Broad Street Believers

Rikey, who has been quietly climbing the standings for a couple days now, climbed them loudly today.  A HUGE day for the CTC rookie gave him his first day won and moved him up from 13th to 2nd.  Bry was second today, which means that he gained ground on everyone but Rikey and thanks to tough days for the two that were right behind him yesterday (Dave and Doogan), has opened up his overall lead to 159.  Right behind Rikey, Waters made the biggest stride forward today – jumping from 18th to 12th.  After climbing into contention two days ago, back-to-back rough days for Gersh has dropped him all the way back down to 18th.  With all the BIG-point games coming up in the next couple of days, there is a lot of oppotunity to move (in either direction), so stay tuned.

(NOTE:  An edit was made – the scores from the A-10 games were not counted for Dave and Cheryl on the first posting of the standings.  The correction has been made and these are the correct scores for Day Eight.)

DAY EIGHT SCORES (days won):

1. Rikey – 266 (1)
2. Bry – 229 (3)
3. J – 183 (1)
4. Waters – 183
5. Cheryl – 157
6. Stri – 144
7. Dan – 142
8. Dave – 137
9. Gross – 134 (1)
10. Teddy – 132
11. Alexi – 130
12. Lil Lohse – 128
13. Scoot – 126
14. Lohse – 124
15. KA – 100 (1)
16. Mac – 95
17. Doogan – 82 (2)
18. Lynch – 74
19. Primm – 66 (1)
20. Gersh – 36

OVERALL STANDINGS (conference won):

1. Bry – 1001 (CAA, Horizon, Summit, WCC)
2. Rikey – 858
3. J – 845 (A-Sun, OVC, Sun Belt)
4. Dave – 837 (A-Sun)
5. Gross – 794 (SoCon, Summit)
6. Stri – 776 (Summit)
7. Doogan – 772 (Big South)
8. Dan – 764 (A-Sun)
9. Teddy – 756 (Summit)
10. Lohse – 748 (Summit)
11. Alexi – 730 (MVC)
12. Waters – 729
13. Lil Lohse – 718 (Summit)
14. Scoot – 716
15. Primm – 672 (MAAC)
16. Lynch – 666 (Summit)
17. Mac – 663 (Summit)
18. Gersh – 642
19. Cheryl – 623 (Summit)
20. KA – 606

FINAL HORIZON STANDINGS (prior CTC titles):

1. Bry (’09, ’11) – 150*
2. Scoot – 144
3. Rikey – 138
4. Alexi – 126
5. Dan – 126
6. Teddy (’10) – 126
7. J – 120
8. KA – 120
9. Lil Lohse – 120
10. Lohse – 120
11. Waters (’08) – 114
12. Gross – 102
13. Dave – 90
14. Gersh – 90
15. Doogan (’10) – 84
16. Stri – 84
17. Mac – 72
18. Cheryl – 54
19. Lynch – 48
20. Primm – 28

SUMMIT LEAGUE FINAL STANDINGS:

1. Bry (’10, ’11) – 50
2. Cheryl (’11) – 50
3. Gross (’11) – 50
4. Lil Lohse (’11) – 50
5. Lohse (’10, ’11) – 50
6. Lynch (’11) – 50
7. Mac (’11) – 50
8. Stri (’09, ’11) – 50
9. Teddy (’11) – 50
10. Rikey – 44
11. Scoot – 44
12. Dan – 42
13. Doogan (’09) – 38
14. J – 38
15. Alexi (’10) – 36
16. Gersh – 34
17. Waters (’08) – 34
18. Primm – 32
19. Dave – 22
20. KA – 12

FINAL SUN BELT STANDINGS:

1. J (’11) – 70
2. Lohse – 66
3. Cheryl – 62
4. Teddy – 56
5. Doogan – 28
6. Bry – 26
7. Waters – 26
8. Gross – 24
9. Dave – 22
10. Primm – 22
11. Scoot – 22
12. Dan – 20
13. Gersh – 20
14. Lil Lohse – 20
15. Mac – 20
16. KA – 16
17. Rikey – 14
18. Lynch – 12
19. Alexi (’08) – 6
20. Stri (’10) – 6

Last Update: 10:18 AM
*Denotes recent update

And, so it begins!  As “mad” as the first 7 days have been, the true Madness is about to start.  Today is somewhat mad, but tomorrow and Thursday are certifiably insane.  Not sure much intro is needed here.  Let’s just play ball.

HORIZON LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP (48 points)
So, after three days off to possibly relocate (which wasn’t necessary), the Horizon is ready to declare a champion.  While both teams are currently in Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracket, UW-Milwaukee is only there because they are leading the Horizon (they are a 15-seed in his bracket) and Butler is barely hanging on with a 12-seed.  So, Milwaukee absolutely must have this game, and Butler could really, really use it.  A Butler win would complete a perfect Horizon bracket for Bry, while a Milwaukee win would complete nearly perfect brackets for Gersh and Primm (they only missed on opening round game).

#1 UW-Milwaukee vs. #2 Butler
The old adage goes (which I think it pretty dumb), “it’s hard to beat a team three times in one year.”  Well, UW-Milwaukee will try and do just that tonight against Butler, having swept the season series from the defending Final Four team.  The Panthers, on their home floor, took care of a good Valpo team by shooting the lights out in an 88-78 win on Saturday night.  In the early game Saturday, Butler knocked off a really good Cleveland State team in impressive fashion, giving the Bulldogs a shot to avenge the season sweep they suffered at the hands of Milwaukee.  Only Lynch (Cleveland State) and Mac (Valparaiso) do not have a shot at the 48 points up for grabs tonight in Milwaukee.  Doogan, Stri, Cheryl, Dave, Gersh, and Primm have Milwaukee.  The other 12 entries have Butler.

*FINAL SCORE:  Butler 59 – UW-Milwaukee 44
One of the most impressive things that happened during Championship Week took place just seconds after the final whistle in the Horizon League championship.  The Bulldogs acted as if they had just won a regular season game.  There wasn’t the jubilant celebration; there wasn’t the leaping and yelling usually associated with the clinching of an automatic bid.  Butler acted as if they expected to win and that this was just another step.  While they are very excited to return and try and defend their Final Four trip, but it was very workmanlike.  Matt Howard was a beat, scoring 18, but it was the Butler defense tonight, who gave up 86 and 76 in two regular season losses to the Panthers, but today it looked like a whole new team.  A dozen CTC’ers had Butler winning this tournament, including Bry, who completes a perfect Horizon bracket to win his second CTC HL title in the last three years.  Defending CTC HL champ, Teddy, only missed one game.

SUMMIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP (16 points)
Instead of 18 regular season games and a 3-round tournament, why didn’t we just have a best of 21 between Oakland and Oral Roberts?  Far and away the two best teams for 3 months now and they will now play 40 minutes for all the marbles.  A whole slew of entries have hit this tournament exactly right so far, but only two of them (Waters and Gersh) would finish off perfection with an ORU win here.  If Oakland wins, this conference title will be shared a nine-way tie, including Bry and Lohse, who would each pick up a second straight Summit title.

#1 Oakland vs. #2 Oral Roberts
Oakland dropped 110 points on South Dakota State last night, while ORU took care of business against a good IUPUI team, setting up the league’s dream final.  KA is the only one that doesn’t have either of these two teams winning this tournament (IPFW).  Of the other 19, only 3 have ORU – Waters, Dave, and Gersh.

*FINAL SCORE:  Oakland 90 – Oral Roberts 76
The Golden Grizzlies completed a year-long domination of the Summit League with an impressive 14-point win in the championship game.  Keith Benson (a big-time college player in a small-time program) scored 28, while his sidekick Reggie Hamilton added 26.  This is one of the most potent offenses in any conference and will give some #4-seed next week some headaches in preparation.  16 entries had Oakland winning this tournament, including nine who completed a perfect Summit bracket and will share the 2011 CTC title 9 ways (Mac, Gross, Cheryl, Teddy, Lil Lohse, Lohse, Lynch, Stri, and Bry).

SUN BELT CHAMPIONSHIP (16 points)
a I bet if you asked 20 educated basketball fans to come up with the two Sun Belt finalists this year, you’d only get about four people to even get ONE of them.  At least, that is what my research tells me.  This conference has completely blown up and we are left with the 8-seed versus the 10-seed in the championship game.  J, who does have N. Texas winning this tournament, has already locked up the 2011 Sun Belt title, since no one has UALR.

#4W N. Texas vs. #5W AR-Little Rock
The crazy, unexpected final is here.  The Mean Green versus the Trojans – set your DVRs!  N. Texas has rolled through this tournament like they were expected to do in the regular season, winning last night by 19 over WKU.  UALR has mainly been a one-man show all year – Solomon Bozeman – and that one man has been good enough this week to get them three wins and reach the finals.  It should be interesting to see how the 4 games in 4 nights affects either of these teams.  You might think that N. Texas (the deeper team) would have the edge, but when you have a guy like Bozeman guarded by tired legs, you never know what he can do.  Clearly no one has UALR here (no one had them even getting out of the quarters), but J, Lohse, and Cheryl do all have N. Texas winning this thing.  What an amazing pick that will turn out to be if it comes through.

FINAL SCORE: AR-Little Rock 64 – N. Texas 63
An absolutely wild Sun Belt tournament comes to a fitting finish, with the most thrilling title game we’ve had yet this year.  This game was nip and tuck the whole way, until N. Texas opened up a 7 point lead with 1:30 to play.  But the Trojans scored 6 quick points.  Fast forward to 7 seconds remaining, and N. Texas going to the free throw line with a 1 point lead.  They make 1 of 2, then the Little Rock gets the ball down the floor and to the Sun Belt Player of the Year, Solomon Bozeman, who hits a 3 at the buzzer to give the Trojans the game, the conference title, and a trip to the First Four in Dayton next week.  Wow.  Nobody picked them to win here, and J, Lohse, and Cheryl see their excellent N. Texas pick doomed at the last second.

ATLANTIC 10 OPENING ROUND (10 points each)
On the first day of the 5x tournaments, the A-10 gives us 4 opening round games at various sites around the league before the scene shifts to America’s Playground for the rest of the tournament Thursday through Sunday.  It was another interesting year in the A-10, but, for once, I’m not sure that this league in underrated this year.  I think Temple and Xavier have gotten their just due, and though I believe Richmond to be highly underrated, I also think that Duquesne was highly overrated for most of the season, so I guess it all evens out.

#7 St. Bonaventure vs. #10 LaSalle
A decent season for one of these teams will end in Olean, NY, tonight.  St. Bonaventure’s season was a little more “decent” than LaSalle’s.  While, they didn’t really beat any of the best teams in the conference, and didn’t beat anyone any good outside of Olean, they did finish at .500 in the conference and knocked off St. John’s in the non-conference.  This is another step forward from a program that not too long ago faced questions about its future in D-I.  LaSalle, who simply cannot seem to put it all together in any one season, had another up-and-down season that was not supposed to end in double-digit conference losses after a decent non-conference.  The Bonnies are awfully tough at home, so it’s a tall order for LaSalle here.  The winner will get #2 Temple in the quarters.  J and Rikey are the only two with the Explorers in the upset pick, and no one has either of these teams upsetting the Owls in the quarters.

FINAL SCORE: La Salle 75 – St. Bonaventure 73 (2OT)
La Salle goes into Olean, NY and comes back from an 11-point halftime deficit to send the game to OT and eventually edge the Bonnies.  The Explorers will now face Big 5 rival Temple when they get to Atlantic City.  J and Rikey hit this upset pick.

