It's that time of year, when "mid-major" and small conferences have their basketball tournaments, with the winners earning one shot at sports-geek immortality with a chance to score an upset in the first round of the NCAA's. Four teams earned automatic bids yesterday, and they deserve a post of their own:
Winthrop: At 28-4, the Slow Moving Basset Hounds Eagles probably ought to be favored in their first-round game. The system being what it is, though, they needed to sweat it out a little bit, winning a tight game over VMI, who had a chance to tie at the buzzer.
Belmont: The Bruins blew out East Tennessee State with a three-point barrage, earning their second straight trip to the NCAA's. They lost to UCLA last year, in a Bruin-on-Bruin clash, and it remains to be seen whether the selection committee will set them up for more fun nickname games this year.
Davidson: Davidson is another small team with a gaudy record (29-4), which earned another NCAA bid by holding off the College of Charleston. Davidson will be the only NCAA particpant to be rated one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the country, so I'll be pulling for them provided they don't draw one of my teams.
Eastern Kentucky: The Colonels earned an NCAA bid thanks to the one field goal hit by Josh Taylor, a freshman guard who hit a lay-up with 2.9 seconds left to win the game, 63-62. Someday, his grandkids will be really sick of that story, but today, he's the most popular guy in eastern Kentucky.
The fifth team to secure a bid is Penn, who locked up the Ivy League title a few days back (the Ivies are old-school, and don't have a conference tournament). I didn't see any of that game, so they don't get a blurb.
Congratulations to all these teams. Enjoy your moment in the spotlight, and good luck against anybody other than Maryland or Syracuse...
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Winthrop is going to get a 10-11 seed and be a good 3-5 spots too low. I wouldn't want to be a 2 or 3 seed and see Winthrop as the lower seed in the 6-11 or 7-10 game opposite me.
I consulted the local college basketball expert (specialty - Ivy League). She informed me that the Ivy's do not get an automatic spot in the tournament. Is this still true? Or
have the rules changed since the local expert actually was attending regional tournaments?
Speaking of little guys, let's put you to use as a roundball prognosticator, Chad. Do you think Appalachian (who was #2 in Davidson's conference, but lost to CoC in OT) will get an at-large bid next Sunday? Or will they be off to the NIT? Or just sitting at home, watching?
Not that I have anything riding on this. My boys (OSU and VT) are looking pretty good right now, despite VT dropping one to UVA...
I consulted the local college basketball expert (specialty - Ivy League). She informed me that the Ivy's do not get an automatic spot in the tournament. Is this still true? Or have the rules changed since the local expert actually was attending regional tournaments?
The Ivy League has an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. They don't have a conference tournament, but they do have an NCAA bid, otherwise they'd never be in the NCAA's.
Speaking of little guys, let's put you to use as a roundball prognosticator, Chad. Do you think Appalachian (who was #2 in Davidson's conference, but lost to CoC in OT) will get an at-large bid next Sunday? Or will they be off to the NIT? Or just sitting at home, watching?
They might get an NIT bid, but I don't think that league has ever gotten two in, and they're not likely to this year.
But then, I've been wrong before.
I consulted the local college basketball expert (specialty - Ivy League). She informed me that the Ivy's do not get an automatic spot in the tournament. Is this still true? Or have the rules changed since the local expert actually was attending regional tournaments?
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/champweek2007/index
If you scroll down a bit, you'll see that Penn is listed as having won the Ivy League's automatic bid. As far as I can remember (up to about 25 years back), this has always been the case, that the Ivy League champ gets in automatically.
hah! The local expert is proven wrong! I am sure I will be able to use this knowledge to...um...hmmmm.....
I think you are being a little too Division I biased. My own DePauw Tigers are in the sweet 16 for women's basketball, after their win against Denison last night.