Hoops HD

Big Conference Kick Offs

Buffet v Experts

Mo’ of Momo

A wealth of auto bidding

Top Seeded Carnage

Scanning the scene

Huge Buffet

Killer Top Seeds

An extra day of conference tourneys…

 2013 – 60^TH ANNIVERSARY – ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT

March 14-17, Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, NC

 First thought – there is no word our writers and editors struggle with spelling more than “coliseum.” It’s a weird mental block.

A new league leader came to the foreground this season, as Miami waited for the returned of Durand Scott early, but then realized the team’s best player that they were waiting was already there – Shane Larkin. Which is cool, because, that means we get to think about hall of famer, Barry Larkin, every time we talk about the Hurricanes.  But, the league’s best team is probably its #2 seed, especially with Ryan Kelly back in the lineup.  Hey, did anyone know that Seth Curry has an injury that prevents him from practicing? We kid, but we can’t get enough unintentional humor out of well-meaning journalists who not only point that out REPEATEDLY, but frame it in a way that suggests that no one on earth has mentioned it before.  Also, Allen Iverson had the same injury, we suppose.  Duke is in line to be the #1 overall seed, probably would need to win the league to secure that (because Indiana winning the Big10 or Louisville doing so in the BigEast would be more compelling), but they definitely have the leading edge.  By the way, it won’t happen because we’re drawing attention to it, but is there any question Liberty will be coincidentally lined up in the play-in game opposite Duke, so it can be a Seth Curry versus School He Deserted Opening…err…Second Round game?

Meanwhile, Miami is in need to do some reinforcement, after starting the conference season 13-0, they’ve gone 2-3, losing to both Georgia Tech & Clemson in that time, costing themselves a likely shot at a #1 – they’re behind Louisville, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Kansas, and the Michigan schools in line, heck, even the Florida Gulf Coast loss doesn’t seem as bad with their conference tournament championship as the losses to Tech at home and Wake Forest, anywhere that that game would be played.   They’re sitting on the 3 line right now, and all of those teams listed sit in front of them, but an early tournament exit by any, and an ACC run (and especially a title) could get them to at least a 2.

 

North Carolina.  A bizzare year for the Heels, or maybe a year showing that Roy Williams is a rich man Rick Barnes.  Dude can recruit, but coach? I mean, Larry Drew isn’t winning Naismith awards, but UCLA sure seems psyched to have him in the lineup, and Williams had no use for him.  UNC spent a lot of late January/early February with their Buffet inclusion in doubt, then a 6 game ACC streak pretty much cemented a bid, and now they could have used the ACC tourney to bolster where they will line up – which is dashed somewhat by how the brackets lined up, they get Florida St/Clemson winner first, which can only hurt not help their seeding (hurt with a loss, do nothing with a win). Then they get Duke, obviously a Duke win would be a HUGE boost, but that proved to be a large mountain to climb in the season finale, and don’t imagine it getting much easier with a number 1 number 1 on the line for the Blue Devils.  But get that, and then there’s Miami or UVA/NC State waiting in the final. That 7 could become a 5 with a tournament title, and it really likely becomes a 6 regardless of final outcome if they are able to beat Duke, but the 8/9 game looms if they can’t get by Florida St or Clemson.

North Carolina State. Team Enigma.  Seems everything time we go to put finger on key about the Wolfpack, they perform exactly the opposite what we will write.  After starting 4-2, but losing pretty convincingly to the only 2 real tough teams they played, we were all ready to declare them slightly fraudulent, then they rattled off 8 straight wins including a neutral court win over UConn, and capped by an 8 point win in Cameron, and then we were ready to declare them for real.  Then they lost 5 of 7, including at Wake Forest: FRAUDS again.  Then they beat UNC at home.  And maybe the 5 of 7 was blip, then they dropped 3 more straight against tournament caliber competition: FRAUDS.  Then 6 of 7.   See what we mean? But then closed the season with a loss to Florida St (this just in, the 2013 Seminoles should be good, but they’re not). FRAUDS.  We can’t keep up. What we do know, is there’s just enough of a mix of really good and really bad wins to make them impossible to get a handle on, right now that sort of Jeckyll/Hyde act makes the 8/9 line a perfect place for them.  Lose to Va Tech and those capital letters take hold, and road jerseys and a 10 seed seem their destiny.  But get that opener and then knock off Buffet hungry Waiting Line… standing Virginia, and suddenly the good gets amplified and a date with Miami could mean a 6 seed, and an ACC championship could mean a 5.  That could be a stretch, but it really is possible, pending other results.