#5 George Washington vs. #12 St. Joe’s
The real surprise team of the year in the A-10 was GW, and they did it with a very young team, and, even more impressively, with their one elite player (sophomore star Lasan Kromah) missing the whole season with an injury.  As overdue as I believe Karl Hobbs from needing a new job to be, I think he may have been the coach of the year in the conference this year.  On the other side of this matchup is the St. Joe’s Hawks.  My mother said that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything, so I will not comment on their arrogant, highly overrated, obnoxious coach.  I am a St. Joe’s fan, but until they go in a new direction on the sidelines, I cannot support them.  That being said, I was very pleased with how this season played out because, well, they stink, and it is all because that guy is just not a very good coach – he just got lucky that no one else wanted some guy named Jameer Nelson.  The winner of this game will play the upstart Duquesne Dukes in the quarters.  Bry, Waters, Cheryl, Rikey, and Dave all have the Hawks in a pretty big upset here.  And, on the other side, 6 people (Lynch, Lil Lohse, KA, Teddy, Dan, and Gersh) have GW upsetting Duquesne next round.  Lynch even has the Colonials going to the finals.

FINAL SCORE: St. Joe’s 71 – George Washington 59 (OT)
On a night when Nova goes down, St. Joe’s and La Salle pick up conference tourney wins.  It’s Bizarro Big 5.  After blowing a big 2nd half lead, the Hawks showed a lot of heart by outscoring GW 22-10 in the overtime for the win.  Bry, Waters, Cheryl, Rikey, and Dave hit this big upset pick.

#6 Rhode Island vs. #11 St. Louis
a The A-10 is a good league with several good (possibly elite) teams.  Rhode Island wasn’t one of them.  They were okay, but not great, by any means.  The A-10 named its first-team all-conference team the other day and it did not include any Rams.  However, I am wiling to go out on a limb and say that the best NBA player currently on an A-10 roster will be URI’s Delroy James.  If he gets his head on straight and commits himself on the defensive end, this guy has all the tools to be a productive NBA player.  And, tonight, James leads his 6th-seeded Rams up against Rick Majerus’s St. Louis Bilikens.  It has been a really disappointing season for the hefty former Utah coach, as he has everyone back from a year ago and yet, they seemed to take a step backwards.  We wil see if they can get it together at the right time.  The winner of this game will go to AC to battle Richmond in the quarters.  The Bilikens were a popular upset pick here in the first round.  Bry, J, Doogan, Waters, Lynch, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Teddy, Cheryl, Dave, Primm, and Gross all have StL in this one.  Dave even has them again next round over Richmond.  KA (a proud URI alum) has the Rams going to the semis.

FINAL SCORE:  Rhode Island 70 – St. Louis 61
I can second Bry’s assertion that Delroy James is an NBA player, and he stuffed the stat sheet tonight with 17 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 6 turnovers, helping the Rams to a pretty easy home win over the underachieving Billikens.  Most of the field mistakenly went for the upset.

#8 Massachusetts vs. #9 Dayton
Chris Wright is a mystery to me.  This guy should be so good by now, his senior year, and he is just kind of okay – just like his Dayton team.  Chris Johnson is a nice player, and I LOVE their freshman point guard, Jawan Staten, but this team grossly underachieved again this year.  It is coach Gregory?  On the other side, the year started off pretty well for the Minutemen, but in the end, they dissolved back into what they really are these days – a middle-of-the-road A-10 team that is good at home and not so good on the road.  The winner of this game will get #1 Xavier on Thursday in Jersey.  It is not surprising that Dayton is a popular upset pick here, but this is pretty ridiculous.  Only KA, Dave, and Gersh have UMass winning here even in Amherst.  Gross has Dayton beating Xavier in the quarters.

*FINAL SCORE:  Dayton 78 – Massachusetts 50
One of the most talented #9-seeds you will see in any conference in America shed off the season-long underrated play – at least for one night – in absolutely pummelling UMass on their home floor.  17 entries hit this mild upset, and Gross keeps alive his longshot prediction of Dayton knocking off Xavier in the quarters.

BIG EAST FIRST ROUND (5 points each)
The only conference tournament that goes 5 rounds is the Big East and, as much as I love to pile on the Big East for their arrogance and, most of all, for their incredible annual overratedness, I actually love the Big East tournament.  As you can probably tell from all of these write-ups, I love mid-major basketball and always go to bat for those that deserve more respect.  And, because of that, I tend to rip on the Big East and ACC a little more than they deserve.  This might come as a surprise (it surprises me), but I don’t think there is any question that this conference deserves 11 bids next Sunday.  And, with 11 deserving tournament teams in one tournament, it should be fascinatingly interesting, even today, when some of the worst rich conference teams take the floor at MSG.  However, for the record, just because I think they will get 11 teams in doesn’t mean I think they are a great conference.  I think they have 1 legit championship contender (Pitt), whereas at least 4 other conferences have 2.  I think they have some pretty bad bottom-feeders – way worse than teams like Iowa State, Indiana, or Arizona State.  And, I think a lot of these “tournament” teams are vastly overrated (UConn, Villanova, Cincinnati, even St. John’s).  So, yes, this conference is deserving of 11 teams, but is still vastly overrated.

#9 Connecticut vs. #16 DePaul
DePaul is terrible.  The fact that the conference generally considered as the best in the country has a team that is so bad almost offends me.  But, at least, they are penciled in for the noontime opening round game every year in the tournament, and, by 2:00 on Tuesday, before we even know what’s happening, we can forget they even played in the Big East this year.  UConn, though they drew DePaul, really got punished for their troubles down the stretch, as they now have to win 5 games in 5 nights to be crowned Big East champion.  For all the crap I talk about the Big East, for teams like UConn, Villanova, and Marquette to not even finish in the top eight is a pretty impressive feather in a conference’s cap.  UConn might make some noise in this tournament because MSG usually brings out the best in individual players, and UConn’s Kemba Walker is one of the best there is.  Plus, the winner of this game gets a beat up G’town team in the second round before a possible date with #1 Pitt.  And, crazy things happen in the Garden in March.  Depite everything that he said about them in this previous paragraph, Bry is taking the longshot of DePaul to beat UConn here – ya, it’s no surprise that he’s the only one.  In fact, UConn is getting a lot of love after this game, as only Bry, J, Waters, Cheryl, Dave, and Gross do NOT have them winning again in Round 2.  No one has them beating Pitt in the quarters, though.

FINAL SCORE:  Connecticut 97 – DePaul 71
This game actually got a little bit tight in the 2nd half, but Kemba Walker scores 26 points, Alex Oriakhi grabs 19 rebounds, and the Huskies dispatch lowly DePaul with relative ease to kickoff the Big East tourney.  Bry, with memories of an 0-18 DePaul picking up a win in this tourney a year or two ago, swung for the big upset but missed.

#12 Seton Hall vs. #13 Rutgers
a The cut line for good teams versus not very good teams is pretty distinct in the Big East this year, and it is drawn just above these two teams.  So, the “best of the worst” in the conference will face off in a 12/13 game for the right to play the two most heavily supported teams in the Garden – #5 St. John’s next round and #4 Syracuse in the quarters.  But, this is a different Seton Hall team now with a healthy Jeremy Hazell, so we’ll see what they have here in NYC.  Bry, J, KA, Cheryl, Dave, Gross, and Mac all have Rutgers in a mild upset pick here.  KA has Rutgers reaching the quarters.  Scoot has The Hall in the quarters.

FINAL SCORE: Rutgers 76 – Seton Hall 70 (OT)
A really uninteresting game to anyone outside northern New Jersey at least provided some excitement.  It was a battle of the two star players: Jonathan Mitchell for Rutgers and Jeremy Hazell for the Hall.  Mitchell hit a 3 in the final minute to put Rutgers in the lead, but Hazell, who finished with 27 points, hit a 3 of his own with 4 seconds left to tie it.  In the OT, Mitchell scored 8 of the team’s 12 points and Hazell scored none, and that was the difference.  7 entries hit the upset pick here.

#10 Villanova vs. #15 S. Florida
Everyone is talking about the complete free fall that has stricken a once-elite Villanova team this year.  On February 9, when Villanova led Rutgers by 3 in the waning seconds of a game in East Rutherford, the ‘Cats were on the verge of improving to 8-2 in the league and 20-6 overall.  They were in the top 10 in the country and comfortably in position for one of those double-byes in the Big East tournament.  Then, they gave up a ridiculous 4-point play at the buzzer, lost to Rutgers, and started their apparent tailspin.  They lost three days later to Pitt, then barely beat two Big East bottom feeders, including DePaul in OT, and then lost four straight to close out the season as the #10-seed.  But, as far as “free falls” go, this one is not nearly as scary as most.  Every one of these four straight losses came to ranked teams, including the last two @Pitt and @ND – not exactly killer losses.  All that being said, though, I think it’s how they are playing that is worrying people the most.  They just don’t look good.  Where is Corey Fisher?  I thought he was a superstar?  No?  Anyway, the ‘Cats open their Big East tournament with a bad USF team and then would get a beatable Cincinnati team, so they may just end up in that quarterfinal round after all – they will just have 80 extra minutes of basketball in their legs.  No one was tempted with the USF upset pick here over ‘Nova.  In fact, most people have ‘Nova doing pretty well.  Everyone except Doogan, Alexi, Dan, and Gersh have them beating Cincy next round.  KA, Teddy, Cheryl, and Dave have them then beating Notre Dame in the quarters.  And, Teddy and Cheryl even have them going all the way to the finals.

FINAL SCORE:  South Florida 70 – Villanova 69
An absolute stunner here on Day 1 of the Big East tourney, as Nova’s late season collapse hits its worst point yet, with a loss to lowly S. Florida.  Mouphtaou Yarou left the game in the 1st half with an injury, but that doesn’t come close to explaining this loss.  Could the Wildcats actually miss the NCAA tournament?  That would be an amazing turn of events.  S. Florida PG Anthony Crater only scored 6 points all game, but his two late layups delivered the win.  Condolences to all you Nova fans out there after this one.  Brutal loss.

#11 Marquette vs. #14 Providence
Hands-down, the best 11th-place basketball team I have ever seen.  I know it’s a ridiculous statement because half the conferences in the country don’t even have 11 teams, let alone a ridiculous 16, but this ‘Quette team is real good.  Jimmy Butler and Darius Johnson-Odom are legit stars and they can run a couple of talented bigs at you.  This is going to be a good sleeper team in that other tournament next week.  But, for now, they have to deal with a pesky Providence team that made most of their bones in the Dunkin’ Donuts Center this year, but is always a tough out in MSG.  The winner here will get West Virginia tomorrow and is lined up with Louisville in the quarters.  Bry, Waters, KA, and Gross have Providence in the upset here, which would be bad news for a lot of the rest of the field, as ‘Quette is another popular pick to move on.  Scoot, Cheryl, Dan, Dave, Primm, Gersh, and Mac all have Marquette beating WVU next round.  Cheryl and Gersh have them in the semis.  Gersh has them reaching the championship.

*FINAL SCORE:  Marquette 87 – Providence 66
The Golden Eagles have probably cemented their at-large bid by getting fat on a team that really plays terrible defense.  The stars were shining for Marquette, as Darius Johnson-Odom had 23, and Jimmy Butler nearly messed around a got a triple-double (19 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists).  4 people missed this upset, including KA, who loses a quarterfinalist.  A bunch of people kept alive a Marquette team they have a lot of faith in, including Gersh, who has them in the finals.

