U (noon) and No. 4 LIU traveling to No. 1 Robert Morris (2 p.m.)
- In the Southern Conference Tournament in Asheville, quarterfinal action starts with No. 1 East Tennessee State taking on No. 9 VMI (noon), then No. 4 Mercer battles No. 5 Western Carolina (2:30 p.m.), No. 2 Furman takes on No. 7 Wofford (6 p.m.) and No. 3 UNC Greensboro takes on No. 6 Chattanooga (8:30 p.m.)
- The Summit League Tournament has its first two quarterfinal games in Sioux Falls as No. 1 North Dakota State takes on No. 8 Denver (7 p.m.) and No. 2 South Dakota State takes on No. 7 Purdue Fort Wayne (9:30 p.m..)
- First round action in the Sun Belt Tournament is on tap, with No. 9 Arkansas State visiting No. 8 Louisiana (11 a.m.) and No. 10 Coastal Carolina visiting No. 7 UT Arlington (2 p.m.)
- The West Coast Conference Tournament continues with quarterfinal action as No. 5 San Francisco battles No. 4 Pacific (10 p.m.) and No. 6 Pepperdine takes on No. 3 Saint Mary’s (12:30 a.m.)
- ACC games of note include Virginia Tech visiting Notre Dame (2 p.m.), a great deal on the line as red-hot Virginia hosts Louisville, Miami hosting Syracuse (4 p.m.), Florida State hosting Boston College (4:30 p.m.) and the biggest rivalry of them all, North Carolina visiting Duke (6 p.m.)
- Dayton tries to finish an undefeated Atlantic 10 season as they host George Washington, while Rhode Island goes on the road and has to take care of business at UMass (7 p.m.) and Saint Louis hosts St. Bonaventure in a good matchup (8 p.m.)
- The Big 12 closes the regular season out with Baylor visiting West Virginia (1 p.m.), Texas Tech hosting Kansas (2 p.m.), Texas trying to stay hot as they host Oklahoma State, Kansas State hosting Iowa State (4 p.m.) and TCU hosting Oklahoma (6 p.m.)
- The final day of Big East action gets going first with Georgetown hosting Villanova and Marquette visiting St. John’s (noon), then Creighton hosts Seton Hall with the top spot on the line (2:30 p.m.), Providence hosts DePaul (6:30 p.m.) and Xavier hosts Butler (8:30 p.m.)
- The top of the Big Sky will be determined by the results of a few games: Weber State at current leader Eastern Washington (5:05 p.m.), Northern Colorado goes to Montana State (6 p.m.) and Southern Utah at Montana (9 p.m.)
- In the Big Ten, Indiana hosts Wisconsin (noon), Purdue hosts Rutgers (2 p.m.) and Northwestern hosts Penn State (4 p.m.)
- The Ivy League has its final night of regular season action with seeding to be determined, including the all-important fourth spot between Brown and Penn. Columbia visits Penn, Cornell visits Princeton (6 p.m.), Brown goes to Dartmouth and Yale visits Harvard (7 p.m.)
- The Pac-12 will close out their slate, with highlights being Utah hosting Colorado (2:30 p.m.), USC hosting UCLA (3:15 p.m.), Arizona State hosting Washington State (6:30 p.m.), Arizona hosting Washington (10 p.m.) and Oregon hosting Stanford (11 p.m.)
- The SEC has a full slate to close out its regular season, and it’s highlighted by Auburn visiting Tennessee (noon), Florida hosting Kentucky (1 p.m.), LSU hosting Georgia (2 p.m.), Texas A&M hosting Arkansas (4:30 p.m.) and a big rivalry game as Mississippi State hosts Ole Miss (6:30 p.m.)
- Prairie View A&M has already clinched the regular season title in the SWAC, but they close it out with a good one as they visit Southern (6:30 p.m.)