Virginia. This is another tough team to figure out, the RPI isn’t so favorable – 67. But the more informed computers are – 21 in KenPom and 38 in BPI, which, in the Buffet’s eyes, is probably just ahead of where Virginia should be which is in the 40s.  Their early season is hard to get a grasp on, because they had such backcourt issues that it’s hard to really evaluate them.  But they did go 0-3 in the Colonial, the same league that Northeastern lost 4 games in all year long. But despite that loss to #316 Old Dominion, #161 George Mason and #140 Delaware (to go with losses in conference to Wake, Clemson, BC and Tech), they are a lot of nice things too – wins over Duke, UNC, NC State to go with non-conference wins over  Wisconsin and Tennessee.  Then there is a big hole in their resume, before you get to their season sweep of Maryland, and you start drifting into their bad loss side of the ledger and 3-8 road record (3-9 if you count neutral court games).  If there’s one team (and there’s more – Maryland, Arizona St, Iowa, Iowa St, Baylor, Air Force, Tennessee, La Salle, Southern Miss, Xavier) that really needs a show this weekend, its Virginia.  The opportunity is there. They could really use NC State to hold serve against Virginia Tech, who thankfully isn’t in the eternal Waiting Line… this year, in order to preserve the chance at a resume boosting win.  That MAY be enough, but a win over Miami in the hypothetical semis would absolutely be. Although, don’t count those chickens just yet, Miami gets the winner of BC/Georgia Tech. And we saw how that went last time they played either of those teams.

Maryland. Not often do you skip a team in the standings to talk about the hopes of another, especially to a team that finished sub-.500, but that’s what happens when one has 5 losses to teams 101+ (Florida St) and the other has only 2 such bad losses (the Terps).  Maryland has a MOUNTAIN to climb this weekend, and even that, without winning the thing may not prove to be enough.  There’s good stuff, but it’s all at home, which doesn’t help (Duke, NC State) and with the bad (Boston College, Georgia Tech) and the lack of middle ground, 1-4 versus teams 51-100, Maryland just loaded up the cream puffs and forgot to snag more than a couple of the big prizes (3 point losses to Virginia and Kentucky and the Miami loss where it was 48-48 with under a minute left are weighing heavily here).  The Terps bracket shapes up this way – they have Wake first, obviously can’t lose that one.  Then there’s Duke.  And we truthfully don’t think even a win there is enough, probably needs to be followed up with a North Carolina win (FSU or Clemson won’t help them) and then not getting blown out in a final.  That’s not a prescription for a plate, that’s a prescription for how to still be in Line… come Sunday afternoon when things get announced. 

Best Non-Conference RPI Win:   Duke over Louisville, neutral court, 76-71 in the Battle 4 Atlantis, a sneaky top preseason tournament.