BIG SKY SEMIFINALS (8 points each)
Well, it’s now been three days since the Big Sky’s thrilling quarterfinal round when the two favorites both erased 15+ point second-half deficits to advance to this round in Greeley, CO, where we will welcome the top two seeds to the tournament.  As for the CTC, everyone except Alexi has a chance to correctly pick the final matchup, but as for the predictions, they are absolutely all over the map between these four teams, so these games could go a long way in the CTC.

#3 Weber State vs. #2 Montana
a Weber State erased a 15-point second-half deficit against E. Washington in the quarters to advance to the semis.  The defending champion Montana Grizzlies enter the tournament after a solid season.  The Grizz had a shot at the #1-seed and the ability to host this tournament, but they fell to E. Washington in OT on the last day of the regular season.  So, now they have to play in Greeley in a neutral site here in the semis.  The Grizzlies are led by a couple of really skilled 7-footers in Brian Qvale and Derek Selvig.  Qvale is the real star, but Selvig has just enough athleticism to go along with his 84 inches of height to, at times, dominate a conference like the Big Sky.  But, Weber State – the preseason pick to win the conference – is no slouch.  This should be an excellent semifinal.  As well an a great basketball game, this will have a big impact on the CTC.  Alexi has already lost this game (EWU), but the other 19 all have one of these two in the finals.  9 people (J, Doogan, Lohse, Lil Lohse, KA, Scoot, Cheryl, Gersh, and Gross) have Weber State.  The other 10 have Montana.  J, Lohse, KA, Scoot, Gersh, and Gross all have Weber State winning this tournament.  Stri, Waters, Rikey, and Dave all have Montana winning it all.

FINAL SCORE: Montana 57 – Weber St. 40
Definitely a tale of two halves here, as Montana scores just 12 points in the 1st (and trailed by 10) and then 45 points after the break to win going away.  Brian Qvale picks up 16 points/17 boards and Weber St. shoots a ridiculous 21% from the field.  Montana moves on to the championship, where Stri, Waters, Rikey, and Dave will root ’em in.

#1 N. Colorado vs. #4 N. Arizona
a N. Arizona, like Weber, stared elimination right in the face and lived to tell about it.  They were down 16 points to a decent Montana State team in the second half before a furious comeback ended with the Lumberjacks moving on to the semis and a shot at #1 N. Colorado.  The Bears of the “other UNC” had one of the more surprising seasons in the country, coming from nowhere to win the Big Sky’s regular season title, mostly as a result of going 12-0 at home all year.  Because of their regular season title, that is where they will get to play their most important games of the year, starting tonight against N. Arizona.  This is another crazy game for CTC implications.  Everyone has one of these two teams in the final.  12 have the upset with NAU (J, Alexi, Waters, Lynch, Lohse, KA, Teddy, Dave, Gersh, Primm, Gross, and Mac).  9 have N. Colorado.  How does that work?  Well, Primm has both because of reseeding, so he’s guaranteed to get one right and one wrong.  The 8 not listed as picking NAU plus Primm have UNC.

*FINAL SCORE:  N. Colorado 73 – N. Arizona 70
A pretty awesome Big Sky tournament has another thriller in the nightcap, as the “other UNC” erases an 8-point second half deficit to beat NAU and move to the finals Wednesday night against Montana.  Cameron Jones had a good look at a three to tie at the buzzer, but it didn’t fall, and NAU will go home.  12 people miss this nice upset pick, and 6 people (Bry, Doogan, Lil Lohse, Cheryl, Dan, and Primm) keep their champ alive.

MAC OPENING ROUND (4 points each)
I have the say that the MAC might be the worst conference to try and follow if you are not a hard-core fan because all these directional Michigans are impossible to keep straight.  In recent years, it has not been that bad because they’ve all been pretty decent, but this year, I pretty much gave up on the MAC because one of them (Western) was good, one was okay (Central), and one was really bad (Eastern).  But, how is the casual fan going to remember that when the scores come along the bottom line or you see a game on TV?  By the way, if you are a gambling man, let me know and I will send you Teddy’s MAC picks.  Based on his performance last year, he has some sort of connection with this conference.  See the link in the snapshot below, if you want to get a sense of the epic performance from last year.

#5 Ohio vs. #12 Toledo
a The Bobcats came out of absolutely nowhere last year to win the MAC title and then knock of Georgetown in the first round of the NCAAs.  So, with nearly their whole team coming back, naturally, big things were expected of them this year.  But, it just never materialized.  They seemed unfocused and undisciplined, averaging more than 14 turnovers a game and playing lackluster defense.  But, the talent is there, and they started to find it down the stretch, winning 5 in a row before losing at Miami (OH) to end the regular season.  Toledo, on the other hand, wasn’t good all year, at any point.  The winner of this game will get 4th-seeded Ball State in the quarters on Thursday.  This team is bad.  No one picked Toledo in the upset here.  Bry, Doogan, Alexi, Lil Lohse, KA, Scoot, Dan, Dave, Gross, and Mac all have Ohio winning again in the quarters.  Scoot and Dave have them going to the finals.

FINAL SCORE: Ohio 74 – Toledo 57
Despite getting just 4 points from star guard D.J. Cooper, Ohio rolls over a really terrible Toledo team.  Good job by the CTC’ers of putting absolutely no faith in the Rockets of Toledo.

#6 Akron vs. #11 E. Michigan
a The Zips are another team that had expectations derailed this year because of a slow start.  But, like Ohio, they seem to be putting it together at just the right time.  And, also like Ohio, they get to open their conference tournament against a really bad team.  E. Michigan wasn’t supposed to be this bad, but they were.  A 6-21 record and an embarrassing 328 RPI has the Eagles at the bottom of the MAC this year.  The winner of this game will move on to the quarters to face #3 Miami (OH).  2 people (Lynch and Lil Lohse) went for the E. Michigan upset pick.  But, other then them, there was a lot of love for Akron.  Bry, J, Doogan, Alexi, Teddy, Dave, Primm, and Gross all have them winning again in the quarters.  J, Doogan, Alexi, Teddy, and Gross all actually have the Zips in the finals, though no one has them winning it.

FINAL SCORE:  Akron 67 – E. Michigan 53
Doesn’t look like any thing worth noting happened here, so we’ll move along.  Lynch and Lil Lohse see their upset pick fall short.

#7 Bowling Green vs. #10 N. Illinois
These two teams have pretty much the opposite story of Ohio and Akron.  They had little to no expectations this year at the start, but both got off to fast starts in the league and looked like they might surprise some people.  But, as the season progresses, they both fell back into who they are – which is mediocre, at best, MAC teams.  The winner here will go to Cleveland for the quarters and a date with W. Michigan.  Lynch, Lohse, Teddy, Scoot, Cheryl, Dan, Dave, Primm, and Gross all have NIU in a pretty popular upset pick.  J is the only one that has either of these teams winning next round, as he has Bowling Green in the semis.

FINAL SCORE: Bowling Green 74 – Northern Illinois 54
A close game for a while, but Bowling Green eventually pulls away and blows out N. Illinois.  A’uston Calhoun leads the way with 25 points/9 boards for the Falcons.  9 entries (including Teddy) miss on this upset pick.

#8 Buffalo vs. #9 C. Michigan
The Buffalo Bulls came out of the gates like gangbusters in the MAC season this year.  After losing in double-OT to Bowling Green and then by 3 @Miami (OH), the Bulls reeled off six straight wins during the most difficult part of their schedule.  These wins including a 25-point beatdown of the league’s best team, Kent State, and then road wins against two of the other legit contenders (WMU and Akron).  It looked like we had a real dark horse in the MAC this year.  But, they slipped back to reality with a couple tough losses and are now sitting as the #8-seed.  Their opponent tonight is C. Michigan, how had an up-and-down season after coming in as the preseason favorite to win the Western Division.  The Chippewas just couldn’t find any offense whatsoever, and are relegated to an opening round road game at Buffalo just to survive to Cleveland and take on #1 Kent State.  Alexi, Waters, Scoot, and Cheryl went for the mild upset pick of the Chippewas here.  Only one person has either of these teams doing anything in the next round – but that person is a believer.  Teddy (the king of the MAC) actually has Buffalo winning this tournament.  I’m calling my bookie right now…

FINAL SCORE: Buffalo 64 – C. Michigan 50
So far, so good for Teddy in the MAC.  His pick to win this tournament starts off well with an easy win at home over the Chippewas.  Star C. Michigan freshman Trey Zeigler may be regretting his decision to play for his dad’s team after this season.  Buffalo’s leading scorer, Zach Filzen, delivers with 21 points.

MEAC OPENING ROUND (2 points each)
The dumbest (i.e. most confusing) conference tournament, for a format-perspective, kicks off today in the MEAC.  I am (obviously) a junkie for these conference tournaments, and I have trouble figuring out who is playing when or even what round it is during this clusterF of a tournament.  Even ESPN is confused, as their “schedule” page lists a game today at TBD time between Hampton and Howard (two teams that couldn’t possibly meet until the finals).  Anyway, I think I might have it, sort of, figured out this year, but no guarantees.  I think they start with two of the three opening round games today.  Then, tomorrow, there is the third opening round game and two quartefinals.  Then, on Thursday will be the other two quarterfinals, before a typical Friday-Saturday semis and finals.  It seems to be an attempt to give the top two seeds some scheduling advantage, but who knows?  Fortunately, they are set to add a 12th team (N.C. Central) to the conference shortly, so maybe they’ll have a somewhat normal format.

#7 Florida A&M vs. #10 MD-Eastern Shore
a This was supposed to be the year for UMES.  This team has been the doormat of the MEAC since its entrance into the league.  But, last year, they finished 8-8 in league play and sixth place (out of last-place for the first time ever).  They even won their first-round MEAC tournament game over Coppin State before bowing, by three, to eventual finalists South Carolina State.  So, with a lot of that team back this year, they set their sights on possibly even competing for a MEAC title.  But, it went very wrong, as their bad non-conference turned into a bad conference season.  They did avoid an ignominious return to the cellar, but only on a tiebreaker with Howard.  FAMU, who was picked to finish in last in the league, was actually a bit of a pleasant surprise this year towards the end of the year.  They had a dreadful non-conference and a pretty bad start to conference play, but really had a nice second-half in conference, highlighted by a solid four-game winning streak that included Morgan, Coppin, and Delaware St.  They also pulled off an impressive season sweep of one of the league’s best teams – Hampton.  They will get a shot to do it a third time if they win tonight, as the winner gets Hampton in the quarters tomorrow.  UMES is a relatively popular upset pick, as Bry, J, Doogan, Alexi, Lynch, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Teddy, Dave, and Gross all went with the Hawks over the Hornets here.  Stri and Scoot are the only two with either of these teams in the semis, as they has FAMU beating Hampton in the quarters.  Stri even has the Rattlers in the finals.

*FINAL SCORE:  MD-Eastern Shore 87 – Florida A&M 85 (2 OTs)
A thrilling way to kick off the 2011 MEAC tournament, as UMES knocks off FAMU in double-OT.  Avery Moore for FAMU tied the game in regulation, and Hillary Haley hit a three late in the first OT to keep UMES alive and send the game to double-OT, where the Hawks jumped out to a 5-point lead and held on at the free throw line.  A good number of people hit this upset, and Stri saw his bracket busted, as he had FAMU going to the finals. 

