Five days until Selection Sunday means the first batch of automatic NCAA Tournament bids have been snatched up, with Belmont, Utah State, Bradley, Winthrop, Liberty and East Tennessee State punching their tickets by taking their respective conference tournaments. The Ivy League cancelled its four-team tournament due to Coronavirus concerns, so regular season champion Yale picks up the sixth bid. Meanwhile, Indiana coach Archie Miller — whose Hoosiers are 9-11 in the Big Ten — fired the first shot across the bow at “Bracketologists” by comparing Joe Lunardi’s and his ilk to Sesame Street.
(Which reminds me — I finally recognize Archie as “Andy who eats candy” from the 80’s Sesame Street sketch “Captain Vegetable.” You’ve come a long way, kid.)
With only one projected at-large school (San Diego State) losing last weekend, there’s minimal bumping for bubble teams. Meanwhile, one local school already has a banner on order.
Maryland hasn’t won or shared a regular season conference title in 10 years, dating back to when they were in the ACC. It looked like the Terps couldn’t overcome issues on the road earlier this winter (starting 0-3 away from Xfinity Center in Big Ten play) and then it appeared as though their traditional slide in the second half of conference play (three losses in four games from Feb. 23 to March 3) was going to derail a promising run.
Instead, the Terps led Michigan for most of Sunday afternoon’s 83-70 victory thanks to their two constants: Anthony Cowan Jr. tallied 20 points with 8 assists while sophomore Jalen Smith added 18 points with 11 rebounds. Cowan came back for his senior year because he wanted to be remembered as a winner, and he helped deliver a share of the regular-season Big Ten Championship. There are still the unfriendly waters of the Big Ten Tournament, where the Terps are 2-5 with their last win coming in 2016, and the treacherous seas of the NCAA Tournament (one trip to the second week since 2003), but Cowan and coach Mark Turgeon will always have a “2020 Big Ten Regular Season Champions” banner at Xfinity Center. And while March may be fickle, a banner is forever.
Wow of the Week
Howard avoided a winless conference season by beating Maryland-Eastern Shore last Monday. And while the Bison dropped their season finale to Delaware State, at least they don’t have to deal with the offseason stigma that befalls Kennesaw State (Atlantic Sun), The Citadel (Southern) and Chicago State (WAC). The Bison are building under Coach Kenneth Blakeney and last Monday was the first of many steps.
Player Spotlight
Jagan Mosely was recruited to Georgetown by John Thompson III and had hoped to turn around what appeared to be a hiccup in the program. Instead, the Hoyas posted a second-straight losing season and JT3 was shown the door. In came Patrick Ewing and a different system, along with the growing pains of a rebuild.
Mosely was all set to lead the Hoyas back to the NCAA Tournament this March (the school’s last trip to the big dance was in 2015), but defections (four transfers in December) and injuries (Mac McClung’s foot and Omer Yurtseven’s knee) have hijacked all hopes. Six straight losses have dropped the Hoyas to 15-16, meaning that reaching the NIT would be a major stretch.
But through it all, Mosely has been a standout player for Ewing’s program, leading the Big East with 38.4 minutes played in conference games. The Marlboro, New Jersey, native deserved much better. But just think how bad things would have been without the team’s backbone this winter.
Bids for Grabs
Five automatic NCAA Tournament berths are awarded Tuesday evening, although No. 2 Gonzaga is in the field even if they lose to St. Mary’s in the West Coast Conference championship game.
The 26-7 Gaels are also projected to reach the field but stranger things have happened to hopeful at-large schools in the tide of conference championship week; many an undertow has dragged a 26-8 school into the NIT. The Summit (North Dakota-North Dakota State), Horizon (UIC-Northern Kentucky) and CAA (Hofstra-Northeastern) are your classic Big Dance or bust situations.
While the Colonial Athletic Association isn’t as transient as the Southern Conference (34 former members), there has been quite a bit of turnover since the league formed in 1979 and took the Colonial name in 1985. Its 11 ex-members include George Mason, Richmond and VCU, who went to the Atlantic 10, as well as American and Navy, who left for the Patriot League. Even Catholic University was a member, before deciding to go to Division III, while the University of Baltimore dropped athletics entirely. Unfortunately, area schools still in the CAA like James Madison, Delaware, Towson and William & Mary all fell short of Tuesday night’s final.
Tournaments Tipping Off
We start with the ACC, where Virginia Tech (16-15, 7-13 ACC) faces last-place North Carolina (13-18, 6-14 ACC) in the dreaded first round.
I write “last-place North Carolina” with a major caveat, as the Tar Heels have won three of four (the loss came to No. 10 Duke) and six of their 14 losses were by one possession. Don’t be surprised if UNC bounces a Hokies team that is 2-9 since beating the Heels in January. UNC would then draw Syracuse, and the Orange still have plenty of enemies off the court in Greensboro.
Thank goodness (once again) a conference school ran afoul of the NCAA and removed itself from postseason play; Georgia Tech joins Syracuse (2015) and Louisville (2016) in that boat, and their loss is our gain because we only have to sit through two of these opening round games (the 10-seed vs. 15-seed game is almost as bad as the old 9 vs. 16 game in the days of the bloated Big East).
Also getting underway is the MEAC, and in Norfolk, both the men and women hold their conference tournaments during the same week. As fate would have it, the Howard men and women both play South Carolina State in Tuesday’s first round; the Bison men (3-28, 1-15) played well in a 101-95 regular-season loss to the Bulldogs, who have lost five straight and nine of 11. Stranger things have happened in March. The Howard women (15-14, 7-9 MEAC) have lost five of six to drop under .500 in conference play but SC State hasn’t won a game since Jan. 20.