 2013 ACC Player of the Year: Erick Green, Virginia Tech

2013 ACC Defensive Player of the Year:  Durand Scott, Miami

2013 ACC Coach of the Year (or, the NOT FRANK HAITH award): Jim Larranaga, Miami2013 ACC Freshman of the Year: Olivier Hanlan, Boston College

2013 ACC Player Who Didn’t Practice But Played In Games (like every other basketball player on earth would do if they could get away with it) of the Year, as awarded by everyone basketball writer everywhere: Seth Curry, Duke

2013 All-ACC First Team

Mason Plumlee, Duke (actually got more first place votes, despite losing conference player of the year to Green, which, brace yourselves, you’ll be hearing about almost as much as Curry’s practice routine this weekend, especially when Va Tech is long gone and Plumlee is leading Duke on)

Erick Green, Virginia Tech

Shane Larkin, Miami

Joe Harris, Virginia

Richard Howell, NC State

ACC 2013 Jack Leasure Madbomber Award Candidate:  

 

Scott Wood, North Carolina State, 86/203, 31 games, 2.8/gm, 42%

Seth Curry, Liberty… sorry … Duke, 81/186, 30 games, 2.8/gm, 44%

ACC Gregory Douglas Ott Award Candidate: 

Dexter Strickland, 3.3 A/TO

 2013 BIG WEST BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 14-16, Honda Center, Anaheim, CA

 Where have you gone Casper Ware? While always ready to watch the kids on the Coast play ball, it does suffer a bit for the Buffet without the great Casper Ware and the second best Orlando Johnson. But Long Beach is back as your tournament #1, with Pacific reemerging as a West Coast mid-major contender for tournament titles and probably sits as your favorite going in.

Long Beach 2013 is the deep reserve supporting cast the Casper Ware days: – Mike Caffey, James Ennis, Kris Gulley, and the best last name you only thought was Vegas Vacation: Peter Pappageorge, and introduced DePaul transfer Tony Freeland (who brought 11 points and 5 rebounds to the table), West Virginia transfer Dan Jennings, and ASU refugee Keala King to their Big West defending champion outfit. While Long Beach was not quite the national scene darling they were last year, losing all of their high and low profile games against major conference team, en route to a 5-7 non conference record, they still sprinted out to a 9-1 Big West start, before crashing to earth a big in the final couple of week, going 1-3 with a bracket buster loss to Stephen F. Austin at the Beach, finishing the season 14-4 in conference, retaining the tournament 1 seed, but really opening the door for Pacific, who beat them handily on the regular season’s final day, to step in as potential tournament favorite.  But, before we dismiss them, let’s acknowledge how impressive it is to lose a player the caliber of Casper Ware, not really introduce a new star, but elevate from within, and still have the talent to win your small conference. (just ask UCSB, who sit seventh conference after graduating Orlando Johnson) Dan Monson, you get our salute.

Pacific.  While dropping 1 extra conference game, and only being 1 better in non-conference play. The Tigers put together a much more impressive lineup of wins, including Xavier & St. Mary’s in a nice looking run at the DIRECTV Classic.  Where was that, you ask? Oh yes, Anaheim, site of the Big West tournament.  The season exclamation point was a 20 point win over Long Beach to close the year.  Pacific’s issue is you don’t always know exactly where the points will come from, just 7^th in the Big West in scoring, you know who will do it, if they do, you just don’t know how often they will.  They do return their top 3 scorers from last year: Lorenzo McCloud, Travis Fulton & Ross Rivers, but none really expanded their scoring portfolio this year, and Rivers actually dropped 4 points off his average, in his place was Sama Taku, a junior college transfer out of Tucson, but still McCloud as the leading scorer only put up 11.4 a game.  Still their performance against better competition, on this court and the season finale all trend towards a Pacific win.

If not them, who? Can’t ignore the 5 game win streak of the Mustangs out of Cal Poly.  (and 8 of 9 overall, including a win over Pacific, and WCC tourney upstarts! Loyola-Marymount).  Momentum is huge coming into postseason tournaments where the talent divide isn’t so great, and leading scorer Chris Eversley will try to take his Big West dominating inside game to the Buffet.  They also hold a nice win over UCLA in Pauley, so this team can rise to the occasion.

