Dave Preston is an AP Top 25 voter. Check out his ballots here.
The Cadillac of conference tournaments comes to town this week. The Atlantic Coast Conference set the standard in an era when not every league held a tournament and has continued to provide quality basketball even as the quantity of its membership has increased (from nine in 2004 to 18 later this year).
Commissioner James Phillips is pumped to be center stage for the 2024 Tournament when it tips off Tuesday.
“I love seeing the student athletes and how much they enjoy it: the passion they have, how great they feel about coming to the tournament,” Phillips said. “It’s a place where anyone can win.”
This will be the sixth time the D.C. metro area has hosted the ACC Tournament. The Capital Centre hosted the 1976, 1981 and 1987 tournaments. The building now known as Capital One Arena hosted the 2005 and 2016 tournaments before hosting this year’s. The nation’s capital has been a good host over the years.
“First of all, you have a love and passion for basketball in that region. Second, there are thousands and thousands of ACC alums in that region,” Phillips said. “You have an incredible atmosphere, both at Capital One Arena as well as in that vicinity. Everything’s walkable, you get the restaurants and night-life, get over to the arena and watch great basketball.”
This week has plenty to live up to: the 1976 tournament (the first played outside of the state of North Carolina) saw sixth place (out of seven schools) Virginia beat three top-20 teams en route to its first title while the 1981 tournament saw the regular season champion Cavaliers fall to Maryland in the semifinals, only to see the Terps tumble to eventual national runner-up North Carolina one day later.
The 1987 tournament saw sixth place NC State squeak past North Carolina (who went unbeaten in conference play) 68-67. The 2005 tournament was riddled with two top-five teams being upset (North Carolina & Wake Forest) while the 2016 tournament wrapped up with two top-five teams playing for the championship (No. 3 North Carolina over No. 4 Virginia).
“You better play well, otherwise you’re gonna go home and there’s some suddenness to this kind of experience where you’re playing and then all of a sudden you get beat and you’re out,” Phillips said. “It’s really unpredictable, and I think that’s what the fans enjoy quite a bit.”
The first round tips off Tuesday.
Monday night’s game:
Towson (20-14) saw its run in the CAA Tournament end in the semifinals for the third straight year, losing to the College of Charleston for the second straight March. This time they led 55-48 with four minutes left, only to shoot 0-4 from the field with three turnovers to wrap up the game. Fifth year senior Charles Thompson tallied 14 points in defeat while freshmen Tyler Tejada and Dylan Williamson give Coach Pat Skerry some hope for the future.
Bids awarded:
Sun Belt: James Madison (31-3) smoked Arkansas State 91-71 as Xavier Brown tallied 21 points and 10 rebounds to deliver the Dukes their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2013. JMU shot 63% from the field while hitting 11-19 from three-point range, posting its 13th straight win. And unlike regular season champ Appalachian State (who the Dukes lost to twice during the regular season), Coach Mark Byington’s team can rest easy between now and Selection Sunday.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has JMU taking a No. 11 seed — they’ve previously been a No. 16 (in 2013) and 14 (1994) in the 64-plus team tournament era.
Southern: Samford (29-5) topped East Tennessee State 76-69, outscoring the Buccaneers 11-5 over the final six minutes of regulation. Australian big man Achor Achor tallied 25 points with nine rebounds after netting 28 with 14 the night before against Furman. The Bulldogs’ two previous trips to the NCAA Tournament saw double-digit seeding and double-digit losses to Big East schools — they were a No. 14 seed that fell to St. John’s 69-43 in 1999 and a No. 13 that lost 79-65 to Syracuse in 2000.
ESPN.com has the Bulldogs a No. 13 this year.
Tuesday night’s bids:
CAA, 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network.
The College of Charleston (26-7) takes on Stony Brook (20-14) in a matchup between the regular season champ and the plucky seventh seed. The Cougars rallied past Towson 61-56, thanks to a 13-1 finishing kick while the Seawolves followed up their double-overtime win over No. 3 seed Drexel with a 63-59 upset of No. 2 Hofstra, holding the Pride to 2-10 shooting with two turnovers over the final five minutes of regulation. The Cougars won the Jan. 6 matchup between the two schools 93-87 on a night when both teams shot over 55%, but C of C made five more threes and got to the line four more times.
