Conference tournament action continues tonight, but the SCGD will be turning instead to the one conference whose regular season comes to a conclusion. Entering the day today, four teams remain undefeated in their conferences. Gonzaga’s regular season is over. Memphis has one regular season game left on Saturday. Louisiana Tech is 2 games away from a perfect conference season (though they are a pair of tough road tests tonight at New Mexico State and this weekend at Denver).
The fourth team that is undefeated in its league in Norfolk State. The Spartans were one of the darlings on last year’s NCAA tournament when they joined with Lehigh to pull two 15 seed upsets over 2 seeds on the same day, eliminating the Missouri Tigers. This season, they have dominated the MEAC, sitting at a perfect 15-0 in conference and 20-10 overall. Tonight, in the SCGD, they host North Carolina A&T (15-15, 8-7) at 8:00 PM Eastern in their final game before the MEAC tournament next week.
Despite Norfolk State’s perfection in the MEAC so far this year, a quirk in the schedule of this 13 team conference resulted in the Spartans not having a regular season matchup against North Carolina Central. The two teams do have a great chance to meet in the MEAC title game though, as NCCU has only lost once in MEAC play, sitting at 21-8 overall and 14-1 in league. The Eagles also wrap up their regular season tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern when they travel to Hampton. Hampton has already locked up the #3 seed in the conference tournament and will join Norfolk State and NCCU as the only teams getting byes into the quarterfinal round. However, the story of the night in the MEAC will be Norfolk State’s pursuit of conference regular season perfection.