We would not be serving our constituency if we didn’t speak on the Gauchos of UCSB – Alan Williams and Kyle Boswell, a couple of players who averaged under 8 points a game last year, did a tremendous job trying to fill the shoes of Johnson and James Nunally, lifting their per games to 17.6 and 13.2, respectively, but OJ and Nunally were prime time Big West performers and the team suffered in conference, a pair of lengthy losing streaks saw them 4-11 at the beginning of March, but then a 3 game win streak to close the season brought them to 7-11 and might be a wave they can ride.  We’ll find out right away, as they open this afternoon with Pacific.

Best Non-Conference RPI Win:   Cal Poly at UCLA 70-68.

 2013 Big West Player of the Year: James Ennis, Long Beach State

2013 Big West Defensive Player of the Year:  Will Davis II, UC Irvine

2013 Big West Freshman of the Year:

Alex Young, UC Irvine

Isaac Fotu, Hawai’i

2013 Big West Sixth Man of the Year: Kyle Boswell, UC Santa Barbara

2013 Big West Coach of the Year: Dan Monson, Long Beach State

 2013 All- Big West First Team

Mike Caffey, Long Beach St

James Ennis, Long Beach St

Chris Eversley, Cal Poly

Corey Hawkins, UC Davis

Christian Standhardinger, (longest name award), Hawai’i

Alan Williams, UC Santa Barbara

 

Big West 2013 Jack Leasure Madbomber Award Candidate:  

Ryan Sypkens, Cal Davis, 104/221, 28 games, 3.7gm, 47%

Big West Gregory Douglas Ott Award Candidate: 

Jamal Johnson, Cal Poly, 2.8 A/TO

2013 ATLANTIC 10 BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14-17, Barclays Center, Brooklyn.

 It’s a testament really to the strength of the 2013 Atlantic 10, that instead of a tournament preview, we’re bringing the Buffet status of 7 teams. Yes, 7.  Granted, when the Catholic Big 7 East dust settles, it might be a one year apex, but as long as it is apexing, let’s ride that train.

Saint Louis.  What a season for the Billikens. The tragic passing of their head coach, Rick Majerus, the architect of their return to basketball prominence.   A 3-3 start, including a loss to Santa Clara, and not much was expected of SLU.  Then they hit a 9 game win streak, capped with a 14 point win over New Mexico and a conference opening win versus UMass.  The road proved a nemesis early – losses to Washington, Temple but they straightened that out with a win at Butler.  Still, that Jan 19 loss AT HOME to Rhode Island is a bit inexplicable, and ultimately, that with the SCU loss, is what will keep the champion of a very strong league, likely sitting at 4/5 rather than have a shot to jump into the 3s.  Winning the tournament, or at least getting to the finals of what is usually an unpredictable ride, would be best to maintain their 5 and perhaps discuss whether they deserve a 4.

VCU.   Freed from the small conference shackles of the Colonial (that is not meant to disparage a wonderful mid-major conference, but it did open VCU to a few more resume building opportunities) and the Rams and Shaka Smart did their best to take advantage.  They started a bit shaky, not suffering any bad losses, per se, but failing to get wins over Wichita St (2 point loss), Duke (9 point loss) and Missouri (3) when they could really have a resume that shines, they still finished a 12-4 A10 season, had wins over Waiting Line… outfits Belmont (who doesn’t need an invite, but that’s their caliber), Alabama, Xavier and UMass, and resume boosting wins over Memphis and Butler. They were a tad inconsistent in conference, sprinkling those 4 losses including games to Richmond (somewhat defensible on the instate rivalry front) and couldn’t quite get the big win on the road (the late season collapse to Temple could have been resume defining, but the Owls needed that battle of animal mascots more).  We see VCU as a 6, but a run in the A10, which would include bursting Xavier’s bubble, then the revenge win against Temple, followed by, most likely Saint Louis, could see them vault to as high as a 4, but likely a 5.

