So, as a Purdue fan, it only makes sense that I was watching the Big 10 semi-final while working on my bracketology. And it reminded me of the Arizona vs. Iowa State game. One of the favorites is tied with the clock running down between Wisconsin and Michigan and a star player ends the game.

Under a minute to play with the game tied, Elliot Cadeau hits a three-pointer to give the Wolverines the lead. But the Badgers were going nowhere – they marched right down the court, got the ball to Nick Boyd, and he promptly ties the game back up with 30 seconds to play. The Badgers are playing pretty solid defense, and it suddenly looks like Michigan might not even get a shot off. And then Cadeau finds Yaxel Lendeborg deep behind the three-point line, and the Michigan star drains the three-pointer to give Michigan the win.

With 20-30 minutes in between games, I looked to see if something else was on, and I ran across the Atlantic 10 semi-final between St. Louis and Dayton. And if you thought the Big 10 game was exciting, this game was just completely wild.

Dayton finds themselves down 3 points with about 30 seconds left when Keonte Jones drives to the basket and gets fouled. Jones would hit both free throws to cut St. Louis’ led to one. Dayton sets up their press, and the Billikens can’t get the ball in-bounds before getting a five second violation to turn it over.

The Flyers get the ball into Javon Bennett who drives to what looks like it will be a layup, but St. Louis comes from behind and blocks the shot off the backboard. In the ensuing scramble for the ball, Jones picks it up and passes it out to Jacob Conner, who drills a deep three-pointer to give the Flyers a 2 point lead with just 11 seconds left.

Amari McCottry rushes the ball up the court for the Billikens and finds Robbie Avila at the top of the key, who drills a three-pointer with a little around 4 seconds left to give the lead back to the Atlantic 10 regular season champions.

Dayton doesn’t call time-out – instead they quickly in-bound the ball to Jordan Derkack, who wildly drives the lane and throws up a prayer of a lay-up, which looked more like he was hoping to draw a foul. The referees would not be bailing him out – instead, it was center Amael L’Etang who tips the wild layup attempt that never hit the rim towards the rim, and it goes in with 0.4 seconds left in the game.

Dayton got lucky as the bench erupted including a player who went to hug L’Etang on the court – which could have been called as a technical foul since the game was not over. But the referees calmed everyone down and gave St. Louis a timeout to plan their last ditch prayer. But Quentin Jones’ three-quarter court shot would only graze the backboard, and the Dayton Flyer upset the regular season champs of the Atlantic 10.

And so the bubble likely shrinks by a team, or at a minimum, St. Louis falls onto the bubble. I think the Billikens are probably still in but you just never know what the committee will do. Meanwhile, the local VCU Rams, who are also on the bubble now have to feel like they are the favorites if they can win their semi-final against St. Joseph’s.

If you went to Hollywood and asked them to make up a fairy-tale ending, I am pretty sure no one comes up with that finish. So, bubble teams get more nervous as it looks like the Atlantic 10 will get at least 2 teams.