#8 Delaware State vs. #9 South Carolina State
While UMES was probably the most disappointing team in the MEAC this year, the two teams in the 8/9 game tonight were right behind.  DSU made a step up to the upper division last year and expected to stay there for at least another year.  And, in the beginning of the year, it certainly looked like they would.  After their expected struggles through a very ramped-up non-conference schedule, they seemed ready for the MEAC, starting 4-1 in conference, including a win over perennial top dog, Morgan St.  But, then the bottom fell out.  They lost 4 straight, by a combined 14 points, including 2 OT games and suddently they found themselves at 4-5.  They beat Norfolk State to even their record at 5-5, but then proceeded to drop 6 in a row and enter the tournament playing their worst ball of the season.  S.C. State has been very disappointing, but heading in a different direction.  Picked to finish 3rd in the preseason, the Bulldogs lost 10 of their first 12 conference games and were in dead last for most of the season.  They finished on an uptick, winning 3 of their last 4, but it is still not the season they expected.  The winner here will take on top-seeded Bethune-Cookman in the quarters tomorrow.  Only 6 CTC’ers went with the favorite, Delaware State, here – Alexi, KA, Scoot, Cheryl, Gersh, and Mac.  Teddy is the only one with either of these teams doing anything after this round, as he has SC State beating BC in the quarters.

*FINAL SCORE:  South Carolina State 64 – Delaware State 59
The collapse of the Hornets is complete, as they lose their first round game to S.C. State.  A close game for most of the way just went to the better basketball team, and S.C. State will now get top-seeded Bethune-Cookman in the quarters.

CTC SNAPSHOT – ATLANTIC 10

Championship Picks

• #1 Xavier (10) – everyone else
• #2 Temple (8) – Bry, J, Lynch, Lohse, KA, Teddy, Dan, and Gross
• #3 Richmond (1) – Waters
• #4 Duquesne (1) – Dave

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds

• OR – #12 St. Joe’s – Bry, Stri, Waters, Cheryl, Rikey, Dave
• QF – #11 St. Louis – Teddy, Dave
• SF – #5 George Washington – Lynch

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Waters
• ’09 – Bry
• ’10 – Doogan/Bry

CTC SNAPSHOT – BIG EAST

Championship Picks

• #1 Pittsburgh (7) – everyone else
• #2 Notre Dame (4) – Bry, Dan, Gross, Mac
• #3 Louisville (1) – Stri
• #4 Syracuse (4) –  J, Lohse, Teddy, Primm
• #5 St. John’s (4) – Waters, Lynch, Cheryl, Dave

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds

• R1 – #16 DePaul – Bry
• R2 – #14 Providence – KA
• QF – #11 Marquette – Cheryl, Gersh
• SF – #11 Marquette – Gersh

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Doogan
• ’09 – Doogan
• ’10 – Teddy

CTC SNAPSHOT – MAC

Championship Picks

• #1 Kent State (12) – everyone else
• #2 W. Michigan (4) – Lohse, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Dave
• #3 Miami OH (3) – Lynch, KA, Cheryl
• #4 Ball State (0)
• #5 Ohio (0)
• #6 Akron (0)
• #7 Bowling Green (0)
• #8 Buffalo (1) – Teddy

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds

• OR – #11 E. Michigan – Lynch, Lil Lohse
• QF – #8 Buffalo – Lohse, Teddy
• SF – #8 Buffalo – Teddy

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Doogan
• ’09 – Ina/Doogan
• ’10 – Teddy (legendarily perfect – look at this bracket…)

CTC SNAPSHOT – MEAC

Championship Picks

• #1 Bethune-Cookman (5) – Stri, Lil Lohse, KA, Gross, Mac
• #2 Hampton (8) – everyone else
• #3 Coppin State (3) – Lohse, Scoot, Dave
• #4 Morgan State (3) – Alexi, Waters, Lynch
• #5 N.C A&T (1) – Cheryl

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds

• OR – #11 Howard – Bry, J, Waters, Lynch
• QF – #9 S.C. State – Teddy
• SF – #7 Florida A&M – Stri

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Alexi
• ’09 – Lynch
• ’10 – Ina/Bry

On a day with only eight games – all games of big point values, you can expect a lot of fluctuation in the standings.  But, you may not have expected this.  Gross wins the day and moves all the way up from 16th to 5th overall.  Dave, who was 8th place coming into the day, is now in 2nd place overall, after a huge day.  Bry still holds the overall lead, and Doogan, despite a rough day, is in striking distance just behind Dave in 3rd.  Alexi took the biggest fall of the day, scoring only 8 points and dropping 8 spots from #4 to #12.  Dave and Primm also lost some ground.

DAY SEVEN SCORES (days won):

1. Gross – 146 (1)
2. Dave – 138
3. Bry (3) – 106
4. Lynch – 106
5. Teddy – 92
6. Lohse – 74
7. J – 66 (1)
8. Gersh – 56
9. Mac – 56
10. Stri – 56
11. Lil Lohse – 52
12. Rikey – 52
13. Scoot – 52
14. Dan – 44
15. Doogan – 44 (2)
16. Cheryl – 38
17. KA – 36 (1)
18. Primm – 30
19. Waters – 16
20. Alexi – 8

OVERALL STANDINGS (conferences won; * is perfect bracket):

1. Bry – 772 (CAA, WCC*)
2. Dave – 700
3. Doogan – 690 (Big South)
4. J – 662 (A-Sun, OVC)
5. Gross – 660 (SoCon)
6. Stri – 632
7. Lohse – 624
8. Teddy – 624
9. Dan – 622 (A-Sun)
10. Gersh – 606
11. Primm – 606 (MAAC)
12. Alexi – 600 (MVC)
13. Lynch – 592
14. Rikey – 592 (A-Sun)
15. Lil Lohse – 590
16. Scoot – 590
17. Mac – 568
18. Waters – 546
19. KA – 506
20. Cheryl – 466

FINAL COLONIAL STANDINGS (prior CTC CAA titles):

1. Bry (’10, ’11) – 174
2. Teddy – 150
3. Lynch – 126
4. Gross – 120
5. Dave – 108
6. Stri – 108
7. Waters – 96
8. Dan – 84
9. KA – 84
10. Lohse – 84
11. Rikey – 84
12. Cheryl – 78
13. Doogan – 78
14. Gersh – 72
15. Lil Lohse – 72
16. J – 66
17. Primm – 66
18. Scoot – 66
19. Alexi (’08) – 60
20. Mac – 60

FINAL WCC STANDINGS:

1. Bry (’11*) – 104*
2. Doogan – 88
3. KA – 88
4. Dan – 84
5. J – 80
6. Lil Lohse – 80
7. Rikey – 80
8. Scoot – 80
9. Lohse – 72
10. Lynch (’10) – 72
11. Dave – 68
12. Gross – 56
13. Gersh – 52
14. Mac – 48
15. Alexi – 40
16. Cheryl – 36
17. Teddy – 36
18. Stri – 32
19. Waters (’08) – 32
20. Primm – 28

FINAL SoCON STANDINGS:

1. Gross (’11) – 124
2. Gersh – 120
3. Dave – 116
4. Mac – 104
5. Stri (’10) – 100
6. Dan – 88
7. Rikey – 72
8. Scoot – 64
9. Waters – 64
10. Bry – 56
11. Primm – 56
12. KA – 48
13. Alexi – 44
14. J – 44
15. Lynch (’09) – 44
16. Teddy – 40
17. Doogan – 36
18. Lil Lohse – 36
19. Lohse – 36
20. Cheryl – 20

FINAL MAAC STANDINGS:

1. Primm (’11) – 62
2. Lynch – 38
3. Mac – 26
4. Rikey – 26
5. Scoot – 26
6. Gersh – 22
7. KA – 22
8. Cheryl – 18
9. Dan – 18
10. Dave – 18
11. Doogan – 18
12. J (’08) – 18
13. Lil Lohse – 18
14. Stri – 18
15. Gross – 16
16. Alexi – 14
17. Waters – 14
18. Bry (’09, ’10*) – 10
19. Lohse – 10
20. Teddy – 6

Last Update: 9:19 AM
*- denotes recently added update

Welcome to the eye of the storm, my friends.  Day Seven of the CTC is much like the middle Sunday at Wimbledon.  There is some jockeying for about a week, then everything goes quiet for a day, and then it all picks up with increased intensity as everyone sprints for the finish.  Well, this is that day.  There are eight games, including four championships and four semifinal matchups, but compared to the weekend we just had and, especially, the week we are about to begin, it is all quiet.  So get some sleep and prep your body for a long, exhausting week of amazing basketball.

COLONIAL CHAMPIONSHIP (48 points)
It’s always a sad day for me when the CAA tournament ends, but at least we get a phenomenal game to close it out.  VCU looked really good yesterday in beating the top seed, George Mason, and ODU looked just as impressive in a win over Hofstra.  Bry has the overall lead here in the CAA and has ODU winning it.  Since no one has VCU, Bry will take the CTC CAA crown in 2011, the only question is by how much.

#2 Old Dominion vs. #4 VCU
With the great games by Jamie Skeen and Brandon Burgess, the VCU offense seems to be running on all cylinders.  ODU, who prides itself on great defense, showed some offensive firepower of its own.  This game may come down to the play at the point with Joey Rodriguez for VCU and Darius James for ODU.  No one has VCU winning this game, so the 48 points are only available to the 5 guys who picked the Monarchs – Bry, Lynch, Teddy, Dave, and Gross.

FINAL SCORE: Old Dominion 70 – VCU 65
This one looked like it might be a blowout, with ODU leading by as many as 18 in the 2nd half, but VCU wouldn’t go away.  It looks like VCU may have found another good young coach in Shaka Smart, but they came up just short here.  Skeen and Burgess accounted for 21 of VCU’s final 23 points, but Frank Hassell and the Monarchs were too good.  Bry, Lynch, Teddy, Dave, and Gross pick up a nice 48 points.

WCC CHAMPIONSHIP (32 points)
Here we go, folks.  The matchup every WCC fan wanted just one more time, and we’ve got it.  The rubber match between the two powers of the conference takes place in Vegas tonight.  Both teams are trying to get back to The Dance, but with much different histories.  If St. Mary’s wins, it will assure itself of being the first Gaels team to make back-to-back NCAA tournaments.  Whereas if Gonzaga wins, it will be 11 straight years for the in The Dance.  It is hard to say which team has a better bubble profile in case they need the at-large spot, but I would say that both teams deserve inclusion unless there is a flurry of bid stealing that goes on in the major conferences.  In the CTC, Bry is going for a perfect WCC bracket and will get and the 2011 conference title win with a Gonzaga win tonight.  If St. Mary’s wins, Gersh will take the 2011 CTC WCC title.

#1 St. Mary’s vs. #2 Gonzaga
St. Mary’s handled Santa Clara last night in the early game, while Gonzaga survived San Fran in the late game.  The two teams split in the regular season and now get to play for it all on a neutral court.  The matchups to watch are whether or not SMC’s bigs can handle Sacre nad Harris inside and whether or not Gonzaga’s guards can check McConnell and Dellavadova on the outside.  It is an interesting contrast of styles and should be great basketball.  And, even more important that any bubble ramifications are the CTC ramifications associated with this game.  Cheryl and Primm are the only two without a horse in this race, as they lost their champion with San Fran.  Of the other 18 entries, 12 have Gonzaga and 6 have St. Mary’s (Stri, Alexi, Waters, Teddy, Gersh, and Mac).