Butler.  Your annual darlings, and they deserve it, had an odd ride.  They finished 11-5 in conference, although technically 11-6, since their early season 15 point loss to Xavier didn’t count in A10 standings since it was scheduled pre-Butler to the A10, but they also have wins over Marquette, UNC, La Salle, Temple, and the season ending, see we aren’t who thought we were (Dennis Green) .  And the crown jewel: a neutral court thrilling win over Indiana on December 15.  But losses to Charlotte, pretty much when they went out on the road versus stronger A10 teams, and Butler had an inconsistent A10 season that renders a team with four top-20 wins as a 6.  Now, if there’s any team with a strong enough resume to use a tournament run to really propel them, it is the Bulldogs.  No losses to a team ranked below 80, a solid 7-4 road record, if not for 5 (6) conference losses, they’d be a 4 seed already, with a chance to move up.  As it is, just writing this is causing the Buffet to reexamine them – but a tournament title, or at least a run with wins over LaSalle and Saint Louis, we could see them wearing white uniforms for two rounds, not just one.

Temple. Home losses hamstrung them, but at the end of the day, some big time wins and a strong finish to the season (7 straight wins and 9 of 10 overall)  will help Temple into the Buffet, provided they don’t go and lose to someone like GW in the first round of the tournament.  They did lose at home to Canisius, St Bonaventure and Duquesne.  But they did also beat Villanova, Syracuse, St Louis, VCU La Salle and UMass.  And really showed strong against Kansas (7 pt loss in Lawrence).  We have Temple probably a bit lower than they belong, 11, but they have the tournament to show us we’re wrong.   They await the UMass/GW winner, and then get another run at VCU before the final.  Just getting to the final probably has them in 9/10 orbit, and winning it, Temple could end up anywhere from 7-9, depending on other’s outcomes.

La Salle. Probably the Waiting Linest of all Waiting Line… teams.  La Salle has a solid but not spectacular resume, with a nc win over Villanova and A10 wins over VCU (at VCU), Butler.  But losses to Central Connecticut State and Bucknell, aren’t helping matters, and a lone NC win of Villanova, makes them vulnerable, especially when high win volume teams like Middle Tenn St and St Mary’s are hovering around the Buffet line.  They are one of those teams with a lot to prove and good fortune to have the opportunity to do it.  First, potentially, comes Butler, that win alone could do it, but definitely that and Saint Louis, and La Salle will be in.  Lose in that first game, and nothing is set in stone, but it’ll be a long few days.

Massachusetts. We’re just not seeing it here, They appear on some under consideration charts, and they might belong there, but it really doesn’t move beyond that.  Their best win is over LaSalle (though it was on the road), then their best NC win is Ohio.  They lost to George Washington (at home) and St. Bonaventure, and have only 1 top 50 win. There is talent, so no is ruling them out of a tournament win, but short of that, we aren’t sure wins over Temple & LaSalle will improve their resume enough.

 

Xavier.  It’s not often that a teams comes from not in the discussion, to a regular season finale loss away from getting to the front of the waiting line, but Xavier had that kind of late February/March.  It started with a win over Memphis, then a win over Saint Louis, and suddenly we were paying attention.  If they could’ve pulled the 2012-13 Butler sweep and/or finished the VCU upset bid off, we’d be talking more positively, as it stands they have 3 top 25 wins (Saint Louis is at 27 and probably finished in top 25 by the end of the year) and 5 top 50.  But then there’s a space until Dayton at 109.  They also have a glaring home loss to Wofford, another toe stubbing home loss to Vandy, and then they feel to Wake Forest, it’s a lot to overcome, but with 4 games in front of them, including resume boosters VCU and Temple, we might be signing a different song on Sunday… stay tuned.

 Charlotte. There is a lot of respect in the Buffet for Jerry Palm. Why an 8-8 A10 team whose best, and only top 100 non-conference win is Davidson keeps showing up as one of the first few out is just inexplicable here.

