Bucknell Joins The Dance Party
The Bucknell Bison earned the Patriot League’s automatic bid Friday with a 72-54 victory over Lafayette. Versatile big man Mike Muscala led the Bison with 18 points while sharpshooter Bryson Johnson added 15.
Bucknell improved to 25-8 on the season. They project to be a 12 or 13-seed.
12 More Bids To Go Out Saturday
This is the busiest day of the tournament schedule. 13 conferences will crown their champion, and four other conferences will conduct semifinal rounds. All told, every single one of the 21 games scheduled will be televised nationally. Do you have enough televisions and a good high-speed computer?
Here is a conference-by-conference look at all the action.
All Game Times EST
Atlantic Coast Conference—Greensboro, NC
Quarterfinal Round
#1 North Carolina 61 #9 Miami 59
#4 Clemson 70 #5 Boston College 47
#2 Duke 87 #7 Maryland 71
#6 Virginia Tech 52 #3 Florida State 51
Semifinal Round
#1 North Carolina (25-6) vs. #4 Clemson (21-10) 1:30 PM ESPN
#2 Duke (28-4) vs. #6 Virginia Tech (21-11) 3:45 PM ESPN
All four teams are safely in the NCAA Tournament. The Hokies secured a spot in the Dance with the nail-biting win over the Seminoles.
America East Conference
Championship Round
#5 Stony Brook (15-16) at #2 Boston U (20-13) 12 Noon ESPN2
Boston U won both regular season meetings. The Terriers won 67-62 at home and 62-49 on the road. They win with their defense, as they only shoot 40.6% from the field.
Atlantic 10 Conference—Atlantic City, NJ
Quarterfinal Round
#9 Dayton 68 #1 Xavier 67
#12 St. Joseph’s 93 #4 Duquesne 90 ot
#2 Temple 96 #10 LaSalle 76
#3 Richmond 55 #6 Rhode Island 45
Semifinal Round
#9 Dayton (21-12) vs. #12 St. Joseph’s (11-21) 1 PM CBS College
#2 Temple (25-6) vs. #3 Richmond (24-7) 3:30 PM CBS College
The Bubble teams will have to sweat it out all the way until Sunday. At least one long shot will advance to the Championship Game. Neither St. Joe’s nor Dayton is getting an at-large bid, and one of the two will be playing for an automatic bid Sunday. Both Temple and Richmond are in the Dance.
Big 12 Conference—Kansas City
Semifinal Round
#1 Kansas 90 #5 Colorado 83
#2 Texas 70 #3 Texas A&M 58
Championship Game
#1 Kansas (31-2) vs. #2 Texas (27-6) 6 PM ESPN
The Jayhawks are still playing for the overall number one seed, while Texas is probably locked in on a number two seed. However, with Notre Dame losing, a Longhorn win could put them in the conversation, especially if Duke does not win the ACC Tournament.
Big East Conference—New York City
Semifinal Round
#9 Connecticut 76 #4 Syracuse 71 ot
#3 Louisville 83 #2 Notre Dame 77 ot
Championship Game
#3 Louisville (25-8) vs. #9 Connecticut (25-9) 9 PM ESPN
Connecticut becomes the first team ever to play five games in five days in modern college basketball history. Will they have anything left in the tank next week when it really counts? Louisville’s win more than likely killed any chance for the Irish getting a number one seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Big Ten Conference—Indianapolis
Quarterfinal Round
#1 Ohio State 67 #8 Northwestern 61 ot
#4 Michigan 60 #5 Illinois 55
#7 Michigan State 74 #2 Purdue 56
#6 Penn State 36 #3 Wisconsin 33
Semifinal Round
#1 Ohio State (30-2) vs. #4 Michigan (20-12) 1:40 PM CBS
#6 Penn State (18-13) vs. #7 Michigan State (19-13) 4 PM CBS
Michigan State has now earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Penn State might move from the Bubble to in the tournament with a win over the Spartans.
Big West Conference—Anaheim
Semifinal Round
#1 Long Beach State 74 #7 UC-Riverside 63
#5 UC-Santa Barbara 83 #3 Cal State Northridge 63
Championship Game
#1 Long Beach State (22-10) vs. #5 UC-Santa Barbara (17-13) 8 PM ESPN2
Long Beach State won both meetings against the Gauchos in the regular season, and neither game was close. The 49ers are not going to become another Butler or even repeat the exploits of Northern Iowa last year, but they could scare a favored team in the first round. If UCSB wins, then they will make a quick exit in the first round.