*FINAL SCORE:  Gonzaga 75 – St. Mary’s 63
It looked all season like St. Mary’s was building on their Sweet 16 run of last season and had wrested control of this conference from the Zags but, in the end, Gonzaga tied for the regular season title and wins the conference tourney in pretty impressive fashion.  The faith of the CTC’ers in the Gonzaga program is rewarded, as 12 entries correctly pick the #2 seed.

SoCON CHAMPIONSHIP (32 points)
A long SoCon regular season wasn’t enough to distinguish which of the two Southern Division teams was superior (CofC won the tiebreaker for the top seed).  But, now we will get to decide it on the court in Chattanooga after College of Charleston and Wofford both took care of business in their respective semifinals.  Dan is the current SoCon leader and has CofC winning the title, so a Charleston championship will mean a Dan championship here.  Gross has the second-best SoCon score and has Wofford winning, so he will take the 2011 SoCon title with a Wofford win.

#1S College of Charleston vs. #2S Wofford
If you like games where individual stars will go at each other, you may love this game.  Both teams have stars who, despite playing different positions, have spent the last four years battling each other.  Andrew Goudelock for Bobby Cremins’ team is the all-time leading scorer at Charleston and has the second most 3’s in the history of the SoCon behind some guy named Steph Curry.  Noah Dahlman has done nothing but win since he arrived at Wofford and would like nothing more than to complete a great career with another SoCon title.  These were the two most popular title picks in the SoCon this year, so there are a lot of points up for grabs here.  Bry, J, Alexi, Waters, Scoot, Dan, Rikey, and Primm all have CofC winning the title.  Stri, Dave, Gersh, Gross, and Mac have Wofford.

*FINAL SCORE: Wofford 77 – Charleston 67
Andrew Goudelock had another big night for Charleston (25 points), but Wofford’s three-headed monster of Dahlman, Rundles, and Diggs combine for 58 of the team’s 77 points as the Terriers comeback from a 4-point halftime deficit to take the SoCon title for the second straight year.  Stri, Dave, Gersh, Gross, and Mac hit this pick.

MAAC CHAMPIONSHIP (16 points)
A bit of a surprise final in the MAAC, simply because it does not involve the regular season champion and tournament hosts, Fairfield.  The Stags were knocked off by an upstart St. Peter’s, who will now try and do the same to #2 Iona.  Primm is currently the MAAC leader and he has St. Peter’s winning this tournament, so if the Peacocks go to The Dance, they will also bring Primm a 2011 CTC MAAC title.  Lynch has the most points of all the entries with Iona winning the title, so he will grab his first conference crown of 2011 with an Iona win.

#2 Iona vs. #4 St. Peter’s
The way Iona is playing, it would have been great to see them go up against an excellent Fairfield team in Bridgeport for the MAAC title.  But, because of a huge St. Peter’s upset win last night against the tournament hosts, the Peacocks have crashed the party.  Iona has looked unbeatable in its first two tournament games, so they have to enter this game as a pretty heavy favorite, but the Peacocks have battled all year long and have quite a bit of talent.  Primm is going for the gusto here, as he is the only one with St. Peter’s winning this tournament.  A Peacocks win here would give Primm a 22-point gain on the whole rest of the field.  Doogan, J, Lynch, Lil Lohse, KA, Scoot, Gersh, Gross, and Mac all have Iona winning here and are looking for the 18 points that come along with that.

FINAL SCORE: St. Peter’s 62 – Iona 57
St. Peter’s, welcome to the First Four.  I’m sure you’re very glad to be here.  Facing an Iona team coming off two straight blowout wins, the Peacocks were able to make it an ugly game and hold the Gaels to 32% shooting.  St. Peter’s managed just 4th place in the weak MAAC, but they’re going dancing.  Primm makes a great call here as the only competitor who went with the Peacocks.

SUMMIT LEAGUE SEMIFINALS (8 points)
It’s always a good Summit semifinal double-header if we get the league’s “Big Three” involved, which we do this year.  Oakland, on the strength of their regular-season title, gets the odd-team out, SD State here, while Oral Roberts and IUPUI will battle it out in the nightcap.

#1 Oakland vs. #5 South Dakota State
Both teams had relatively easy quarterfinal victories, as Oakland dispatched of S. Utah, while SD State upset 4th-seeded IPFW.  But, that upset would be nothing compared to this one should they pull it off.  Dave is sure rooting for it, as the only one with SD State here.  KA has IPFW, so she can’t win this game.  The other 18 entries have the Golden Grizzlies, with 16 of whom picking Oakland to win the title.

FINAL SCORE: Oakland 110 – S. Dakota St. 90
Oakland was second in the nation in scoring this year, and they put up their highest point total of the season here as they continue to roll through the Summit tournament.  It will definitely be a suprise if they don’t take this tourney.

#2 Oral Roberts vs. #3 IUPUI
ORU had a closer-than-expected quarterfinal game with ND State on Saturday, while IUPUI absolutely hammered UMKC last night.  Now, these two perennial Summit powers will take to the hardwood tonight in Sioux Falls for the right to play for the championship tomorrow night.  Only J and Doogan are out of this matchup (picking UMKC and ND State, respectively, here).  4 entries have IUPUI (Alexi, KA, Dan, and Primm), while the other 14 have ORU.  No one has IUPUI winning this tournament, and 3 have ORU (Waters, Dave, and Gersh).

*FINAL SCORE: Oral Roberts 83 – IUPUI 77
ORU gets 26 points from their star forward, Dominique Morrison, and move on to a title game that will match the Summit’s top two teams.  Good news for Waters, Dave, and Gersh, who will be rooting in the Golden Eagles against the juggernaut Oakland squad.

SUN BELT SEMIFINALS (8 points)
There is always one.  One conference tournament that is just absolutely ridiculous.  This year that one is the Sun Belt, which has played down to one of the more surprising final fours to anyone who followed the league all year.  That being said, if you just looked at talent, not regular season results, this tournament may actually be a better barometer than the regular season, if that makes any sense.  The argument can be made that, despite their disappointing regular seasons, these four teams may actually be the best four teams in the conference.  A stretch, I know, but it’s possible.  Either way, the tournament has been blowed up, and we are left to pick up the pieces tonight in Hot Springs, with a strange semifinal double-header.

#3E W. Kentucky vs. #4W N. Texas
Coming into the season, if you said that these two teams would be playing in the conference tournament, you would probably think that it was a final pitting the two top seeds against one another for Sun Belt supremacy.  If I told you towards the end of the conference season that they were playing, you probably would have told me that it was a first-round matchup that was going to eliminate one of the two most disappointing Sun Belt teams.  But, it’s neither.  It’s a semifinal matchup between two teams that are trying to erase disappointing regular seasons with an unlikely tournament championship.  One of them will get the chance tomorrow night.  N. Texas beat Troy and the the conference’s best team, FAU to get here.  WKU beat LA-Monroe and then the conference’s hottest team, LA-Lafayette, to join them.  This should actually be a very good game, and I am going to try and find it somewhere in my 3,000 cable channels.  Though these two teams are low seeds, this game actually pits four CTC champion picks – J, Lohse, and Cheryl have N. Texas; Dan has WKU.  Teddy also has NT winning this one.  Primm and Gross have WKU here.  Everyone else has lost it already.

FINAL SCORE: N. Texas 81 – W. Kentucky 62
It looks like N. Texas has put things together just in time.  After a very surprising stretch of 6 losses in 7 games in January and February, they’ve now won five straight and head into the Sun Belt final with plenty of momentum.  J, Lohse, and Cheryl keep their Cinderella going for another night.

#2E Middle Tennessee vs. #5W AR-Little Rock
a And, with all that was said above about N. Texas and WKU, neither is even the most unlikely semifinalist.  That award goes to AR-Little Rock, who had to pull off a pair of pretty good upsets to get here – S. Alabama in the first round and Arkansas State last night.  Middle Tennessee, the only team that not playing its third game in three nights, got a bye through the first round and then pummelled FIU last night in the quarters.  No one even had UALR in this round, let along winning it, but a decent number have Mid Tenn winning here (Bry, Stri, Alexi, Waters, Lohse, Scoot, Gersh, Gross, and Mac).

*FINAL SCORE: AR-Little Rock 65 – Middle Tennessee 56
The madness in this Sun Belt tournament continues, as the Trojans of AR-Little Rock upset Middle Tennessee and move to the title game.  Sometimes it pays to have the best player on the floor, and the Trojans have the Sun Belt Player of the Year, Solomon Bozeman, who scores 25 points in this one.  The winner of Tuesday’s title game will surely be ticketed for the First Four next week.  This result is good news for 11 of the 20 entries, because they had already lost this game, but 9 others had Middle Tennessee.

A huge day moves Primm from pretender to contender, jumping him 11 spots from 17th to 6th in the overall standings.  Though Doogan actually had the overall lead for much of the day, Bry actually ended up on top in the end – making it the sixth straight day that Bry has held at least a share of the overall lead.  Other than Primm, Davey and Rikey both made decent moves up the standings.  KA took the biggest drop, but Waters, Lil Lohse, and Gersh also lost a few spots on the leaderboard.  But, overall, the story was Primm, who was 3 spots from the bottom entering Day Six, registering 206 points today – 56 more than anyone else, and 85 more than the average score.  Day Seven is a bit of a hiatus and then the real action begins in earnest on Tuesday and Wednesday with the major tournaments and opportunities for massive point swings.

DAY SIX SCORES (days won):

1. Primm – 206 (1)
2. Dave – 160
3. Scoot – 148
4. Gross – 146
5. Alexi – 142
6. Dan – 142
7. Stri – 140
8. Mac – 138
9. Rikey – 138
10. Lohse – 136
11. J – 134 (1)
12. Teddy – 130
13. Bry – 130 (3)
14. Gersh – 122
15. Lynch – 122
16. Doogan – 118 (2)
17. Lil Lohse – 112
18. Waters – 106
19. Cheryl – 94
20. KA – 66 (1)

OVERALL STANDINGS (conferences won):

1. Bry – 666
2. Doogan – 646 (Big South)
3. J – 596 (A-Sun, OVC)
4. Alexi – 592 (MVC)
5. Dave – 578 (A-Sun)
6. Primm – 576
7. Stri – 576
8. Dave – 562 (A-Sun)
9. Gersh – 550
10. Lohse – 550
11. Rikey – 540
12. Lil Lohse – 538
13. Scoot – 538
14. Teddy – 532
15. Waters – 530
16. Gross – 514
17. Mac – 512
18. Lynch – 486
19. KA – 470
20. Cheryl – 428

FINAL MISSOURI VALLEY STANDINGS:

1. Alexi – 180
2. Primm – 144
3. Doogan – 96
4. Lil Lohse – 90
5. Lohse – 90
6. Bry – 78
7. Gersh – 78
8. Gross – 72
9. Scoot – 72
10. Stri – 72
11. Dan – 66
12. KA – 66
13. Lynch – 66
14. Rikey – 66
15. Teddy – 66
16. Mac – 60
17. Cheryl – 54
18. J – 54
19. Waters – 48
20. Dave – 42

LAST UPDATE:  10:59 am
* – denotes recently posted update

It is now the time for the first week of tournament to wind down.  There are slightly fewer games, but they are worth a lot more points, so this is usually a somewhat important day in the CTC.  Granted, it is next to nothing compared to the ridiculous number of points available starting Tuesday with the 5x tournaments.

MISSOURI VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP (48 points)
I don’t know about anyone else, but I was really looking forward to a Wichita State – Missouri State showdown for all the marbles in The Valley.  But, it was not meant to be.  Indiana State has been doubted and underappreciated all year and now they are one win away from going dancing.  Crazy.

