Looking Ahead To Today's MIAC Championship Game - And Selection Monday

 It's finally here - the long-awaited MIAC Championship Game that will pit visiting Concordia against host GAC this afternoon at 2:00 P.M. at Lund Arena in St. Peter - the first time ever that GAC has hosted this event.  The Cobbers had to hold off a stern challenge from Hamline on Friday night to get here while the Gusties breezed past CSB as expected.  Now the question swirling around this contest is does either team have enough on their resume to gain an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament with Selection Monday looming right around the corner.  In this case, I think it depends on who you're talking about.  With GAC currently at 24-2 overall, I personally think they're in great shape should they somehow stumble today at home against Concordia.  The Cobbers on the other hand might very well be a longshot to get in - even though they have wins against two regionally-ranked opponents - Amherst; ranked third in Region 1 that Concordia beat right before the first of the year out in Vegas - and against said GAC team back in late November up in Moorhead.  At the same time, the Cobbers also have three "bad" losses that stick out too - to Bethel and Augsburg in early December and then the shocking loss to St. Kate's in early January.  To understand this better, it's also important to look at what's going on elsewhere in Region 9.

First, we know that the UMAC situation will get cleared up today as Northwestern hosts North Central at 2:00 P.M. as well over in Roseville as the winner will get the conference's AQ while the loser will be left out in the cold.  Ditto for the NACC where St. Norbert knocked off Wisconsin Lutheran yesterday to gain that conference's AQ.  And in the Midwest Conference, Knox gained its first-ever trip to the Dance by knocking off favored Ripon yesterday to gain the AQ.  

Where things start getting messy is when we turn out attention to the WIAC.  In one of the semifinal games on Friday night, UW-Stout blew a 19-point lead and lost 68-67 to UW-Eau Claire which pretty much cements the Blugolds into the Dance as an at-large team while the Blue Devils now appear to be out of the picture.  It appears that UW-Oshkosh (b'gosh) is a solid bet to get an at-large bid even though they fell to UW-Whitewater on Friday night in the other semifinal game.  So, the WIAC undoubtedly will be a three-bid league.

Meanwhile, Loras upended host Wartburg yesterday in the ARC Championship Game at Waverly to gain that conference's AQ so while the Knights would still seem to be a pretty good bet to snare one of the at-large bids, they're going to have to sweat it out a bit.  

I'm wondering if perhaps the fact that UW-Stout wound up playing themselves out of picture with that loss to UW-Eau Claire on Friday night if that MIGHT open up a path for Concordia in a scenario where they fall to GAC in the MIAC Championship Game today.  I don't know......I'm not counting on it but am simply throwing it out there as a possibility.  We'll see.

Anyway, will be heading down to St. Peter today for the MIAC Championship Game a little later on this A.M. Because of time constraints with me going back to work tomorrow and the Selection Show tomorrow afternoon, I'm planning to do something a bit different in that I'm going to provide a game re-cap so I can have something for this game in my blog BEFORE the Selection Show tomorrow.  I don't often resort to this method unless I'm at the Girl's State Tournament but in light of how the schedule was altered with Winter Storm Olive this last week, I probably don't have much of a choice.  But I do plan on being as thorough as possible so bear with me.  :)

To be sure, a big day today and tomorrow.  Always a fun time of the year for sure!  Feel free to fire away with thoughts.