Conference USA—El Paso, TX
Semifinal Round
#4 Memphis 76 #8 East Carolina 56
#3 U T E P 66 #2 Tulsa 54
Championship Game
#3 UTEP (25-8) vs. #4 Memphis (24-9) 11:30 AM CBS
The host Miners blew Memphis off the floor 74-47 in their only regular season meeting. That game took place on this court.
Ivy League Playoff
Harvard (23-5) vs. Princeton (24-6) at Yale University 4 PM ESPN3.com
If Princeton wins a close game, there is an outside chance that the Ivy League could get two bids.
Mid-American Conference—Cleveland
Semifinal Round
#6 Akron 79 #2 Western Michigan 68
#1 Kent State 79 #4 Ball State 68
Championship Game
#1 Kent State (23-10) vs. #6 Akron (22-12) 6 PM ESPN2
The winner goes dancing, while the loser can only hope for a trip to Madison Square Garden in late March.
M E A C—Winston-Salem, NC
Semifinal Round
#4 Morgan State 61 #1 Bethune-Cookman 48
#2 Hampton 85 #6 Norfolk State 61
Championship Game
#2 Hampton (23-8) vs. #4 Morgan State (17-13) 2 PM ESPN2
Morgan State goes for a four-peat. The Bears beat Hampton in the regular season 78-72.
Mountain West Conference—Las Vegas
Semifinal Round
#1 B Y U 87 #5 New Mexico 76
#2 San Diego State 74 #3 UNLV 72
Championship Game
#1 B Y U (30-3) vs. #2 San Diego State (31-2) 7 PM Versus
Is the third time the charm for San Diego State? The Aztecs’ two losses were to the Cougars. If they can hold Jimmer Fredette under 35 points, we have a feeling that SDSU will cut down the nets.
Both teams are legitimate threats to make it to the Sweet 16 and possibly a round or two farther.
Pac-10 Conference—Los Angeles
Semifinal Round
#1 Arizona 67 #4 Southern Cal 62
#3 Washington 69 #7 Oregon 51
Championship Game
#1 Arizona (27-6) vs. #3 Washington (22-10) 6 PM CBS
This should be an exciting game, even though it will not greatly affect the NCAA Tournament seedings.
The two teams split the season series, but the Huskies came close to sweeping. UW won by 17 at home and fell by a single point in Tucson. We think this is a tossup game.
Southeastern Conference—Atlanta
Quarterfinal Round
1W Alabama 65 4E Georgia 59 ot
2E Kentucky 75 3W Ole Miss 66
1E Florida 85 5E Tennessee 74
3E Vanderbilt 87 2W Mississippi State 81
Semifinal Round
1W Alabama (21-10) vs. 2E Kentucky (23-8) 1 PM ABC
1E Florida (25-6) vs. 3E Vanderbilt (23-9) 3:30 PM ABC
Alabama played themselves into position to get one of the final at-large bids. The Crimson Tide fans need to route against a Dayton or St. Joseph’s tournament championship in the Atlantic 10, because there is still little room for error for ‘Bama.
Kentucky looks unstoppable at times and then looks like a team that doesn’t belong in the tournament at others. That’s what you get with a bunch of underclassmen and with no depth.
We believe this game will be close for most of the day, but the Wildcats will enjoy one nice spurt in both halves to hold off the Tide by six to 12 points.
Florida is playing about as well as either of their two National Champion teams. It is hard to stop a team with five guys capable of scoring 20 points. The Gators’ have few weaknesses.
Vanderbilt is a lot like Florida, but not as talented. The Commodores have excellent outside shooters, but they cannot create their own shot like Florida’s outside shooters. They have a couple of excellent inside scorers, but they can disappear against Florida’s inside players. We look for the Gators to dominate this one from the beginning and win by double digits.
Southland Conference—Katy, TX
Championship Game
#1 McNeese State (21-10) vs. #7 UT-San Antonio (18-13) 4 PM ESPN2
S W A C—Garland, TX
Semifinal Round
#4 Alabama State 73 #1 Texas Southern 66
#6 Grambling 81 #2 Jackson State 75 ot
Championship Game
#4 Alabama State (16-17) vs. #6 Grambling (12-20) 8:30 PM ESPNU
The winner of this game can definitely plan on heading to Dayton for a First Four game.
W A C—Las Vegas
Semifinal Round
#1 Utah State 58 #8 San Jose State 54
#2 Boise State 81 #3 New Mexico State 63
Championship Game
#1 Utah State (29-3) vs. #2 Boise State (20-11) 10 PM ESPN2
Utah State is definitely in the Dance, so if the Broncos can pull off the big upset, another bubble will burst somewhere else.
Note: St. Mary’s defeated Weber State Friday night 77-54 in a non-conference game that was scheduled only two months ago. The Gaels appear to be safe as an at-large team.
The Pi-Rate Ratings 