Dribblings 2/27/2005 (Fill In The Blank Edition)

by Kyle Whelliston on February 27, 2005 9:30 AM • Permalink

Ivy: Pennsylvania 80, Columbia 72 (story) - Congratulations to the Quakers! The first ticket to the NCAA Tournament was punched last night as Penn (17-8, 10-1) clinched the Ivy League regular-season title. They stormed to a win on the Lions' home court, bolstered by 68% second-half shooting and a late 18-4 spurt. Picked by many to finish the season in third place and plagued with December road struggles, the 2004-05 Penn season turned around with a single run.

Let's take a look at the four results from Fill In The Blank Saturday...

Missouri Valley: Southern Illinois 65, Wichita State 55 (story) - Saluki Jamaal Tatum led the gym with 16 points and his team survived a messy second-half; insoding, SIU (24-6, 14-3 MVC) wrapped up the one-seed in the Valley and their fourth straight regular season title. Southern Illinois has now won seven in a row, and have one more tuneup (Indiana State) before they march into St. Louis for Arch Madness. They will be in the Tournament, and you can take that to the bank.

And it doesn't matter which angle you look at it from, the Shockers (19-7, 12-5 MVC) will not be receiving much at-large consideration - very few teams that lose four of five in late February do.

Big West: Pacific 75, Cal State Northridge 61 (story) - No close game this time; Christian Maraker shook off a slow start and netted 15 points, and UOP stepped on the gas pedal in the second half. Pacific (23-2, 16-0 BWC) has now won 19 straight games - second longest streak in the nation, behind some Big Ten team - with two regular season tilts before the conference tourney in Anaheim. The Tigers have certainly done everything they can possibly do to prove themselves worthy of at-large love.

Colonial: Virginia Commonwealth 72, North Carolina-Wilmington 71 (OT) (story) - In the battle for the Colonial two-seed, Michael Doles of the Rams stepped forward and officially announced that his team was ready to defend the league crown. His 22 points, which included the winning free throw in overtime, helped offset a 29% field goal percentage in the first half and helped VCU avoid the trap at the six seed. More on the CAA's James-Jamming Richmond bracket below.

Metro Atlantic: Rider 113, Niagara 106 (OT) (story) - For the second straight matchup, the Broncs and Purple Eagles scored over 100 points a piece, but this time they did need overtime. RU's (17-10, 13-5 MAAC) Jerry Johnson scored 28 - including his 2000th career tick - and Niagara (18-9, 13-5 MAAC) was led by David Brooks' 31 points. The two teams finish the MAAC regular season tied at the top, but Niagara takes the one-seed on tiebreakers. Would a title-game rematch in Buffalo make for some great television? Yes! Yes!

Let's Get Tournament-al!

Big Sky: (top 6 of 8 qualify) Portland State and Montana State have byes to the semifinals (held in Portland on Tuesday the 8th), on account of their first and second place finishes. Montana (#3) and Sacramento State (#4) will host quarterfinal games against an unresolved six-seed and 5 Weber State, respectively.

As for that six: if Montana beats Northern Arizona in Monday's regular season finale, Eastern Washington is in. If not, NAU is the six and defending league champion EWU goes home. Good night, Idaho State and your 9-18 (3-11 BSky) record.

Big South: (top 8 of 9 qualify) The regular season ended yesterday in a BSC-record five-way tie for fourth place at 7-9. Birmingham Southern emerged in the tiebreaker because of its 5-3 record against the other four, and will get to host a quarterfinal against 5 Radford. The other matchups will be 1 Winthrop vs. 8 Coastal Carolina, 2 Liberty facing 7 Charleston Southern and 3 North Carolina-Asheville against 6 High Point. Winthrop and its 15-game win streak has home-court advantage throughout the entirety of this campus-site tournament, which will begin with four games on Tuesday. Good night, Virginia Military Institute, you finished 9-18 and 3-13 in conference.

Colonial: (all 10 qualify) VCU clinched the two-seed in the CAA tournament with their aforementioned win over UNCW, and will play the winner of the 7-10 game. The three-seed Seahawks are stuck with 6 George Mason. On Saturday, 1 Old Dominion will play the winner of the first-round 8-9 game between James Madison and William and Mary. Though the pairing is final, one seeding arrangement is not yet settled: we know that Drexel will play Hofstra in the 4-5 quarterfinal game, but who wears what color depends on the Dragons' result in Monday's schedule-closer at confirmed 10 Towson - DU wins, and they get to don home whites.

Ohio Valley: (top 8 of 11 qualify) Tennessee Tech (17-10, 12-4 OVC) is the one-seed and will host 8 Eastern Illinois on quarterfinal Tuesday, thanks to their 74-67 win over Morehead State. Eastern Kentucky won the tiebreaker for the two over Murray State, by virtue of a season sweep. 4 Samford gets an extra home game against 5 Austin Peay. Two-seed EKU will play 7 Tennessee State, and 3 Murray hosts 6 Southeast Missouri. The four winners will converge on Nashville's Gaylord Center for Friday's semis. Good night to Morehead, Tennessee-Martin and Jacksonville State.

Patriot: (all 8 qualify) The pairings for the two "mini-tournaments" have been set, as the PL wrapped up play yesterday. Next Friday, 1 Holy Cross will play 8 Army and host the 4-5 game between Lehigh and Colgate. Two-seed Bucknell will extend a warm welcome to 7 Lafayette, and 3 American/#6 Navy will be the other Lewisburg quarterfinal. The Show Place Arena in Maryland will sit empty and alone, and nobody will be around to eat its nicotine-smudged Superpretzels.

Southern: (all 12 qualify) All games will be held at Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena. The top two seeds in both divisions (#S1 Davidson, S2 Charleston, N1 Chattanooga, N2 North Carolina-Greensboro) have byes to the quarters. Davidson, who completed a perfect conference season, will play the winner of N4 Elon-#S5 Wofford; UNCG will take on S3 Georgia Southern or N6 Western Carolina; host Chattanooga will get either S4 Furman or N5 East Tennessee State; and C of C will play the survivor from N3 Appalachian State and S6 The Citadel. First round is on Wednesday, quarters on Thursday.

West Coast: (all 8 qualify) Each of the eight WCC teams are in the garage; the championships in Santa Clara kick off on Friday with lower-seed matchups between 5 Pepperdine against 8 Loyola Marymount, and 6 San Francisco versus 7 Portland. Winners of those games will play 3 Santa Clara and 4 San Diego, respectively, in the tourney's second round. UMPFN is the one and St. Mary's is the two, and both will receive byes to the semifinals.

Tomorrow, we'll look at the other early-finishing leagues with seeding structures awaiting today's results - the Atlantic Sun, America East, Horizon League, Metro Atlantic and Sun Belt.