#1 Missouri State vs. #3 Indiana State
In what is now probably a one-bid league, this game is for all the marbles in The Valley.  And, the 2011 CTC MVC title is down to a two-person race.  If Indiana State completes their miracle run through this tournament, Alexi will win this title decisively (he already has a 30 point lead on anyone else in this conference).  If Missouri State wins the title, Lil Lohse will win the MVC in 2011.  Primm also has Indiana State winning this.  Waters, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Cheryl, and Dan have Missouri State.

FINAL SCORE:  Indiana State 60 – Missouri State 56
The Bears tried to go to the well one too many times.  After falling way behind only to come back to beat SIU in the quarters and Creighton in the semis, the Bears could not get off the mat against Indiana State today.  The Sycamores – picked to finish DEAD-LAST in the conference coming into the season – will now, most likely, be The Valley’s lone representative in the Big Dance.  Alexi and Primm nail this unlikely champion in impressive fashion, with Alexi utterly dominating this conference this year, with the only game he missed all tournament was Creighton over N. Iowa.

COLONIAL SEMIFINALS (24 points each)
A fantastic quarterfinals quadruple-header yesterday in Richmond sets up an absolute dream semifinal double-header today.  5 hours of the basketball that the CAA has to provide – and it’s gonna be fantastic!  Bry and Waters are currently tied for the CAA lead with 96 points, but there are still a lot of points at stake in the next two days.

#1 George Mason vs. #4 VCU
Mason absolutely hammered Georgia State in the second half yesterday to extend the nation’s longest winning streak to 16 games.  Jamie Skeen’s game-winner in the waning seconds against Drexel yesterday gives the Rams a chance to avenge a 20-point regular season defeat to Mason.  Though they are not the stars of their respective teams, watch for a nice battle of undersized point guards today in VCU’s Joey Rodriguez and GM’s Andre Cornelius.  Interstingly, while two people had Drexel here (Lynch and Dave), no one has VCU winning this game.  The other 18 entries have Mason, with 13 of them picking Mason as their champion (everyone except Lynch, Dave, Bry, Waters, KA, Teddy, and Gross).

FINAL SCORE:  VCU 79 – George Mason 63
Three years in a row now that the Rams have knocked out GM in the CAA tournament.  No team other than VCU has beaten George Mason in this tournament since 2001.  VCU showed their incredible versatility as their center and power forward combined for 7-12 from three-point range.  That’s right, their two biggest guys, Jamie Skeen and Brandon Burgess scored from all over the court and the Rams are heading to the finals.  Everyone got this wrong, but it was a de facto victory for Lynch and Dave, who had Drexel here.  The 7 people without GM as their champion are also pleased with this result. 

#2 Old Dominion vs. #3 Hofstra
As good as the first game is, this one is certainly no slouch.  ODU showed the defensive prowess yesterday, holding Delaware to just 50 points in a quarterfinal win.  The team formerly known as the Flying Dutchmen took care of upstart W&M yesterday to set up this great semifinal.  The key to this game is whether or not the Monarchs can contain Hofstra’s elite scorer, Charles Jenkins.  Alexi, Waters, and KA have Hofstra winning this game, with the latter two having Hofstra winning this tournament.  Bry, Lynch, Teddy, Dave, and Gross all have ODU winning the tournament.

FINAL SCORE:  Old Dominion 77 – Hofstra 69
Because they have made the name all year with their defense, the ODU offense is often overlooked, but they have some firepower, and they showed it today.  The Monarchs shot 57% from the field and dropped 77 on Hofstra to advance to the CAA finals tomorrow night against their arch-rivals, VCU.  The individual talent was on display for ODU, as Frank Hassell had 22, Darius James had 16, and Kent Bazemore and Keyon Carter were both in double-figures.  This team is heading to the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens tomorrow night, and they are not exactly who you would want to see next to your favorite team on Selection Sunday (Lord knows, I’m terrified of Temple drawing them).  Charles Jenkins – in his last CAA game before the NBA comes calling – had 16 points and 6 assists for the prideful Dutchmen.  Waters and KA lost their champion here.  5 others kept theirs alive.  And, with no one having VCU, those 5 (Bry, Lynch, Teddy, Dave, and Gross) can all pick up 48 points on the rest of the field tomorrow if the Monarchs win.

WCC SEMIFINALS (16 points each)
With the 3- and 4-seeds surviving through the quarters, we get the top 4 WCC teams set to square off in the tournament’s semifinal round here in Vegas.  The top two teams (and much anticipated arrivals) enter the mix here today – St. Mary’s and Gonzaga.  Bry will try and keep a perfect WCC bracket going here.

#1 St. Mary’s vs. #4 Santa Clara
The Gaels of St. Mary’s have had a season to remember…at least until the final two weeks, which they are hoping will not actually make it one to forget.  Following up a Sweet Sixteen run a year ago, the Gaels lost Omar Samham, but return a ton of exciting Aussies.  Mickey McConnell and Matthew Dellavadova are about as exciting a backcourt duo as you are going to find anywhere in the country.  They also have Rob Jones down – a very athletic big – who transferred from San Diego.  (Interesting note on Jones – he is the grandson of a rather infamous man – Jim Jones, the guy responsible for the Jonestown mass murder of almost 1,000 people).   Santa Clara enters this game after an 8-point win over Loyola Marymount last night.  Except for Gross (who had Portland), everyone has St. Mary’s in this one.  Stri, Alexi, Waters, Teddy, Gersh, and Mac all have the Gaels winning this tournament.

FINAL SCORE:  St. Mary’s 73 – Santa Clara 64
A good sign for the Gaels:  they got just one field goal from leading scorer McConnell but others stepped up and they got the win anyway.  Role players Stephen Holt (great name if you’re an Arrested Development fan) and Mitchell Young combine for 32 points.  6 competitors keep their champ alive. 

#2 Gonzaga vs. #3 San Francisco
Having dominated this conference for the better part of a decade, the Zags actually find themselves in the unfamiliar situation of playing the underdog in the conference tournament – at least as seedings go.  The Zags enter the tournament winners of 7 in a row, including a 70-53 win over USF on February 16.  San Francisco, who beat the Zags in OT in San Fran in January, knocked off Pepperdine last night to get here.  Cheryl and Primm have San Fran winning this game and winning it all.  The other 18 people have Gonzaga winning this game and a dozen have them winning the tournament.

*FINAL SCORE:  Gonzaga 71 – San Francisco 67
All night long it looked like Gonzaga was going to run away and hide in this game, but Rex Walters’s team just wouldn’t go away and really gave the Zags a scare down the stretch.  The key play was when Gonzaga tried to inbound the ball, up 2, with :27 seconds left.  The ball was stolen by a San Fran player who then called a timeout…a timeout which he did not have.  The Dons were assessed a technical foul and Zaga iced the game at the line.  A tough way for the season to end in San Fran, but they had a great year, should play in a postseason tournament somewhere, and have a very young team.  We may just hear from them again down the line.  Now, Gonzaga gets to go Round 3 with St. Mary’s tomorrow night in the finals.  Cheryl and Primm were real close to this upset, but they end up losing their champ.  12 people kept alive their champ.

SoCON SEMIFINALS (16 points each)
The SoCon has played 8 games in the past two days to cut their field to four.  And, a pretty great doubleheader today, as it is.  Dan is currently leading all CTC’ers in the SoCon standings with 52 points.

#1N W. Carolina vs. #2S Wofford
W. Carolina took care of UNC-Greensboro yesterday, 77-66, and is now the lone representative of the North Division.  The defending champion Terriers of Wofford handled App State yesterday with relative ease and are now two games away from a repeat trip to The Dance.  A handful of entries have already lost this game with either Davidson or App State (J, Alexi, Lynch, Lohse, and Teddy), and the others are split, which means that this is a pretty big game for the CTC.  Other 15 entries that are still alive in this game, 4 of them (Doogan, Lil Lohse, KA, and Cheryl) have W. Carolina.  The other 11 have Wofford in a slight upset.  Stri, Dave, Gersh, Gross, and Mac all have Wofford winning the tournament; Lil Lohse and Cheryl have WCU winning it.

FINAL SCORE:  Wofford 86 – W. Carolina 72
Wofford’s three top players score 18, 17, and 17 points and lead the Terriers to a comfortable W.  Lil Lohse and Cheryl lose their SoCon champ, while 5 others get their title pick into the championship game.

#1S College of Charleston vs. #3S Furman
The Cougars of Charleston flexed their #1 muscles by hammering Elon yesterday, while Furman took care of the hosts, Chattanooga.  This is going to be an excellent game between the conference favorites and the pesky, talented underdogs.  Doogan and Dave have Furman here (Doogan has them winning it all); Cheryl has already lost this game (Chattanooga); everyone else has Charleston here, with 8 of them (Bry, J, Alexi, Waters, Scoot, Dan, Rikey, and Primm) tagging CofC to win the tournament.

FINAL SCORE:  Charleston 63 – Furman 58
Furman led most of the game, and looked very much in control when they were up by 11 midway through the 2nd half, but Charleston turned it on with an 18-3 run to take a slim lead that they were able to hold onto in the closing minutes.  Conference Player of the Year Andrew Goudelock struggled for much of the game but got it done when it mattered and finished with 31 points.  A tough loss for Doogan, as his champs go down.

MAAC SEMIFINALS (8 points each)
The best four teams in the MAAC have survived any upsets so far to set up a pretty good semifinal double-header today in Bridgeport.  There is a 6-way tie at the top of the CTC MAAC standings, so these games will go a long way to giving someone a leg up.

#1 Fairfield vs. #4 St. Peter’s
Top-seeded Fairfield either played off-the-charts defense or ran up against a completely punchless Marist team…or both.  Fairfield held the Red Foxes to 31 points in their quarterfinal win to get them to the semis today against St. Peter’s.  The Peacocks took care of a feisty Loyola (MD) team, 70-60, to give them a shot at upsetting the favorites today.  Lynch and Primm have a nice upset pick here of SPC.  J, Alexi, KA, and Gross have already lost this game by picking Loyola.  The rest of the field has FU here, but only 5 of them (Bry, Stri, Water, Dan, and Rikey) have the Stags winning the tournament.

FINAL SCORE:  St. Peter’s 62 – Fairfield 48
On their home floor, two games away from the Big Dance, after running away with the regular season title…and the Stags of Fairfield just forgot to show up today.  And, it was ugly.  St. Peter’s led 40-15 at halftime.  Fairfield came out of the locker room and immediately went on a 21-4 run, but it wasn’t nearly enough, as the Peacocks advance to the MAAC championship tomorrow night.  This was a tough loss for the 5 guys with Fairfield winning it, but it sure was sweet for Primm, who has St. Peter’s winning this tournament.  Lynch is also pretty happy, as he nailed this upset pick.

#2 Iona vs. #3 Rider
The Iona Gaels absolutely pummeled Siena in the second half yesterday to finish with a 94-64 victory.  They have now won 8 in a row, hoping to get to 10 and an NCAA tournament berth.  Rider, despite losing their starting point guard to suspension just hours before the game, took care of Canisius yesterday in a game that was pretty close most of the way.  These two teams were clearly the two biggest threats to Fairfield all year, and now they will get to play their way into a possible shot at the top-seeded Stags for all the marbles.  This game has a TON of CTC implications.  Dan had Siena winning this game, so he is out, but of the other 19 entries, 8 have Rider (Bry, Stri, Alexi, Waters, Lohse, Teddy, Cheryl, and Dave) and 11 have Iona.

