After the storm last night, the SEC officials wisely decided to postpone the Georgia/Kentucky game. Further, the SEC decided to move the tournament to Georgia Tech, and as I, among with many others probably figured, the winner of Georgia/Kentucky gets to play two games today. The Bulldogs play the Wildcats at noon, then the winner plays Mississippi State at 8:30 pm tonight. It has that softball tournament feel to it, doesn't it. :-)
Apparently, they considered other scenarios including playing the championship AFTER the NCAA selection show, but NCAA tournament officials, including committee chair Tom O'Connor, the athletic director of George Mason, noted to them that they would lose the automatic qualifier if that scenario took place. Gotta love the NCAA on that one - you know, only a possible tornado hit the Georgia Dome. Hey Tom, don't you know mid major school officials are supposed to be accommodating! Geez. Unfortunately, the Georgia Tech arena seats only 9100. As a result, as stated on ESPN "the league also will limit attendance in the 9100-seat arena to only the players' families, cheerleaders, bands and other credentialed individuals." There will be further announcements on ticket refunds for others.
That is going to be very weird for the semifinals and finals. There will not be that many fans, let alone people there, and its going to sound very empty at times. Perhaps they could have done a lottery but then again its very short notice. But its the best they can do in a short time period.
Anyway, late last night there was some upsets in some of the mid major conferences tournaments In the Big West, both top seed UC Santa Barbara and second seed Cal Northridge lost, so the final there is Cal State Fullerton vs. UC Irvine (a 3 seed vs. a 5 seed). In the WAC, tournament host New Mexico State knocked off #1 seed Nevada, while #3 Boise State ended the WAC career of Jaycee Carroll and defeated #2 Utah State. Finally, in the Southland conference, two of the top seeds and highly touted mid majors, Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston state BOTH lost. Therefore in the Southland, you get #5 seed Texas Arlington facing #7 seed Northwestern State(15-17) Should Northwestern State win, you might get them in that play in game vs . Mount St Mary's.
In the Mountain West, Mid major bubble teams got the matchup they wanted, BYU and UNLV. With the Runnin Rebels beating Utah, I think that clinches a spot for UNLV in the tournament.
Finally, there is that supposed power conference that plays on the West Coast...oh yeah, the Pac-10. No upsets there. UCLA takes on Stanford in the championship.
As for bubble games today, there are three games with bubble implications. First, bubble teams are rooting for Kent State to beat Akron (the Golden Flashes are obviously already in). But Tom Kemp may get his wish, because Akron looked really good in easily beating Western Michigan while the entire Golden Flashes team must be in the whirlpool after their game vs. Miami Ohio.
Second, many bubble teams will be rooting for St Joe's to knock off Temple in the finals of the A10 today. A win by the Owls and you may very well see three teams from the A10 in the tournament (Xavier is already in and St Joe's two wins vs. Xavier and a win over Nova probably will get them in). Temple's non-conference resume as noted yesterday is much weaker than St Joe's.
Finally, there is a huge development in the BIg Ten that has bubble teams worried. Minnesota got a last second "Laettneresque" shot from Blake Hoffarber and beat #3 seeded Indiana in the quarterfinals. The Hoosiers have no one else to blame for this than themselves - they missed SIX free throws in the final 45 seconds in the game. Ewww. This sets up a Minnesota/Illinois semifinal after the # Fighting Illini knocked off #2 seed Purdue in the quarterfinals. Double Ewww (Minnesota has a RPI of 102 and Illinois, um 128). So you have a guaranteed potential bubble burster in the final. By the way, CBS, enjoy the ratings for that Illini/Gophers game at 4:00 pm EST today (first semfinal game is Michigan State - Wisconsin). Great lead in for that Pac-10 championship game, huh? Triple Ewww.
Enjoy the day!
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