The NCAA did something I liked on Sunday – since they own the NIT tournament, they had a championship afternoon on Sunday where they had the Division III championship, the Division II championship, and the NIT all at the same court.

And that led to a fun day of championships.

First, you could not beat the Division III championship ending. Mary Washington (from Fredericksburg, VA) led 73-70 over Emery when Emery’s Ethan Fauss hit a three-pointer with 12 seconds left. Without a timeout, the Eagles got the ball into leading scorer Kye Robinson who drove the baseline and put up a wild floater that missed everything – except the outstretched hands of teammate Colin Mitchell who made the layup as time expired to win Mary Washington the Division III championship! Special call-out to Elizabeth’s sister Mary-Kate who is alum from Mary Washington – go Eagles!!!!

The Division II championship did not have the same drama. Gannon’s Pace Prosser led the way scoring 28 points to lead Gannon to an 84-61 victory over Lander – congratulations to Gannon on winning the Division II championship.

On FOX sports, the Crown championship finished up between Oklahoma and West Virginia in Las Vegas – I sadly didn’t realize how close it was until I realized it was in overtime. I tuned in just in time to see the Sooners to score the first 6 points in overtime just to watch as the Mountaineers’ Honor Huff hit a three-pointer and Jasper Floyd hit two three-pointers (with the last one being to take the lead with under 2 minutes to play). So Oklahoma scored the first 6, and West Virginia scored the last 13 as West Virginia claimed the Crown championship – congratulations to West Virginia.

Finally, we had the NIT championship and it was a double reminder that no lead is safe in March and April. Auburn had a 21 point lead in the first half and looked like they would run away, But Tulsa came storming back.

And with about a minute left, Tulsa’s Ade Popoola hit a three-pointer to give them a 76-71 lead. Auburn’s Tahaad Pettiford hit a three pointer to cut the lead to two with about 45 seconds left, but Tulsa drained the shot clock, got the ball into Tyler Behrend and he got fouled in the lane. Behrend would hit both free throws and take a 4 point lead.

Auburn tried to get a quick shot but was forced to throw up a wild three-pointer – Elijah Freeman got the rebound and tried to at least cut the lead to two and was fouled on the layup attempt. But Freeman made only one of the free-throws. Tulsa probably just needs to get the ball in and hit a free throw and they are the NIT comeback champions!

Except they couldn’t get the ball in – Auburn’s defense forced a five second violation. And on their in-bounds play, they got the ball to Kevin Overton in the corner who drained the three-pointer to send the game to overtime. Auburn’s 21 point lead became a Tulsa 5 point lead. And then to prove the point that no lead is safe, Auburn sent the game to overtime.

And in overtime, Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton stayed hot, leading the Auburn Tigers to a 92-86 overtime victory – congratulations to Auburn on winning the NIT championship.

So Sunday saw a game end on a buzzer beater, two overtimes, and a 21 point lead disappear just for that team to make their own late rally to win. Such a fun day of basketball.

Only one more game left – hopefully Michigan and UConn play an exciting game like the ones we got to watch on Sunday!