FINAL SCORE:  Iona 83 – Rider 59
While Gaels led the whole way in this one, it was pretty close for most of it, but at around the midway point of the second half, they broke the game wide open and cruised into tomorrow’s championship against St. Peter’s.  With the top seed and tournament host, Fairfield, losing in the first game and the impressive fashion in which Iona has reached the finals, one has to consider the Gaels a heavy favorite to represent the MAAC in that big tournament in two weeks.  This was a huge game for the CTC.  J, Doogan, Lynch, Lil Lohse, KA, Scoot, Gersh, Gross, and Mac all kept their champion alive here.  Alexi, Lohse, Teddy, Cheryl, and Dave all lost their champions.  Even most championship games don’t have that many champion picks going up against each other.

NEC SEMIFINALS (8 points each)
On Day Three, the NEC had its 4-game quarterfinal round.  Now, three days later, it is time for the four winners from Thursday to hit the courts again to decide who is going to play for the NEC title on Day Nine.

#1 Long Island vs. #4 C. Connecticut State
The Blackbirds of LIU had no trouble with St. Francis (PA) in the first round.  The Blue Devils of CCSU had a lot of trouble with St. Francis (NY) in the first round.  Both teams won, but did it in a much different way.  Now, CCSU will try and slow down the dynamic offense of Long Island in a gym that is very difficult to come out of with a W.  Interestingly, because of the “reseeding” effect, Dave has both of these teams in the finals, so he is assured exactly one finalist pick being correct (he has CCSU winning the title, so he be a Blue Devil fan today).  Lynch is the only other CTC’er with CCSU in the finals.  Though, five people (Waters, Lohse, KA, Teddy, and Gersh) have someone other than LIU or CCSU and have, therefore, already lost this game.  Half of the total field (Bry, J, Doogan, Stri, Alexi, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Cheryl, Dan, and Rikey) have LIU winning the whole thing.

FINAL SCORE:  Long Island 69 – C. Connecticut State 67
CCSU led pretty much the whole first half and much of the second, but LIU made enough plays down the stretch and will move on to host the NEC championship on Wednesday night.  The Blackbirds, the nation’s 4th highest-scoring team, despite not having a single player average more than 14/game, were held to a relatively low 69, but played enough defense (not usually their strength) to get it done.  Dave lost his champion here, despite getting the points for an LIU win.  Lynch also lost a finalist here.  Half the field kept alive their NEC champ.

#2 Quinnipiac vs. #3 Robert Morris
Like the first matchup, this game pits two teams who had very different experiences in this quarterfinal games.  Quinnipiac hammered Mount St. Mary’s by 21, while Robert Morris survived a hard-fought battle with Wagner.  Robert Morris has proven the ability to win on the road this year, but QU is a tough place to play.  Bry, J, Lynch, Rikey, Gersh, and Mac have QU winning the game.  Lynch, Gersh, and Mac have them winning the tournament.  Stri, Alexi, Waters, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Teddy, Scoot, Dan, Primm, and Gross all have RMC winning this.  Waters, Lohse, Teddy, Primm, and Gross all have the Colonials winning the whole thing.

FINAL SCORE:  Robert Morris 64 – Quinnipiac 62
If you have ever talked to me about basketball for more than 5 minutes, you probably will have heard my biggest pet peeve – giving up an offensive rebound on a missed free throw.  In 95% of cases, it is absolutely, completely unacceptable.  The rules of the game give you all you should ever need (barring a crazy bounce) to get a rebound – position.  Yet, all the time (even at the most critical times), you see laziness or lack of technique causing an offensive rebound off the miss.  And, that is what happened here.  QU was up one with :41 seconds left, when Russell Johnson was fouled on a drive.  Johnson hit the first to tie the game, but missed the second.  But, the ball was knocked out of bounds off a QU player and the Colonials kept the ball.  They then ran off 28 seconds and got a go-ahead bucket from Vernel Jones.  QU failed to score and the game and their season was over.  FUNDAMENTALS!  Anyway, RMC will now travel to Brooklyn to face LIU in the NEC championship game.  This was a pretty big CTC game, too.  A bunch of entries had this win, including 5 which had the Colonials winning the tournament.  Lynch, Gersh, and Mac lost their NEC champion.

AMERICA EAST SEMIFINALS (8 points each)
All year, the Am East has been pretty much a two-team race for the top and then a bit of a clusterF in the middle.  Well, the quarterfinal round played out that way, as well.  The top two teams (Vermont and BU) won their games, and the other two games were back-and-forth and won by the lower seeds.  Now, we have those two winners taking their shots at the big two.

#1 Vermont vs. #5 Stony Brook
The Catamounts held Binghamton to 46 points just two nights after the Bearcats dropped 91 on UMBC in the pigtail game.  Now, they will get a Stony Brook team that took care of business against Albany.  SB was picked as the second best team in the conference in the preseason (behind BU), so they have the talent to give UVM a run.  But, Vermont has been the best team – on the court, not on paper – all year.  Doogan and Dave have Stony Brook in a really nice upset pick here.  J has already lost the game, having picked Albany to win here.  The other 17 have UVM winning this game.  Bry, Alexi, Lynch, Teddy, Scoot, Cheryl, Dan, Rikey, Primm, Gross, and Mac all have Vermont winning this tournament.

FINAL SCORE:  Stony Brook 69 – Vermont 47
In the biggest shocker of the day, Stony Brook absolutely hammers Vermont in the semis and will advance to the finals of the PL next Saturday.  A somewhat close game in the first half – SB led by 7 at the break – became a full-fledged laugher in the second half, as the Catamounts just didn’t show up.  Vermont shot 32% from the floor and are on their way to the NIT.  Doogan and Dave nail this upset pick, and with that, Doogan takes over sole possession of first in the overall standings. 

#2 Boston U vs. #6 Hartford
BU did their job last night in a 9-point win over a gritty New Hampshire team and now they get to play the host team, the Hartford Hawks.  Hartford won a tough game 66-63 over Maine in front of the hometown fans last night to get them to this semifinal.  Lynch, Cheryl, and Gross all have Hartford here in what will be a great upset pick if it comes through.  Gersh and Alexi have already lost this game (Maine).  Everyone else has BU.  J, Doogan, Waters, Lohse, Lil Lohse, KA, and Dave all have the Terriers winning the Am East.

FINAL SCORE:  Boston U. 55 – Hartford 49
It was close the whole way, but Archbishop Ryan alum Joe Zeglinski’s late jumper was off the mark, and BU corralled the rebound and hit 4 free throws in the final seconds to win by 6.  After the upset of Vermont, BU now gets to host Stony Brook at their gym next weekend and will be pretty big favorites to take the America East crown.  Good news for the 7 players who made that pick. 

PATRIOT LEAGUE SEMIFINALS (8 points each)
Remember the Patriot League?   Well, they played their quarterfinal round all the way back on Day Two of the CTC and now they are ready to pick it back up and play their semifinals.  A host of entries nailed the quarterfinal round perfectly, so these semis might separate the leaders.

#2 American vs. #6 Lafayette
American had no real problems with Colgate in the quarterfinal round and will now host a dangerous Lafayette team for the right to go to the PL finals.  The Leopards – the preseason favorite to win the league – were the only road team to win in the quarterfinal round, as they went into Holy Cross and sent the Crusaders home for the year.  American swept Lafayette in the regular season, but the last game they played, last Saturday, was an epic 95-92 double OT game.  Now, a week later, the two teams will go at it again with even more at stake.  Dave and Gross both have Lafayette winning this game.  Waters, KA, Teddy, Cheryl, Dan, Gersh, and Primm all had Holy Cross here, so they cannot win this game.  The rest of the field have American.  Scoot is the most patriotic of the bunch, as he is the only one with The American University winning the championship.

FINAL SCORE:  Lafayette 73 – American 71 (2 OTs)
There had only been one OT all week when this game tipped off, but got to see twice that in this game alone, as an absolutely thrilling game ends with Lafayette on their way to the PL championship (possibly against the arch-rivals, Lehigh).  American seemed to have the game won in regulation, but a missed free throw by Stephen Lumpkins allowed a Ryan Willen three to send it to OT.  Then Jim Mower hit a free throw with :12 seconds left to tie and the Eagles couldn’t convert their chance to win it.  Then, in the second OT, Jim Mower hit a 3 with :02 seconds left to turn a 1-point deficit into a 2-point win.  MADNESS!  This was huge for Dave and Gross, who both have the Leopards winning this game.  Scoot loses his champion here in a brutal way.

#1 Bucknell vs. #4 Lehigh
Bucknell pretty much dominated the PL’s regular season and then did completely dominate Army in the quarterfinal round.  The defending champion Mountainhawks of Lehigh, led by sensational sophomore C.J. McCollum (who was too good for this league as a freshman, so it’s only beginning for this kid), handled Navy in the quarters.  As up-and-down as the Mountainhawks were all year, it is not a stretch to see them go into Bucknell and steal one here, though no one in the CTC has them doing that.  Waters has already lost the game with Navy; everyone else has Bucknell, with a large majority having the Bison winning this whole tournament.

FINAL SCORE: Bucknell 66 – Lehigh 64
Well, we were pretty close to a Lehigh-Lafayette title game, which would’ve been a nice new chapter in the history of that rivalry, but CJ McCollum got hammered on a shot that would’ve tied it with 8 seconds left, but the refs swallowed the whistle, and Bucknell converted the free throws to put it away.  The Bison are the benefactors of Lafayette’s upset and will look to complete their domination of the PL this year.  Little CTC implications here…

SUN BELT QUARTERFINALS (4 points each)
Hot Springs, AR, gave us some interesting games yesterday, including a couple upsets, but today the games should be a whole lot better today.  Plus, this is BY FAR, the craziest CTC bracket I have ever seen.  It seems everyone has a different opinion of what is going to happen, as there are a slew of different champion picks.

#2W LA-Lafayette vs. #3E W. Kentucky
While these two teams are in different divisions, so they only play each other once every regular season, it is easy to say that they always have an eye on one another.  The two perennial Sun Belt power are used to facing each other in the finals of this tournament, but today they will get it on in the quarterfinals.  The Hilltoppers arrive coming off a fairly routine win over LA-Monroe last night, while the Ragin’ Cajuns got the night off.  ULL is the hottest team in the Sun Belt, having won 11 in a row coming into the tournament.  But, the fact is that they needed that 11-game winning streak just to go .500 in what was quickly becoming a nightmare of a season.  But, they turned it a round and now enter the tournament as one of the favorites.  Unfortunately for them, they have probably found themselves in the same half of the bracket as all of the other 3 probably favorites, including WKU, who they face today.  This is a huge game in the CTC.  Bry, Doogan, Alexi, and Lil Lohse all have the Ragin’ Cajuns actually winning this whole tournament.  Dan has WKU winning this tournament, and 2 others (Primm and Gross) have them reaching the finals.

FINAL SCORE:  W. Kentucky 81 – LA-Lafayette 76
The red-hot Ragin’ Cajuns go down, which is always a sad day for the Nickname Bracket.  W. Kentucky fell behind by double-digits in the first half but clawed their way back and pulled off the upset behind 26 points from Steffphon Pettigrew and 25 from Sergio Kerusch.  A nice pickup for Dan, Primm, and Gross, and good news for many others as well as current leaders Bry and Doogan see their champ go down.

