Bullet Points

• Seven championships were decided on the penultimate day of Championship Fortnight. All hail Vermont, back in the Dance for the first time since 2005 (Season 1) and also for the first time in the Mike Lonergan era. Congratulations to Morgan State; the Bears navigated the always-difficult MEAC tourney to repeat as titlists. We salute UC Santa Barbara, which hadn't won the Big West tourney title since 2002. Sam Houston State, consistently one of the best teams in the Southland, broke through in the tourney for the first time since 2003.
  
• Congrats, as well, to the surprise winners. The Ohio Bobcats completed a stunning run through the MAC tourney as a No. 9 seed, defeating Akron in overtime to claim that school's first Dance card since Season 1. New Mexico State had to knock off the top two seeds to win the WAC, but the Red Aggies completed the task late last night.
  
• And a special hoorah is in order to yesterday's first-time dancers: Arkansas-Pine Bluff of the SWAC, just five years removed from winning a single game out of 27.
  
• And, of course: well done, South Dakota, which won the first-ever Great West championship and will now play in a lesser postseason tournament.
  
• Chaos into order in just 12 days. Two weeks ago, there were 247 teams with NCAA dreams. Now there are 22. A few of the runner-ups will sneak through the Selection Committee's side door, but the champions of Hoops Nation won their bids on the floor, but defeating any and all comers. We salute each and every one of them.
  
• Today at approximately 3:00 p.m. Eastern time, either Richmond or Temple will be the Atlantic One, and Championship Fortnight will be complete.

Bullet Points

• In the Patriot League, your champions are the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. The former Engineers defeated their cross-valley rival Lafayette with a strong second-half burst, and will go to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time.
  
• Higher seeds were 12-4 on Friday. The No. 3 over No. 2 upset was popular, however. Long Beach moved past Pacific in the Big West, South Carolina State eliminated Delaware State in a MEAC overtime thriller, and in the late-late game, WAC tourney host Nevada is out, thanks to a game-winning basket by New Mexico State's Jahmar Young.
  
• But the biggest surprise was Ohio, which has rode a No. 9 seed all the way to the Mid-American Conference final after defeating the eight, one, and now No. 4 Miami (Oh.). A nine has not made the MAC title game since Miami did in 2000.
  
• On this penultimate day of Championship Fortnight, there will be seven autobid games. The America East, last seen six days ago, will match up Boston and Vermont. Only one of today's tilts is between the top two seeds: Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin in the Southland. It's No. 1 seed UC Santa Barbara and Long Beach in the Big West, defending MEAC champion and regular-season winner Morgan State goes against S.C. State, and top seed Utah State awaits New Mexico State in the WAC. The tattered SWAC bracket produced a 2-vs.-5 matchup between Pine Bluff and Texas Southern, and it's an odd 3-9 game in the MAC with Ohio and Akron.
  
• And don't forget South Dakota and Houston Baptist, angling to be the inaugural Great West titlist. It's a championship!
  
• The Atlantic 14 will continue its march to the Atlantic One today with semifinals.

OK, we had some technical difficulties, but let's try this again. I can haz Championship Fortnight Chat Block?

CLEVELAND -- It was February 19, 2009, 11:49 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, during our nine-hour BracketBusters marathon chat. We have a lot of people sign in with names that aren't theirs, but we hadn't had any multi-platinum rock stars show up before.

[Comment From Tom Petty]  Two questions. 1) What are your top 3 favorite songs of mine, all-time ... 2) If you had to start your college team with one player for one year would it be -- Blake Griffin, Hasheem Thabeet or Jodie Meeks.

OK, so it wasn't really him. And I bumbled the question, something about having sold all my Petty CD's. So it wasn't my doing when all of a sudden, every other question was about Tom Petty. It came as a complete surprise -- people sending in links to YouTube videos, remembering concert experiences, and inserting TP lyric puns in their questions. We've known for years that Bally is a fan, sure, but was there really this much overlap between Mid-Majority readers and Petty fans? And c'mon, really, how?

I mean, Tom Petty isn't exactly a "mid-major guy." He often shows up at concerts with a guitar that has a giant orange and green University of Florida Gators logo. He never attended, but there are stories about how he used to mow the athletic fields for extra cash, growing up in Gainesville.

But looking over his life and career, Tom Petty's the kind of underdog who fought to earn everything he got. He's the son of an insurance salesman. He doesn't have the European features that most rock stars have; I was in Florida recently, and there are a whole lot of people who look like Tom Petty there. Tom quit high school and once filed for bankruptcy. When he became a rock star, his mansion burned down, and has had plenty of legal battles throughout his career. He certainly didn't innovate anything -- there were three chords, chiming guitars and rock songs about girls before there was a Tom Petty, and he built his career on the shoulders of giants. His slurred nasal vocals could never get him beyond the "ha-ha round" on the first week of "American Idol," but he rocked the Super Bowl and built a legendary career on his own terms anyway.

Bullet Points

• There were no bids awarded on Thursday. Instead, many of the late leagues held quarterfinal rounds, setting up semifinals for today.
  
• The Southland and WAC put forward their top four seeds, but MEAC No. 5 Hampton snuck past No. 4 Hampton. The SWAC's bracket now has a 2-3-5-8 setup; Texas Southern ended Prairie View's season last night.
  
• But no tourney is as upside-down as the MAC. In Cleveland on Thursday, there was a 9-over-1 upset (Ohio over Kent State), a 7-over-2 (Western Michigan over Eastern Michigan), and No. 3 Akron needed double overtime to dispose of No. 6 Eastern Michigan.
  
• The Patriot League determines its champion this afternoon with a fantastic and unprecedented Lehigh Valley showdown between Lehigh and Lafayette.
  
• The following conferences will hold semis today: the WAC, SWAC, MAC and MEAC. In Winston-Salem, today features the "MEAC JAMS Turn Up The Heat After Party" and a concert by the S.O.S Band)
  
• The Big West will take the time to narrow four to two as well, but it doesn't rhyme with the other four.
  
• There are a total of 17 games today.