Horizon, 7 p.m., ESPN.
Regular season champ Oakland (22-11) swept its regular season series with No. 6 seed Milwaukee, scoring 100 and 91 points (the Golden Grizzlies average 76 per game) behind Trey Townsend (28 and 21 points with 8 and 11 rebounds in the two wins). They last reached the NCAA Tournament as a member of the Summit League in 2011, while the Panthers last won the Horizon Tournament in 2014. If you’re looking for a contrast in coaches, this is it: Bart Lundy is in his second season at Milwaukee while Oakland’s Greg Kampe has 40 years under his belt with the school.
Northeast, 7 p.m., ESPN2.
Merrimack (21-11) is finally eligible for the NCAA Tournament after its transition to Division I (that legality allowed Fairleigh Dickinson to advance and eventually beat overall No. 1 Purdue last March). The Warriors face another upset-minded school in Wagner (15-15), who topped No. 3 seed Sacred Heart and regular season champ Central Connecticut State (they reseed after the quarterfinals) on their way to the title tilt. The Seahawks haven’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2003 (coached that year by DeMatha graduate Dereck Whittenburg). The regular season split saw each school win on the other’s floor.
Summit, 9:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network.
Regular season champ South Dakota State (21-12) split its regular season meeting with No. 7 seed Denver (17-16), and the two showdowns weren’t close: the Pioneers won the January meeting by 19 while the Jackrabbits took the February showdown by 27. Denver is the case study for second-chance teams in March, having lost nine of 12 games to end the regular season before getting hot. South Dakota State is looking for its seventh NCAA bid in 13 years (under three different coaches). Denver has never won its conference tournament — not as a member of the Summit League, the Western Athletic or Sun Belt Conferences, and the “Men’s Mountain States Athletic Conference” didn’t have a tournament when Denver was a member from 1944-62.
West Coast, 9 p.m., ESPN.
No. 17 Gonzaga (25-6) and No. 21 Saint Mary’s (25-7) split their regular season series with each school winning on the other’s home court. How dominant have these two schools been in the WCC? They’ve combined to win the last 15 tournaments (Zags have 12 titles) while meeting in the championship game 11 of those years. Coach Mark Few’s program has won four straight WCC Tournaments while the current edition is riding a nine-game winning streak, and Gonzaga’s 70-57 win over the Gaels on March 2 wasn’t that close. That was Saint Mary’s first loss since Dec. 23.
Both schools are assured of getting in as at-large teams, and it’s a shame that a mid-major conference like the WCC that fights for equality on the national scale rigs its own conference tournament that gives its top two teams byes into the semifinals.
Games to Watch:
Atlantic 10 First Round, George Washington (15-16) vs. La Salle (15-16), at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.
Oh to be able to turn back the clock: on Martin Luther King Jr. Day the Revolutionaries were 14-3 and 3-1 inside the conference after a wire-to-wire win over George Mason. Since then, injuries and the lack of ability to defend have torpedoed what was the best start since the NIT Championship season. In that mix have been a pair of losses to the Explorers where Khalil Brantley averaged 18 points with eight rebounds and five assists. But don’t sleep on James Bishop IV, as the senior is averaging 21 points per game in March and had a pair of 30-point efforts last month.
MAAC First Round, Mount St. Mary‘s (13-18) vs. Canisius (13-17), at 5:15 p.m. on ESPN+.
Throw the records out when the Mountaineers and Golden Griffins play, please! The eighth and ninth place teams are a combined 17-23 in league play, but while MSM is skidding (five losses in seven games) Canisius enters the tournament having won four of six (including a victory against Mount St. Mary’s). And while the Mountaineers’ Dakota Leffew (17 points per game) ranks third in the conference in scoring, Coach Dan Engelstad’s team needs to find answers inside for Golden Griffins big man Frank Mitchell (averaged 13 points on 55% shooting, plus 13 rebounds in their regular season meetings) if it wants to play another day.
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