Saturday, March 9, 2019

First Blood

The first team has fought its way into the NCAA tournament, and that team is OVC champion Murray State (chosen by 23 entrants) who tonight vanquished Belmont (selected by 31).

But that's by no means the only news of the day. Possibly the most astonishing was South Dakota State (an overwhelming favorite, with support from 51 contestants) losing to last-seeded Western Illinois in the first round of Summit League tournament. The result being the Summit team with the most support has become Omaha, taken by just five risk-seeking souls (J Donadio Jr., L Leach, M Peloso, Templeton 2, J Whiteside). In the Big South, Campbell (liked by 22) fell to Gardner-Webb (favored by just J Whiteside), a team that now must face Radford (picked by 29) tomorrow for the Big South championship. In the MVC, our two big favorites (last year's Final Four darling Illinois-Chicago (30) and Seinfeld love-or-hate interest the Drake (19)) both lost, meaning either Bradley (zeroed in by zero) or Northern Iowa (ditto) will represent the MVC in the NCAA tournament and ensuring that absolutely none of our contestants will have selected the MVC winner.

In addition to the Big South and the MVC, tomorrow will feature the conference championship of the Atlantic Sun, where the winner will be either Liberty (16) or Lipscomb (38) -- and not, as erroneously reported in certain sources, Liberty or Death. On Tuesday, in the NEC, it'll be St. Francis PA (28) or Fairleigh Dickinson (21)

Enjoy springing forward.

No comments: