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Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Three more automatic bids went out on Sunday, two of them to repeat champions, to set the stage for the week ahead. Plus lower seeds rule in the Colonial, three teams share the regular season title in two conferences, and a coaching change comes out west on a day off from tournament action.
The first two NCAA Tournament bids went out after dramatic finishes in championship games to set the stage. Plus a long day of tournaments ends with a thrilling back-and-forth between two star guards, a surprise champion in the ACC and a three-way tie atop the Big East.
After higher seeds routinely won the first couple of days, the Missouri Valley Conference highlighted a day where several lower seeds won. Plus one more regular season title has been clinched, a blueblood disagrees with some allegations levied against them, and the show will go on for one school next week.
There’s little separation throughout the Big East, and Wednesday reminded us of that. Plus one team stays undefeated, a dubious record in the SEC, and twice the bad news in Madison.
We conclude a league-by-league look at the biggest surprises of the season’s first two months, plus a recap of Saturday’s action including Kentucky outlasting Louisville, Cal State Fullerton stuns UCLA and UC Riverside’s improbable comeback.
There might not have been many games on the schedule for Sunday, but it was quite a day with some big results. Plus a second home loss for one team, a few other games stand out, and a coach wasn’t able to go on Saturday.
Two Big 12 programs got big wins on Wednesday and hope each is a sign of better things to come. Plus more tournament action includes a few other championship games, a Tiger will be out as long as first thought, and wrist injuries sideline a couple of key veterans.
We tip off our season-ending conference Post-Mortem series with the Missouri Valley, where parity was rampant but as a whole it wasn’t a vintage season as inconsistency and injuries plagued many teams.
An NCAA Tournament can still be great without upsets or buzzer beaters. When it is lacking in close games in general, though, is another story, and this year’s first week was historically high in margin of victory, low in close games.
Recapping the first full day of the 2019 NCAA Tournament, and a day light on major storylines had one above the rest: Murray State’s star sophomore guard Ja Morant, who dominated a game despite taking just nine shots.
