While UST wrapped up its fifth straight MIAC Championship Game yesterday with a convincing 77-65 win over SMU for the MIAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, some unexpected results elsewhere shook things up in a way that not even I would have expected. That in mind, let's revisit the immediate surroundings and see how things stand going into the NCAA Tournament pairings that will be announced Monday afternoon (2-29-16).
MIAC - While the Tommies wrapped up the automatic berth (again), there was a lot of speculation going around on SMU's chances after yesterday's loss. My gut feeling is that they're in given the fact that they have 21 wins but, more importantly, five of their six losses have come against either ranked teams or likely NCAA Tournament participants. The only "bad" loss they have was the loss to Augsburg at home back in late January. So they SHOULD have enough on their resume to get an at-large bid. GAC, at 20-7, likely doesn't have enough on their resume to warrant an invitation and they can look at their schedule and point to a couple of games that did them in - the loss to Coast Guard Academy during their Puerto Rico trip and that home overtime loss to CSB on January 20th. At 22-5, they would have been much, much harder to keep out. The other big question surrounding the two likely NCAA tourney participants is exactly where do they get sent to? Because the UST men's team is ranked higher, they will get to host at Schoenecker Arena which forces the women's team to throw itself to the mercy of the NCAA Committee wrt placement and seeding. The Tommies would likely be the number one seed wherever they go but just where they go is anybody's guess at the moment. Does the committee split up the Tommies and Cardinals and send them off to different pods or do they throw them in together somewhere?
WIAC - Many thought UW-River Falls was a shoo-in to win the WIAC Championship Game yesterday afternoon but UW-Oshkosh had other ideas and went into Karges Center and upset the Falcons 65-64 to claim the title and the WIAC's automatic berth into the Dance. That was one of the monkey wrenches that was thrown into the grand plan yesterday and even though UW-River Falls is a lock to get into the Dance, the question now becomes do they get to host? Logic would have it that, given their proximity to the Twin Cities and relatively short trips for UST, SMU and perhaps Loras, that would make sense. Then again, I learned a long time ago that logic does not always prevail when it comes to the NCAA Committee. UW-Oshkosh would seemingly be in prime position to host a pod given that they did get the WIAC's automatic bid. Keep in mind as well that UW-Stevens Point is in decent shape here for an at-large bid as well with an identical 20-7 record as GAC's but likely has a stronger SOS than the Gusties do. In the final analysis, don't be shocked or surprised if the WIAC gets three bids tomorrow afternoon.
IIAC - The other monkey wrench thrown into the grand plan yesterday was when Loras made the trip up to Decorah yesterday and summarily shocked regular season champ Luther 75-60 to win the IIAC Championship Game and get the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. A Luther win yesterday certainly would have simplified things as the Norse would have likely been the lone IIAC participant in the Dance. Now, however, Luther and the rest of the Decorah community has to be sitting on pins and needles as the Norse appear to be on the outside looking in. Even more odd is that Wartburg, thought to be an afterthought in this whole thing after losing to Coe in the IIAC quarterfinals, has now suddenly popped back into the forefront and could quite possibly be a beneficiary of Luther's misfortunes yesterday which is cruelly ironic given the Knight - Norse rivalry. And GAC from the MIAC likely had to throw a fit as well as it desperately needed a Norse victory yesterday to keep both Loras and Wartburg out of the equation. Given that UST will not be hosting a first/second-round pod, Luther would have been in prime position to step right in had they won yesterday. It's still possible for the Norse to get in......I've seen stranger things happen. I think they deserve to get in. But what I think and what the Committee thinks are likely two vastly different things.
UMAC - UW-Superior took care of business last night as they dispatched Northwestern to claim not only the UMAC Championship Game title but more importantly, clinched their first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament after near-misses the last few years with an impressive 24-3 record. These are unchartered waters for the Yellowjackets who are certainly basking in the joy of the moment and rightfully so. Now, with the years of frustration finally behind them, the big question for UW-Superior is exactly where to they get sent for their first-round game? One could make the case, I suppose, that UW-Superior might be a viable host candidate and I certainly would have no problem with that. I think that, in the end, that likely won't be the case and they'll get shipped off to either UW-River Falls or over to UW-Oshkosh to fill a spot. No matter where they go, you'd better not take this team coached by Don Mulhern lightly. This guy can flat-out coach the living daylights out of you.
As you can imagine, even with some issues settled there are still many more questions that need to be resolved and we'll get answers tomorrow afternoon. One thing helping all four of these conferences is that both George Fox of the Northwest Conference and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps of the SCIAC took care of business in their respective conference championship games last night which MAY give some of these bubble teams such as GAC, Luther, and Wartburg hope. Tune in tomorrow afternoon for the NCAA Selection show at 1:30 P.M. (Central Time) for all the answers.
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