Bullet Points
- Three championships were settled yesterday. All hail Virginia Commonwealth, double champions of the grand old Colonial, who held off a pesky George Mason team. And congratulations to Niagara, which beat Siena to claim the MAAC tournament championship.
- Oh yeah, andUnnamed Major Program From The Northwest won too, beating Santa Clara. When you win eight of nine league tourneys, isn't that time to find better competition?
Three finals on tap tonight: the Horizon League, Mid-Continent and Sun Belt. Yes! They're all on TV!
A relatively light day for non-finals. The MEAC kicks off in Raleigh with their first round, the WAC gets started with an 8-9 bracket equalization game (B.E.G.), and the Big Sky continues with semifinals.
The power and made-for-TV conferences have joined the Championship Week party with the advent of the 2007 Mountain West tourney. Yuck.
Autobids: Pennsylvania, Winthrop, Eastern Kentucky, Davidson, Creighton, UMPFN, Virginia Commonwealth, Niagara.
NIT: Austin Peay, Marist, East Tennessee State, and Southern Illinois (SIU won't need it, though).
Brackets
(2) Niagara 83, (4) Siena 79 | GameFlo
(1) UMPFN 77, (2) Santa Clara 68 | GameFlo
(1) Virginia Commonwealth 65, (6) George Mason 59 | GameFlo
(4) North Texas 59, (9) Middle Tennessee State 52 | GameFlo
(2) Arkansas State 80, (3) Western Kentucky 73 | GameFlo
(1) Oral Roberts 75, (3) IUPUI 54 | GameFlo
(2) Oakland 83, (6) Missouri-Kansas City 79 | GameFlo
Previews
Will turn into boxscores once play is compete.
Sun Belt Final
North Texas vs. Arkansas State
Horizon League Final
Butler at Wright State
Mid-Continent Final
Oakland vs. Oral Roberts
Big Sky Semifinals
Portland State at Weber State
Montana vs. Northern Arizona
Mid-Eastern First Round
Howard vs. Hampton
Bethune-Cookman vs. Coppin State
Western Athletic First Round
Idaho at San Jose State
Good Night
Close your eyes and I'll close mine, good night, sleep tight. Seasons are over for IUPUI, UMKC and GMU (sorry, Johnny... in a 32-team field, they don't deserve it more than at least one inevitable CAA snub). As the Sun falls below the Belt of the horizon, night has fallen for overachieving Middle Tennessee State and underachieving Western Kentucky. Santa Clara and Siena: dream sweet dreams for me, dream sweet dreams for you.
|
Having recently completed its fourth season, The Mid-Majority is a blog about the 22 smaller Division I college basketball conferences (and independents) by me, Kyle Whelliston. I write for ESPN.com and Basketball Times, and maintain the Basketball State statistics website as well.
Here's a brief note on who we talk about, and why.
If you need to contact me for any reason, you can do so with this form. If you're looking for the stats, maps or budget data, it's all over here now.
Enter your e-mail address here and get instant notifications of mid-major upsets in your e-mail. More info here.
|
|
|
