Welcome to a very special edition of the Small Conference Game of the Day. As previously mentioned, the SCGD comes to an end with the conclusion of the regular season, not including conference tournaments. However, there is a regular season game on tonight’s schedule which clearly merits this one special Championship Week edition.
At 10:00 PM Eastern tonight, the Northern Kentucky Norse will be in San Francisco to take on Rex Walters’ Dons. The Dons finished their West Coast Conference season at 7-9 in league and 14-16 overall, including being one of Loyola Marymount’s victims in the Lions surprising run to the conference tournament semifinals. However, tonight in the spirit of conference-mate Saint Mary’s scheduling a game after the conference tournament ended a few years back, they have one last regular season game.
The visiting team tonight is Northern Kentucky. The Norse are finishing their first ever season at the Division I level. They are a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference but will not be eligible for the NCAA tournament until the 2016-17 season. Despite this, they finished a very respectable 9-9 in conference play. Overall, the Norse were 11-15 this year, including a non-conference win over Hampton, arguably the new favorite to win the MEAC automatic bid after last night’s upsets. They also scored a regular season win over the A-Sun’s regular season champion, Mercer.
Following tonight’s game, the only games left before the tournament selection show will be conference tournament games. Thus, the regular season has truly come to an end for the SCGD. But not before we get this one last true meaningless gem of a game in.