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Conference Tournament Games for Friday, March 2nd

Conference Tournament Games for Friday, March 2nd
Mar 02, 2007, 01:08 am
-YALE AT PENN (Ivy League) (***Win and In!!!***). Penn can clinch the conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a win tonight. They’re looking at a about a #14 seed at best, but they’re never an easy team to play against.


CONFERENCE TOURNAMENTS

MISSOURI VALLEY QUARTERFINALS

-9. DRAKE VS 1. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. Southern Illinois is a lock to get a good seed in the NCAA Tournament regardless of what happens in this tourney, but the better they do the better seed they’ll get. Drake needs to win the conference to get a bid, which is unlikely, but they did give SIU a tough game the last time the two teams met.

-5. NORTHERN IOWA VS 4. BRADLEY. A case can be made for Bradley that they belong in the dance. They have a good RPI and a few decent wins, but overall their case is a week one. They’ll need to win this game and stay alive, and then beat Southern Illinois to even be in the discussion. Even if that happens I don’t think they’ll get in without winning the tournament. Northern Iowa completely melted down at the end of the year and will need the automatic bid to get in as well.


-10. INDIANA STATE VS 2. CREIGHTON. Creighton must win this game, or else they’ll really be sweating on Selection Sunday. They’ll be in the discussion for a bid either way, but they can’t afford a bad loss at this stage. Two wins in this tournament and they’re a lock, but just winning today will most likely be enough to get them in. Indiana State has some big wins this year, but all came at home. They’ve done very little on the road.

-6. WICHITA STATE VS 3. MISSOURI STATE. Wichita State began the year as good as any team could, but have since collapsed and are now in a position to where they need the automatic bid. Missouri State has a big win against Wisconsin, and has bee n pretty solid since then. A win today should be enough to get them into the field. Two more wins and they’re pretty much a lock.


HORIZON LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS

-6. Illinois Chicago vs 3. Loyola, IL (winner gets Butler)

-5. Youngstown State vs 4. Wisconsin Green Bay (winner gets Wright State)

These games are interesting because just last week Loyola, IL defeated Butler and Youngstown State defeated Wright State. These games, along with the semifinal games, are being played at Wright State’s campus, which gives them an advantage, but they need to win the tournament to get a bid to the NCAAs. Even though they finished ahead of Butler, who is in the NCAAs no matter what, their bid is not secure.


ATLANTIC SUN SEMIFINALS

-4. Lipscomb @ 1. East Tennessee State
-6. Campbell vs 2. Belmont

All signs are pointing to a showdown between Belmont and East Tennessee State in the conference championship unless there is an upset. ETSU has dominated, but Belmont did win at ETSU earlier this season, so the final should be interesting if the two end up squaring off.


OHIO VALLEY SEMIFINALS

-5. Samford vs 1. Austin Peay
-3. Tennessee Tech vs 2. Eastern Kentucky

Austin Peay is the top seed, but they haven’t looked all that impressive lately. They even needed overtime to get past the eight seed in their quarterfinal game. Eastern Kentucky has been playing very well and could end up winning this. Whoever does win it is most likely looking at a #16 seed.


COLONIAL ATHLETIC OPENING ROUND

-12. Delaware vs 5. Northeastern (winner gets Drexel)

-11. James Madison vs 6. George Mason (winner gets Hofstra)

-10. UNC Wilmington vs 7. Towson (winner gets Old Dominion)

-9. Georgia State vs 8. William & Mary (winner gets VCU)

This should be an exciting tournament once we get into the quarterfinals. Northeastern and George Mason have been dangerous teams at times, and William & Mary has pulled off some upsets as well. It’s possible for one of these teams to pull an upset in the quarterfinals, but it isn’t likely that any of them will win the tournament.


WEST COAST OPENING ROUND

-8. Pepperdine vs 5. San Diego
-7. Portland vs 6. LMU

The winners will move on to the quarters where they’ll face either San Francisco or Saint Mary’s. LMU recently beat both Santa Clara and Gonzaga, who both have byes into the semifinals, and could prove to be a big threat if they advance that far. The tournament is being hosted by Portland, so they may have trouble getting past them tonight.


METRO ATLANTIC OPENING ROUND

-9. Saint Peter’s vs 8. Canicius (winner gets Marist)

-10. Iona vs 7. Rider (winner gets Niagara)

The winner of this league is most likely looking at a #15 seed at best. In the event that any of the teams playing today win it, they’re most likely looking at being in the play-in game.


AMERICA EAST OPENING ROUND

-9. Stony Brook vs 8. Hartford (winner gets Vermont)

Both of these teams are playing for the right to play Vermont, and most likely lose badly.


OTHER NEWS AND NOTES

-All the top seeds are still alive in the conference tournaments, Winthrop struggled in the first half against UNC Asheville, but ended up pulling away and winning convincingly in the second half. VMI did upset High Point in the other semifinal game. That is significant because a loss to VMI will look worse to the committee than a loss to High Point. The two will square off tomorrow in the conference championship game.


-Georgia Tech upset North Carolina last night. All of the teams I have projected as #1 seeds have been struggling lately. The thing is that no one else has really stepped up to take their place, and given what teams like North Carolina and Florida accomplished earlier this season, no one else's profile really measures up. Of course, all of these teams can solidify themselves as #1 seeds with strong showings in their conference tournaments.

-UCLA, who is playing well, got one of their biggest wins of the year when they won at Washington State. That is pretty impressive considering they beat a pod caliber team on the road.

-Nevada was upset by Utah State, but that isn't all that surprising. Utah State is not an easy place to play, and it isn't as if they're the only highly ranked team that has been struggling. Nevada's ticket to the NCAA Tournament has pretty much been punched. The loss could hurt their seed somewhat, but seeing as how they didn't have any wins against teams in position to get an at-large it may not have been all that high anyway.

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