In just a little over three hours from when I type this, the MIAC Championship Game between GAC and Augsburg over at Si Melby Hall will tip-off with the winner taking the AQ for the upcoming NCAA Tournament. This game today is unique in many different ways and has a few storylines revolving around it. First, it's the first ever playoff meeting between these two programs and both are seeking their first-ever MIAC Championship Game title. This will be the Gusties sixth trip to this venture and logic would hold that one of these times, they're going to finally win it. I'm wagering that today they'll finally do it. But, they're going to be facing an incredibly athletic Augsburg team that can not only get up and down the floor but can make life a living hell with their pressure defense. They know how to come after you in their own special way. In an odd kind of way, they're kind of like that cat with nine lives but after they had that miraculous comeback against Hamline on Friday night, you wonder how many lives this team has left.
Then you have another interesting angle to look at with this game - the Pupil (GAC Head Coach Laurie Kelly) taking on her former coach and mentor (Augsburg Head Coach Ted Riverso). Kelly (then Laurie Trow) starred at UST back in the early 90s when Riverso coached there so that aspect obviously adds a lot of attention to this game today. Both have tremendous admiration and respect for one another and how these two have seemingly resurrected their programs and brought them to this point is quite impressive. You look at the rosters of these two squads and both have an interesting mix of youngsters and experienced seniors; especially on the Augsburg side who have been in this game before. Still, I look at what GAC has done over these last two and a half weeks and how they've not only won games but have been winning by double-digits in the process. Hammering that point home even further is how they absolutely dismantled a very good Bethel team by thirty-four points on Friday night. This GAC team seems like it's on a mission and I think it's going to be awfully tough to deny them on this day.
With that said, now it's finally time to take a look at the bigger picture; nee, the NCAA Tournament. The conventional train of thought - particularly going into this week anyway - was that the MIAC was going to be strictly a one-bid league with only the winner of the MIAC Championship Game getting in with the AQ status. Considering how GAC was inexplicably dropped from the Regional Rankings this last Wednesday and replaced by Northwestern from the UMAC only seemed to substantiate that idea. However, some things happened on Friday night over on the UMAC side that may have drastically changed this line of thinking. Both Northwestern and Bethany Lutheran suffered upsets to North Central and UM-Morris, respectively. It's safe to say that the UMAC was likely only going to be a one-bid league anyway so with both Northwestern and Bethany Lutheran falling on Friday night, it's entirely conceivable that both will be left out of the last round of Regional Rankings come Monday. In essence, the winner of North Central - UM-Morris with everyone else left out in the cold and that could possibly allow the loser of the MIAC Championship Game today to perhaps find new life tomorrow. Not a guarantee, of course, but a possibility nonetheless. We'll see.
So let's take a look at some of the other neighboring conferences to see how things are shaping up there:
ARC - Simpson defeated Wartburg yesterday afternoon and Wartburg does appear to be in good shape for a bid. Somewhat surprisingly, Loras now appears to be on the outside looking in.
WIAC - UW-Eau Claire upset UW-Whitewater on Friday night to claim the AQ for the WIAC but UW-Whitewater appears to be in excellent shape for a bid and the guess here is that UW-Oshkosh (b'gosh) will get in as well.
NACC - Wisconsin Lutheran will face off with St. Norbert this afternoon as well and it's hard to say if the loser will get in or not.
Midwest Conference - This looks to be a one-bid league with champion Ripon getting in with the AQ.
So this is just what I'm seeing right now this A.M. We'll just have to see how things shake out. In the meantime, get your butt over to Si Melby Hall for the 2:00 P.M. tip off this afternoon. Be there or be square. Out.
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