Best Non-Conference RPI Win:   Saint Louis vs. New Mexico,  60-46

 

2013 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year: Khaliff Wyatt, Temple

2013 Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Year:  Briante Weber, VCU

2013 Atlantic 10 Freshman of the Year: Semaj Chrison, Xavier

2013 Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year: Cody Ellis, Saint Louis

2013 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year: Jim Crews, Saint Louis

 2013 All- Atlantic 10 First Team

Khalif Wyatt, TU

Ramon Galloway, LAS

Rotnei Clarke, BU

Dwayne Evans, SLU

Chaz Williams, UM

 Atlantic 10 2013 Jack Leasure Madbomber Award Candidate:  

 

Eric Mosley, Saint Bonaventure, 81/185, 29 games, 2.8/gm, 44%

Darrien Brothers, Richmond, 80/185, 31 games, 2.6/gm, 43%

Rotnei Clarke, Butler, 98/235, 28 games, 3.5/gm, 42%

Troy Daniels, VCU, 108/263, 31 games, 3.5/gm, 41%

(they can SHOOT the ball in this league, when your 10^th place shooter by percentage has launched 263 and hits 41%, BOMBS AWAY A10)

Atlantic 10 Gregory Douglas Ott Award Candidate: 

Darrius Theus, VCU, 2.8 A/TO

 2013 BIG SKY CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS

March 14-16: 14: Dahlberg Arena, Missoula, Montana; 15 & 16: Campuses of higher seeds

 Sit down Readership, this will come as a HUGE shock.  This tournament should come down (if finished 6 and 7 games clear of the #3 seed is any indication) between Weber State and Montana.

Montana is your one seed, perhaps using the Damian Lillard departure to better themselves by 1 game, they also had a Big Sky player of the year for the first time in 20 years: Kareem Jamar.  Montana comes in winning 19 of 21, but they did split the series with Weber State (home and home, which was telling because Montana won by 2 at home but lost by 24 in Ogden).  Kareem Jamar is a lot of fun to watch, evidenced by the fact that a guy who isn’t his team’s leading scorer was still the conference players of the year (he’s a stat stuffer – with 6 rebounds, four assists to go with his points).  Will Cherry and is  still around to provide the depth, but Mathias Ward, after season ending surgery, is not, so even more reason they are going to need to figure out Weber State before the Wildcats figure them out, home court or not.

What about those Wildcats? Weber State is Long Beach St like, with a huge hole to fill (2 time Big Sky POY Damian Lilliard) and doing so with aplomb.  Welcoming Cal State Monterrey Bay transfer Davian Berry (maybe it’s the name synchronicity or something on that floor), who led them in scoring with 15 points, and added 4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, while shooting 44% from deep.   The supporting case is back: Scott Bamforth, Kyle Tresnak, Frank Otis and Jordan Richardson.  They didn’t really challenge themselves this year, but in what was probably thought of as a rebuilding year, the 24-5 record, just 2 losses in conference and 20 point win over Montana, (and the late season BB win at Oral Roberts, perhaps reflecting some real strength)  and we see a Wildcat Buffet line entry.

If not them, who?  Keep a doubting eye on Montana State, but still an eye, they were the difference between Weber & Montana (a 5 point home win over Weber), but only lost to Montana by 3 on March 2. This could be where an upset comes from.

Best Non-Conference RPI Win:   Weber State at Dayton, 62-61

 2013 Big Sky Player of the Year: Kareem Jamar, Montana

 

2013 Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year:  Will Cherry, Montana

2013 Big Sky Freshman of the Year: Venky Jopis, Eastern Washington

2013 Big Sky Newcomer of the Year: Davian Berry, Weber St

2013 Big Sky Sixth Man of the Year: Cody Ellis, Saint Louis

2013 Big Sky Coach of the Year: not yet announced

 2013 All- Big Sky First Team

Kareem Jamar Montana

Will Cherry Montana

Troy Huff North Dakota

Gabe Rogers Northern Arizona

Derrick Barden Northern Colorado

Davion Berry Weber State

Scott Bamforth Weber State

 Big Sky 2013 Jack Leasure Madbomber Award Candidate:  

