• 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.

• 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.

CLEVELAND -- Just as you don't need to put lipstick on the P.I.G., Championship Fortnight doesn't need any pretty dressing. It's compelling competition that sells itself. March basketball is elimination basketball, and we need to get 31 from 347 before we whittle 65 down to a single champion.

It's not difficult to find an emotional connection with the participants, because we share something in common. We love basketball, right? The players and coaches love Our Game more, certainly -- they've turned over their lives and livelihoods to it, to the sacrifice of nearly everything else... and we all understand loss. When a team is eliminated, it doesn't get to play basketball anymore, and that's sad.

That's what hooks me, right there. These two weeks are full of victory, tragedy, romance and death, death, death. Over and over, superior and cunning organisms destroying weaker and unlucky ones. Dreams live and die every two hours. Isn't that enough?

Whether one accepts all of this mid-major stuff at face value or not represents our far outer border. It separates the readers and the non-readers, you right now and all those who have drifted away over the seasons. Our year is beautiful, and it doesn't need further explanation or apology.

• Upsets! Congratulations to our unexpected champions from last night, as Robert Morris repeated in a sticky NEC final at top-seeded Quinnipiac, and Montana engineered a comeback for the Championship Fortnight ages in the Big Sky. The No. 4-seeded Grizzlies were down by 20 at halftime to No. 1 Weber State, and rode Anthony Johnson's 42 points to a thrilling come-from-behind bid robbery.
  
• Higher seeds were 11-5 on Wednesday. In addition to the title game upsets, SWAC No. 1 Jackson State was sent to the NIT by Grambling State. Great West No. 6 New Jersey Tech moved on to the semifinals, and No. 5 Texas-Pan American beat No. 4 Utah Valley on the Wolverines' own floor.
  
• No title games tonight, so catch your breath. Welcome to the WAC, which will play its quarter slots in Reno. The Southland moves on to semis, the Big West is in its second round, and the SWAC plays out its other two quarterfinals. The MAC gets its final eight on in Cleveland.
  
• There are 16 elimination games today.

How ya doin'? Did your team win, did it lose? Come join in a special mid-week chat on Wednesday at 2 PM ET to discuss all the weird wonders that encompass Championship Fortnight.

One makes for a one-off, but two constitutes a tradition. It's now unthinkable to end Season 6 without having our friends from Storming The Floor over during Championship Fortnight, to discuss one of the most hallowed of all college basketball rituals: the taking of the court. Our First Annual Floor-Storming Symposium occurred one year ago; welcome, now, to the Second.

Marco Anskis and Eric "Extra P." Angevine wrote the rules on storming the floor many years ago, a living document that changes and transmogrifies with each college basketball annum. And in this topsy-turvy 2009-10 season, fans have looked to them to arbitrate disputes on when to and when not to. We discussed the evolution of the art and craft of storming, new rules that have been put in place this year, and disturbing new crackdowns on these acts of simultaneous and barely-organized hardwood takeovers. We also talked about storming at an advancing age, the First Time vs. the next bunch of times, court-rushing at the NCAA Tournament, and the shocking in-plain-sight robbery of STF's prized rulebook by a deranged sportzopath.

Also this year, we have a special new addition to the Symposium proceedings. We put out a call for your court storming stories, and you responded. We've included a few of them here, interspersed with the Q&A, to offer some added perspective on the anticipation, fear, regret, vindication and relief that are all bound up in this Championship Fortnight experience. And, also, the explosive joy that happens when the emotional investment in a basketball team finally pays off.

TMM: A lot's changed since the inaugural FSS last year. For one thing, we're all older and farther away from our court-storming prime. And there have literally been like 6,000 college basketball games since then. What's the state of Hoops Nation, as far as floor storming goes?
 
Eric: Storming is getting cheaper by the week. I was asked my opinion on this by the Charlotte Observer earlier during a week when South Carolina, Western Carolina, and Charlotte had all stormed early in the season. It now looks very likely that none of those teams will make it to the NCAA tournament. Of course, that's been the argument levied on us by Twitter fiends. People are saying "we don't get to celebrate much, let us have our fun." This is the kind of thinking that's going to land us in a 96-team tournament. Special wins are rare; storming should be also.

