This was fun last year – so I will try to do again. Not sure I will update every day this week between taking Katie to rugby practices and figuring out my own bracketology.
Today and tomorrow are important days for the mid-major tournaments. Most of the major conference bubble teams don’t start playing until Wednesday or Thursday, so it is an opportunity for the conference championships to take the stage.
Two more teams will punch their ticket to the dance – both playing on the ESPN channels at 7pm EST. In the Sun Belt, 2nd seeded James Madison (30-3) will take on the Arkansas State (18-15) team that shockingly took out Appalachian State on a wild and well defended buzzer beater on Sunday. Both the bubble teams and JMU fans will be rooting for the favorite – it is unclear that the committee would leave out a 30 win team, but with the only win on that resume against a possible tournament team being their opener at Michigan State, it would be great for everyone if they simply take the Sun Belt’s auto-bid. It should be a good game as these teams played to a 4 pt game in the season – and Arkansas State is playing their best basketball of the season at the right time.
In the Southern, regular season champion Samford (28-5) takes on East Tennessee State (19-15). Samford swept the regular season with a close 3 point win at ETSU and a 16 point win at home, so they will need to win one more time to go dancing. ETSU has already upset the 2 seed (UNC-Greensboro) and an exciting overtime victory over the 3 seed (Chattanooga) so it should also be a great game.
After that, the West Coast conference has their semi-finals starting at 9 pm – as their top 4 teams will fight it out. This is always a great night (especially if you are a nightowl and can stay up until 1:30-2 am). Don’t think the new polls are out yet – but #23 St Mary’s plays first against Santa Clara, and #19 Gonzaga plays San Francisco. While basketball fans are probably hoping for a rematch in Las Vegas between Gonzaga and St. Mary’s, the bubble is desperately hoping that San Francisco or Santa Clara don’t become bid-stealers over the next two evenings.
The regular season champions from the Coastal (Charleston), Horizon (Oakland) and Summit (South Dakota State) conferences also play in their semi-finals tonight as they look to keep their dreams of going to the dance alive – so lots of good basketball tonight!! And a chance to maybe check out a team that possibly will be in that 12-14 range which always provide the fun upsets that make March special (if you are looking for that, definitely check out JMU, Samford, and Charleston).
Enjoy the games!!!!