 

Tate Unrue, Northern Colorado, 87/199, 29 games, 3.0/gm, 44%

Big Sky Gregory Douglas Ott Award Candidate: 

Lateef McMullan, Portland St, 2.4 A/TO

 Scanning the Scene…

 

ACC: So far today:  Boston College beat Georgia Tech 84-64

America East:  #2 Albany vs. #1 Vermont, Saturday 11:30am ET

Atlantic  10: So far today:  Charlotte 68-Richmond 63, after a chaotic cluster of a finish

Big 12: The disappointing 2012-13 West Virignia season ended with a whimper – 71-69 to Texas Tech

Texas avoided utter embarrassment, pulling away from TCU, 70-57

So far today:

Iowa St looked to cement their bid with a 73-66 comeback effort versus Oklahoma

Atlantic Sun: Florida Gulf Coast, Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament champion.

Big East: More chalk yesterday: Syracuse looked a bit more to form with a 75-63 win over Seton Hall

Cincinnati ended Providence faint Waiting Line… hopes 61-44

Villanova avoided bad loss at a bad bad loss time, 66-53

Notre Dame took out Rutgers, in a very Mike Brey fashion 69-61

So far today:

Georgetown, wanting that #1 seed, pounded Cincy and their ugly uniforms, 62-43

Big Ten: Illinois helped Minny continue their late season free fall with a thrilling 51-49 win (yes, thrilling is both ironic, and apt description of the ending)

Big South: Liberty Flames, 2013 Big South Conference Tournament champion.

Colonial:  James Madison 2013 Colonial Athletic Association champion.

C-USA: Tulane, Houston and UAB all kept seeds with first round wins

Horizon League:  Valparaiso Crusaders 2013 Horizon League tournament champs.

Colonial:  Harvard Crimson, 2013 Ivy League Champs

MAAC: Iona Gaels, 2013 MAAC Tournament champion.

MEAC: Upset Wednesday as the #1 seeded Norfolk St will not be turning upsets this year, beaten by Bethune-Cookman 70-68; and NC A&T kept North Carolina face, beating NC Central 55-42

MAC: Buffalo made the Buffet look smart, moving on over Ball St 76-61, and Eastern Michigan took out Miami (OH) 58-47

MVC: Creighton Blue Jays, 2013 Arch Madness champions

MWC: Seed 1, 2, 3 and 4 are alive  – New Mexico (1), Colorado St (2), UNLV (3) and San Diego St (4) all winners heading into Friday night’s semifinal action. Dorian Green will still NOT be in action for Colorado St

NEC: Long Island University Brooklyn Blackirds, 2013 NEC Tournament champs

OVC: Belmont Bruins, 2013 OVC Tournament champions.

Patriot: Bucknell (#1) vs. Lafayette (#2), Wednesday at 7pm ET.

Pac 12: Big result was Arizona St staying in the Waiting Line… for at least one more day with an 89-88 OT win over Stanford

Colorado stopped the bleeding temporarily beating Oregon St

Washington & Utah are still irrelevant until they prove otherwise, but they did win yesterday, and USC’s nightmare is over.

SEC: Mississippi St and Texas A&M got the opening night wins.

So far today: LSU leads Georgia 58-48 with 7:30 to go in the second half

Southern: Davidson Wildcats, 2013 Southern Conference tournament champions

Southland:  McNeese St miniupset saw them beat Nicholls St 62-59

Sam Houston St took out Central Arkansas 69-63

Summit: South Dakota State Jackrabbits, back to back Summit Tournament champs.

Sun Belt: Western Kentucky, Sun Belt conference tournament champions

SWAC:  The dream completely defeated season is over, as Grambling lost to Alabama A&M 59-51

West Coast: Gonzaga, 2013 WCC Conference champions

 

 

We will provide you with Big10, Pac12 and SEC looks later today, but needed to get you brunch on an early and busy conference tournament day.

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.