Marco: I think the biggest change is the overall public awareness of what is considered a legitimate storming and what is considered garbage - which has its pros and cons. A pro is that you that  you now can have student section leaders in normally-rowdy Kansas State convincing jacked-up students not to take the floor in a win over No. 1 Texas because they were a Top 10 team and didn't need to storm the floor. I'll go to my grave thinking that the STF rules had an influence on that decision at K-State. A major con is that I can't watch a court storming on SportsCenter ever again without someone questioning whether it's a legitimate storming or not.

• Three champions were crowned on Tuesday night. Please give it up for: Butler of the Horizon League, which crushed Wright State in that league's title game; the Sun Belt's North Texas, which has now split the last four championships with Western Kentucky; and Oakland, long-suffering G'Grizzlies of the Badlands Conference. We salute you all!
  
• The MEAC first round played out in Winston-Salem with a minor upset (No. 9 N.C A&T over No. 8 Howard), but the Atlantic 12 provided a true shock. Charlotte, a real contender for an NCAA at-large back in January, completed its collapse by losing as a No. 5 seed to No. 12 UMass.
  
• Higher seeds were 7-4 on Tuesday.
  
• The Big Sky's semifinals produced a Wednesday pairing of top seed Weber State and Montana, a No. 4 that upset the second-seeded BEAR BEDLAM of Northern Colorado. Also on the SNL schedule for this evening is the Northeast championship: Robert Morris at Quinnipiac.
  
• But that's not all! Four tourneys swing into action tonight: the Big West first round at Anaheim, the Southland quarterfinals at Katy, Texas, the SWAC quarters at Shreveport, La. (two of them), and the inaugural Great West opening round.
  
• The MEAC continues with three quarterfinals. Also today in W-S, it's High School Day. There will be a College Fair in the morning and an unrelated Meet and Greet Mixer tonight, for MEAC alumni who have already been to college. The seasons of our lives.
  
• And with that, each of Hoops Nation's tourneys are either under way or completed. There are 16 elimination games tonight.

This is our third annual eight-pack. Of last year's group, only three (James Madison, The Citadel and Chicago State) stagnated or went backwards in 2009-10. Five made improvements, including Troy of the Sun Belt, which will fight for a league title tonight. Who among these eight will take the next step forward in 2010-11?

Princeton (19-8, 10-8 Ivy League) - It's just the way the Ivy League works; runner-ups are quickly forgotten in the rush to March. So the Tigers, substantially improved on the defensive end in Sydney Johnson's third year, will have to wait until next season to return to glory. Under Johnson's steady control, this group put up a seven-win improvement against the program's 2008-09 performance, allowed just 49 points per game in conference and posted a sterling 10-5 mark on the road for the year. But the real reason for Princeton's early front-runner status in the 2011 Ivy? While three-time champion Cornell was enjoying a busy senior day, the Tigers will return their five top scorers in the fall.

Seattle (17-14, independent) - The 1958 Final Four is just a banner now, and SeattleU is on the way to making new memories. In its first year as a full-fledged Division I member, the Redhawks posted a winning record (not easy when 17 games are on the road) that included two Red Line Upsets away from home (Utah and Oregon State), and presented a high-scoring attack that yielded 80.3 ppg. Seattle's 6-9 powerman Charles Garcia, responsible for much of that (18.7 ppg), has already declared for the NBA Draft. Even if he does get drafted (don't laugh), there were three double-figure scoring guards on this team. The Redhawks forced 18 turnovers per game, third-best in the nation. This team is not going to disappear.

And now, for a limited time, you can preview the whole book right here!

Click on the pages to turn them!

We've all worked very hard on this book all winter and really hope you like it. You can order a paper copy, too! It's $15 postpaid for paperback, and $25 for casewrap hardcover. We're trying very hard to get all of the books out this week, but there have been more orders than we expected. That's good, though! Ten percent of the proceeds go to charity, so the more sales the better.

Also, everybody who buys the book before the Tournament will be entered into a drawing for the 99th Bally. The 100th Bally is already spoken for -- it's Giant -- and that leaves only two one more, ever! No. 98 is available, and so is No. 54 (cancelled order). Get 'em before they're gone forever! All sold out, sorry!

