I guess if there was a good ESPN-type name to call what’s going on today in college basketball, my suggestion is “Decision Saturday!” This is not to be confused with “Decision Sunday” or “Selection Sunday” tomorrow. A total of 12 conferences have finals today. It started when I woke up with the American East Conference championship game between the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) taking on Binghamton. Also in progress is the Conference USA final between No. 4 Memphis and Tulsa. After lunch Pacific Time, USC, which upset No. 15 UCLA late last night, facing No. 23 Arizona State in the Pac-10 championship. The Big 12 final has another upstart Baylor playing No. 14 Missouri. The Temple Owls... [Read more]

While all of us were watching our big tournament games from the big BCS conferences yesterday, another team that many, if not all of us outside of the Patriot League have never hear of, will be dancing with the big boys next week. American University (if that’s not a great, typical for a school that plays in the Patriot League, I don’t know what is), advanced to the Big Dance yesterday by defeating Holy Cross 73-57. The Eagles (another great, typical name) have won 13 straight and 20 of the last 22. They finished the regular season 24-7 and 13-1 in the conference play. The Eagles didn’t really have any quality wins, but did have some quality losses against the likes of Oklahoma, Georgetown and Maryland. The Eagles are in the... [Read more]

Where was I? In bed ready to go to sleep, thinking about the meetings and conference calls I have today. It was about 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time when I checked on I think the fourth or fifth overtime and thought, “ok, UConn has this thing won. I can go to sleep now.” My wife came in and asked why was I still awake. I told her what was going on, explaining the significance of the game, she said, “oh you have to stay with this until it’s over.” Thanks a lot. By the time it was over and Associated Press number 18th ranked Syracuse pulled off a 127-117 six freaking overtime win against No. 3 UConn, all I could think about was all you poor souls east of the Mississippi who also stayed up for the whole thing. After all, it... [Read more]

Robert Morris (24-10) ended a 17-year drought by advancing to the Big Dance in a low-scoring 48-46 win against Mount St. Mary’s (19-13) for the Northeast Conference championship last night. Dallas Green (wasn’t he once the Philadelphia Phillies manager?) grabbed a loose ball and went the distance for the game winning score. Congrats to Robert Morris, but don’t get too excited. Chances are you will be the one playing in the play-in game against, I’m guessing, Morehead State to see who makes the official 64. Right after that game, I was going to check in and see some of the Big Sky Conference championship between Portland State and Montana State. I tuned in only to find that it had been blacked out in the Los Angeles market. There... [Read more]

Here are the pairings for the NCAA Division II tournament, which gets underway Saturday. And it will actually end in March! And news from the Division II home page. The NCAA announced its 64-team field for this year’s Division II Tournament Sunday night and the two teams that finished the season undefeated could hook up in a national quarterfinal match if they can both win regionals that they will be hosting this weekend. Findlay, the top seed in the Midwest after finishing the year at 30-0, could square off with No. 2 LIU-C.W. Post (27-0) should the Pioneers win the East title. Findlay will open with defending regional champion Grand Valley State Saturday, while C.W. Post drew Philadelphia in the opening round. No. 3 BYU-Hawaii and the... [Read more]