And after a major night of games that saw Texas blow out #3 Kansas by 20, and #2 UCLA being plagued by injuries and foul trouble and a late three pointer by Arizona’s Courtney Ramey to lose 61-58 in the Pac 12 Tournament.
It is hard to say what that does to the 1 seeds. I think it means Alabama and Purdue have clear paths to win a 1 seed in their championship. Then again, I am always surprised – last year, the Sunday championships didn’t seem to impact the bracket.
Five games – five invites to the dance, and tons of intrigue goes into Sunday.
We start things off at Noon in the Ivy as the co-regular season champs Yale and Princeton play to claim the Ivy’s auto-bid.
We have two games tipping off at 1 pm, and both see the conference’s top two teams square off. In the SEC, #4 Alabama will take on #18 Texas A&M as the Crimson Tide will try to lock up a 1 seed and get revenge for the loss they suffered to the Aggies last weekend.
In the Atlantic 10, regular season champion VCU takes on Dayton in a rubber match where the winner takes all. In January, VCU travelled to Dayton and won 63-62. In February, Dayton travelled to Richmond and won 62-58. So, each team won on the other’s home court in what were basically 1 possession games. Should be a thrilling game.
3:15 pm sees the American conference and #1 Houston potentially play without leading scorer Marcus Sasser, who was hurt in Saturday’s seni-final. Memphis, who is in my list of last 10 in / first 8 out on the bubble, gets a third chance at the Cougars (who lost by 2 at home and 8 on the road in the regular season). A win for the Tigers makes the bubble conversation mute – and it is tough to beat a good team 3 times in a season (especially when you are playing without your leading scorer).
And then we finish at 3:30 pm in the Big 10, as my Boilers try to take advantage of the upsets from yesterday and take one of the final 1 seeds. There opponent is Penn State, who like Memphis is in my final bubble conversation. The Nittany Lions lost both their games to Purdue by double digits. But they have put themselves in the bubble conversation by winning their last 5 games against teams likely in the NCAA Tournament in thrilling fashion. They finished their regular season with a buzzer beater against both Northwestern and Maryland, beat Illinois by 3 in the Big 10 2nd round, Northwestern by 2 in overtime, and finally Indiana by 4 in the semis. And as I said with Houston, it is tough to beat a team 3 times. Will PSU find an answer for Zach Edey, or will Purdue’s big man lead the Boilers to the Big 10 Tournament championship.
Two non-power conferences with their best two teams fighting for one spot in the dance. 3 of the top 5 teams in the country playing for their conference title after the other 2 top teams got upset on Saturday. Two bubble teams trying to pull one last upset so they don’t have to worry about what the selection committee thinks. And of course, at 6 pm, we get to see which teams will be playing for the national championship. You really can’t ask for anything better on the final day of the regular season! Selection Sunday is here, and it should be an amazing day of basketball!