Bally's Dream

• A might victory whoop! for our four newest Hoops Nation champions. Old Dominion dropped William & Mary in the Colonial, to return to the Dance after three years away. Siena won the Metro Atlantic for the third straight year, but the Saints needed overtime to fight off brave Fairfield. Saint Mary's finally achieved the peak of the WCC, removing the obstacle that's been in the way for the past decade: Gonzaga. And Wofford, the little school in Spartanburg, S.C., is going to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in its history. The Terriers fought off Appalachian State in the SoCon title game.
  
• Higher seeds were 7-1 on Monday, the Saint Mary's upset being the only exception.
  
• Two semifinal rounds set up two of Tuesday's championships. Prepare for neutral-site top-seed matchups in the Sun Belt (Troy and North Texas), as well as the Badlands (Oakland and IUPUI).
  
• The Horizon League, dormant since Saturday, will return for its title game tonight. If Butler defeats Wright State to take the conference's dubl-championship, the Bulldogs will likely get a fantastic seeding arrangement next Sunday.
  
• The Big Sky is in semifinal mode tonight, with two games at Weber State's home floor.
  
• Two more tourneys get underway this evening. The MEAC will begin first round play at Winston-Salem, N.C. in an event-ful gathering. Today is Youth Day, and congratulations to North Carolina A&T for winning the 2010 MEAC cheerleading championship yesterday.
  
• Finally, we set about finding 2010's Atlantic One. The Atlantic 12 will hold four first-round games at campus sites; the four top seeds lay in wait in Atlantic City.
  
• There are 11 elimination games today.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- This is the last week we'll all be together, before the 23 Champions of Hoops Nation (and a few others) move on to the fourth and final round -- leaving everyone else to figure out what comes next. It's a bittersweet final few days, full of joy and anguish, ultimate wins and terminal losses, and, of course, Mid-Majority protocol. There will be the annual list of forgotten overachieving teams, a second annual Floor Storming Symposium, a few awards, and we'll end the week with a long-overdue tribute to a great man and guiding light.

But first, a spot of housekeeping.

I am okay, no, really. I appreciate that there are a lot of people -- most of whom I've never met -- who look after my health; I realize that not everybody has that, and it makes it impossible to be lonely, so I sincerely appreciate all the kindness. After my immune system shut down upon my return from Vancouver, I was a walking ball of phlegm for a while, but I was fully recovered by Friday. But then (and some of you might recognize this dynamic), I had to finish all the work I couldn't do while I was immobile on the couch. We have a book launch this week, you know!

Bullet Points

• All hail Northern Iowa, repeat winners of the Missouri Valley Conference's Arch Madness. The top-seeded Panthers put on a strong second-half burst to defeat No. 2 Wichita State, 67-52.
  
• Four of Sunday's semifinals set up Monday championship games. The Colonial title comes down to a moustache fight between Blaine Taylor's top seed Old Dominion and Tony Shaver's No. 3 William & Mary -- which beat No. 2 Northeastern despite scoring 10 16 second-half points. The other three SNL's (scissors, nets and ladders) are high-seed showdowns: Siena and Fairfield in the MAAC, Gonzaga and Saint Mary's in the West Coast Conference, and the winners of the SoCon's two divisions will square off for that league's crown: Appalachian State (North) and Wofford (South).
  
• Lehigh and Lafayette survived in the Patriot League semifinals, setting up a Lehigh Valley rivalry title game on Friday. The top two in the NEC, Quinnipiac and Robert Morris, will fight for an autobid on Wednesday. The America East will choose its master on Saturday between No. 2 Vermont and surging No. 4 Boston, which beat tourney host Hartford and top seed Stony Brook this weekend.
  
• Higher seeds were 20-5 on Sunday.
  
• Upsets: No. 6 Denver continued its run in the Sun Belt, dropping No. 3 Middle Tennessee. Ohio pulled off a mild upset in the MAC, beating host Ball State in overtime to advance to the quarterfinals in Cleveland. South Dakota State, the four-seed in the Badlands, lost to No. 5 IPFW.
  
• Semis will be held in the Badlands Conference and Sun Belt. There are eight games in total tonight.