Championship Saturday Review

Conference USA

(7) Tulsa 51 – (1) Memphis 77

When is a game with a 26-point margin of victory not as close as the final score indicates? When it’s this game. Memphis had a pretty easy road through a pretty easy conference this year.

America East

(2) Hartford 65 – (1) UMBC 82

This was a surprisingly interesting game for a 17-point victory. The first half was fascinating because Jay Greene was incredible and as a team UMBC would never miss. The second half was interesting because Hartford had a stretch where they stopped missing threes and it appeared as though they might get back in it. Eventually the shots stopped dropping with such regularity and the Retrievers pulled away.

SEC

(6E) Georgia 56 – (2E) Kentucky 60

(2W) Arkansas 91 – (1E) Tennessee 92

(6E) Georgia 64 – (1W) Mississippi State 60

I understand Kentucky is likely in regardless of this loss and their conference record is impressive. However, the SEC was down this year and their resume really is not that good. I would still have Kentucky in, but I probably consider them closer to the cut line than most. Then, after the final two games of the day bubble teams need to root for Arkansas to beat Georgia. Well, Arkansas already lost to Georgia once this year, and by 13 even. If I’m a bubble team rooting for Arkansas not to blow a game I’m feeling very uncomfortable right now.

ACC

(4) Virginia Tech 66 – (1) North Carolina 68

(3) Clemson 78 – (2) Duke 74

Virginia Tech nearly punched their ticket. I heard some people claim that Virginia Tech might need to not only beat North Carolina but also win the whole tournament. I don’t necessarily buy that but I would agree that they’re out now. If Clemson beating Duke surprised you then I don’t know what to tell you; Duke has not been playing great basketball. In fact, Duke is a decent bet to lose the opening weekend if you are looking for one of those kinds of picks.

Big 10

(4) Michigan State 63 – (1) Wisconsin 65

(10) Illinois 54 – (6) Minnesota 50

The outcomes of today’s games were probably ideal for bubble teams. Wisconsin is clearly more trustworthy than Michigan State (even if less talented). Based on the results of the entire year bubble teams should probably fear Minnesota more than Illinois. All that said, Illinois has been pretty good this weekend and one more upset would not be shocking. Still, I’d be more surprised by Illinois getting in than Georgia.

Big 12

(4) Oklahoma 49 – (1) Texas 77

(6) Texas A&M 71 – (2) Kansas 77

So, we’ll get exactly the championship game we should get. That was a game effort by Texas A&M, but really there was not much drama in Kansas City on Saturday.

Pac 10

(2) Stanford 64 – (1) UCLA 67

That was a pretty nice performance by Collison. That’s three UCLA wins over Stanford this year and both should be looking at nice seeds.

Atlantic 10

(5) St. Joseph’s 64 – (2) Temple 69

So, what do we have here? I’d still stay St. Joseph’s is in good shape to be the third team in from the A-10 but they’ll be sweating at least a little big on Sunday. After looking at Temple’s resume I think this was a must win for the Owls. It looks like I’ve been underestimating Temple all year long and they should be a legit number two team out of the A-10.

Mountain West

(1) BYU 61 – (2) UNLV 76

This game was really not that lopsided. UNLV was probably in even with a loss but their resume had enough holes that they probably feel pretty good about getting the automatic bid. BYU is clearly in as well. I can’t imagine New Mexico making it three bids for the MWC.

SWAC

(4) Jackson State 58 – (2) Mississippi Valley State 59

Hey, at least Mississippi Valley State has a top 250 RPI! We should be seeing them in Dayton.

Mid-American

(3) Akron 55 – (1) Kent State 74

This was a dangerous game for the bubble teams as Akron is a pretty decent team. Kent State got up to a decent early lead and just let it grow. There was not much doubt during most of the game.

Mid-Eastern

(7) Coppin State 62 – (1) Morgan State 60

Hey, Coppin State has made history! They are the first 20-loss team ever to make the NCAA tournament! Still, I want to know how many 20-loss teams in NCAA history have had a stretch where they’ve won 12 of 13 games. Coppin State sure didn’t make things easy on themselves. They won their 4 conference tournament games by an average of 1.5 points per game.

Big East

(7) Pittsburgh 74 – (1) Georgetown 65

How about Pitt, eh? The Panthers figure to get a seed in the NCAA tournament better than the 7 seed they had in the Big East tournament. Today’s win was over a Georgetown team that had been fantastic in their two games so far this weekend. No one will want to see Pitt in their bracket right now.

WAC

(4) Boise State 107 – (3) New Mexico State 102

This game was ridiculous. It was also one of those games where I felt for the fans of the Big West teams waiting for Boise State to finally wrap it up so they could watch their team play on ESPN2. The part that was even worse was that Boise State seemed like they had the game wrapped up several times and New Mexico State kept coming back and coming back before finally running out of juice. Real fun game though.

Big West

(3) CSU Fullerton 81 – (5) UC Irvine 66

Well, this is nice. CSU Fullerton surely has a nicer resume than UC Irvine and we’d rather have them in for that reason alone. Still, it seems unlikely that they’ll be challenging anyone next week.