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Saturday, December 28, 2024
Wichita State has earned much of the recognition in the Missouri Valley Conference this year, and deservedly so, but let it not be forgotten that Northern Iowa is the defending champion of Arch Madness. And there are plenty of veterans still around from that team who know how to get the job done again.
At the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, it’s the tradition unlike any other: the winner of the first round game between the eighth and ninth seeds annually goes on to give the top seed a hard time in the quarterfinals.
With the way this season has played out from the first night, it’s no surprise whatsoever that it has taken just three days of conference tournaments to see complete destruction in some brackets.
Arkansas-Little Rock, San Diego State, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Valparaiso, Wichita State. All five share a lot in common as teams who are highly questionable to receive bids to this year’s NCAA tourney if they don’t win their conference tournaments. Those five also share something else in common, though: all will finish the season as sole, undisputed champions of conferences that play a double round-robin schedule.
One of the most anticipated possible conference tournament finals of all will not be taking place this year, as the first two days of March are two-for-two in producing the upsets we’ve come to expect this time of year. The latest team to come from seemingly nowhere to make noise is Hartford, a seemingly benign seventh seed in the America East tournament.
Tuesday night was a moment New Jersey Institute of Technology awaited for 10 years. Unfortunately for the Highlanders, it didn’t last nearly as long as they hoped.
Where has the 2015-16 season gone? The presence of a leap year day yesterday did nothing to convince us that the past four months have absolutely flown by. If anything, it only enhanced that feeling, as conference postseason honors started trickling in at the same time that we started checking out the brackets for the first conference tournaments that kick in starting…today?
Few programs have built more of an identity with defense, but make no mistake, though-UW-Green Bay now and for the foreseeable future is going to be known for offense.
We’re on the doorstep of March now, so there isn’t much that has been left uncovered in a season, but the question must be asked: is there a better secret in college basketball this year than Fresno State?
In a college basketball year that has been defined by unpredictability, we dare say that the host of downright thrilling conference races is a story developing late that is also becoming a signature mark of this season.