#1E FL-Atlantic vs. #4W N. Texas
With all the talk about the talented WKU, the red-hot Lafayette, and the preseason favored N. Texas, the top-seeded FL-Atlantic Owls seem to have been completely forgotten.  But, they shouldn’t be because this team is flat-out good.  They won 21 games, including wins over major conference teams Mississippi State and S. Florida.  They also have wins over quality mid-majors like Hofstra and UW-Milwaukee.  In fact, they have a very respectable 105 RPI.  But, they are in a nightmarish half of a bracket and it start tonight against N. Texas.  The Mean Green – the preseason pick to dominate the Sun Belt – had a nightmare of a conference season, but have a clean slate with a chance to make up for it.  They started last night with an easy win over Troy and now they get a shot at #1.  Like most Sun Belt games, this has a lot of CTC implications.  J, Lohse and Cheryl have N. Texas winning it all.  And, Teddy has them in the finals.  On the other side, Waters, Lynch, Rikey, and Mac all have FAU winning this tournament.  Along with the 3 that have them in the finals, Dave also has N. Texas winning this game.

FINAL SCORE:  N. Texas 78 – Florida Atlantic 64
Well, looks like things are getting a little crazy in the Sun Belt.  Much like W. Kentucky, N. Texas falls behind in the 1st half, then comes charging back to pull off the pretty big upset.  Tristan Thompson (yes, same name as a key player for another more well-known Texas school) scored 24 points in that 2nd half and 36 in the game to lead the way for the Mean Green win (which is always a happy day for the Nickname Bracket).  Great news here for J, Lohse and Cheryl, who keep their Cinderella champ pick alive.

#1W Arkansas State vs. #5W AR-Little Rock
Arkansas State had a very good year, but it is hard not to think that they kind of won the Western Division by default, as Lafayette started so poorly and N. Texas was so bad for all of conference play.  That is not taking anything away from the Red Wolves, who are certainly a viable candidate to win this tournament, especially in their home state.  However, here in the quarters, that home state advantage is neutralized because they are battling their in-state rivals, UALR.  Little Rock upset S. Alabama last night by 14 to get a shot at ASU tonight.  Gersh had S. Alabama here, so he has already lost it, but he can avoid losing ground on anyone if UALR wins, because the other 19 entries have Arkansas State here.  KA, Teddy, Dave, and Primm all have Arkansas State winning this whole tournament.

*FINAL SCORE:  AR-Little Rock 59 – Arkansas St. 52
The complete destruction of the Sun Belt conference tournament continues in one of the late games here, as UALR knocks off the Western Division co-champs, Arkansas St. in the quarters.  This marks the third straight Sun Belt co-champ was knocked off in the quarters.  The UALR star, Soloman Bozeman led the way with 15 for the victorious Trojans.  No one got this right, but KA, Teddy, Dave, and Primm all lost their champion. 

#2E Middle Tennessee vs. #6E FL-International
FIU pulled off the biggest upset of the night last night, and they were able to do it with a whole 53 points.  They held the Denver Pioneers to 49 and get to turn around and play again today.  However, their opponent today is slightly better.  Middle Tennessee had a decent season – albeit an inconsistent one – and are also a viable candidate to win this thing.  Dan and J actually have huge upset picks here with FIU.  Dave and KA have already lost with Denver.  The other 17 have MT in this one.  In fact, 7 entries (Alexi, Waters, Lohse, Scoot, Gersh, Gross, and Mac) have MT in the finals.  Scoot, Gersh, and Gross have them winning it all.

*FINAL SCORE:  Middle Tennessee 73 – FL-International 38
Finally, a little bit of normalcy in the Sun Belt – well, at least as much normalcy as a 73 – 38 game can provide.  All of a sudden, Middle Tennessee is the highest seed remaining in the tournament after three upsets earlier in the night and a shellacking of FIU here for the Blue Raiders.  Would you believe that this was a relatively close game in the first half?  It was, but then towards the end of the half, the Blue Raiders started to take control and never looked back.  It was an emotional scene, as Middle Tennessee has been dealing with a lot of off the court issues, stemming from the stabbing death of one of the players on the women’s team (who was also the girlfriend of a seldom-used reserve on the men’s team).  The victim’s roommate and teammate has been arrested on first-degree murder charges stemming from the incident.  It would be a fitting story for MT to win this tournament, but they are still two games away and the competition will most likely put up more of a struggle than FIU did tonight.  Scoot, Gersh, and Gross are happy with their Mid Tenn title picks right now, considering they are the best team remaining.  Dan and J missed a big upset pick here with FIU.

SUMMIT LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS (4 points each)
Last night the Summit League kicked off its tournament with the top two seeds playing (and winning) their quarterfinal affairs.  Today, the other two quarterfinals take place in Sioux Falls.  As a perennially top-heavy league, this tournament usually has its best days in the later stages, but these two games are pretty decent.

#4 IPFW vs. #5 South Dakota State
In a league that is generally dominated every year by three teams (Oral Roberts, Oakland, and IUPUI), it looked like that “general” trend may be broken this year early on.  IPFW was on top of the standing for most of the first part of the conference season, but they fell back to earth a little bit late in the season and fell to 4th – allowing the big three to take 1-2-3 again.  That being said, this team has proven that it can play with the big boys and shouldn’t be overlooked this week.  SD State is a team that showed who they are – a solid team that is not quite in the upper echelon of the league.  They were 1-5 against the top three in the league, and 10-3 against everyone else, including a season sweep of IPFW (by 16 and 25).  Most of the CTC went for the mild upset in this one, as only Alexi, KA, Scoot, Rikey, and Primm took the favorites, IPFW.  Dave has SD State going to the finals.  KA has IPFW winning the whole thing.

FINAL SCORE:  S. Dakota St. 85 – IPFW 75
IPFW complete their late season fade with a quiet exit from the Summit tourney.  A big game from SDSU star Nate Wolters, with 30 points, 7 boards, 5 assists.  KA’s champ goes down.

#3 IUPUI vs. #6 UMKC
The one team of the big three that didn’t play yesterday was IUPUI, so they get to get it going tonight.  The Roadrunners of UMKC had a very good middle part of the season and looked like they had found their stride, but then they lost their last three games in ugly fashion, giving up 84, 82, and 103 points.  They did beat IUPUI in double-OT in Kansas City on January 20.  J is the only one to take the Roadrunners in an upset here, and while no one has IUPUI winning the tournament, Alexi, KA, Dan, and Primm all have them reaching the finals.

*FINAL SCORE:  IUPUI 79 – UMKC 55
IUPUI opens their Summit League tournament with a rout of UMKC.  Leroy Nobles dropped 37 on the Roadrunners, as the Jaguars advance to face Oral Roberts in the semis.  J missed his upset pick here, while 4 contenders kept their finalists alive.

With the large slate today (and a couple championship games), there were a lot of CTC points out there to grab and some people took advantage, while others did not.  Doogan had a huge day and had the overall lead for most of the day, but Bry took it back at the very end and will once again enter the 6th day on top of the standings.  Gersh made the biggest jump of the day, improving from 15th to 6th.  Dan and Waters each jumped up from the bottom half to the top half.  Rikey came all the way up from 19th to the middle of the pack, and Alexi’s big day has put him in 3rd place and striking distance of the leaders.  Lynch took the hardest fall – falling from 10th to 19th, while Teddy fell from the penthouse of 4th place to the mediocrity of 12th.  Stri, Gross, Lohse, and KA also dropped a couple of spots.

DAY 5 SCORES (days won):

1. Doogan – 258 (2)
2. Gersh – 228
3. Alexi – 226
4. Dan – 222
5. Bry – 222 (3)
6. Rikey – 218
7. Waters – 216
8. J – 200 (1)
9. Primm – 194
10. Scoot – 192
11. Lil Lohse – 190
12. Cheryl – 186
13. Dave – 186
14. Mac – 186
15. Stri – 182
16. Lohse – 166
17. Gross – 164
18. KA – 156 (1)
19. Teddy – 148
20. Lynch – 144

OVERALL STANDINGS (conferences won):

1. Bry – 536 (CAA)
2. Doogan – 528 (Big South)
3. J – 462 (A-Sun)
4. Alexi – 450
5. Dan – 436 (A-Sun)
6. Stri – 432
7. Gersh – 428
8. Lil Lohse – 426
9. Waters – 424 (CAA)
10. Lohse – 414
11. KA – 404
12. Dave – 402 (A-Sun)
13. Rikey – 402
14. Teddy – 402
15. Scoot – 390
16. Mac – 374
17. Primm – 370
18. Gross – 368
19. Lynch – 364
20. Cheryl – 334

FINAL ATLANTIC SUN SCORES:

1. Dan – 58
2. Dave – 58
3. J – 58
4. Doogan – 48
5. Lil Lohse – 42
6. Lohse – 42
7. Lynch – 42
8. Gross – 42
9. Stri – 42
10. Teddy – 42
11. Waters – 40
12. Gersh – 38
13. Alexi – 32
14. Cheryl – 32
15. Mac – 32
16. Primm – 32
17. Rikey – 32
18. Bry – 32
19. Scoot – 22
20. KA – 18

FINAL BIG SOUTH SCORES:

1. Doogan – 52
2. Waters – 46
3. J – 40
4. Bry – 40
5. Alexi – 38
6. Primm – 34
7. Stri – 30
8. Gross – 26
9. Lil Lohse – 26
10. Lohse – 26
11. Lynch – 26
12. Scoot – 26
13. Dan – 20
14. Gersh – 20
15. Rikey – 20
16. Mac – 16
17. Dave – 12
18. Cheryl – 8
19. Teddy – 8
20. KA – 4

FINAL OHIO VALLEY SCORES:

1. J – 56
2. KA – 42
3. Teddy – 42
4. Waters – 34
5. Dave – 30
6. Alexi – 26
7. Doogan – 26
8. Bry – 24
9. Gersh – 20
10. Dan – 16
11. Rikey – 16
12. Lohse – 12
13. Lynch – 12
14. Mac – 12
15. Lil Lohse – 8
16. Primm – 8
17. Stri – 8
18. Cheryl – 4
19. Gross – 4
20. Scoot – 4

LAST UPDATE:  1:32 am
* – denotes recently posted update

Can you feel it?  It’s the first Saturday of the best three weeks in sports, and we have a TON of intrigue today.  Duke – UNC might be the “big” game for most of the country, but we here in the CTC are obviously much more excited for Tennessee Tech – Morehead State and Loyola Marymount – Santa Clara.  A lot of CTC points are going to be handed out today, so we’re in for a nice ride.

BIG SOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP (16 points)
Coastal Carolina held on against VMI, while Asheville knocked off a feisty High Point team to set up the Big South title game, where the first of the 68-team field will be crowned

#1 Coastal Carolina vs. #3 UNC-Asheville
This game should be really interesting.  In a story exclusively broke by our own crack reporter, Doogan, CCU has lost its three best players, but still has a lot of remaining talent.  They will try and cut through the controversy and become the first of the 68-team field (unless, Princeton beats Harvard in Amherst today, in which case the Tigers will clinch the Ivy about an hour before this game wraps up).  But, to do that, CCU will have to deal with the red-hot Bulldogs of UNC-Asheville.  As big as this may be for the two teams involved and the Big South conference, it is probably even bigger for the CTC.  There are 16 points at stake here and we have some split opinions.  Doogan, Alexi, Waters, and Primm all have UNC-A.  Bry, J, Stri, Lynch, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Rikey, Dave, Gross, and Mac all have CCU.  The 2011 CTC Big South title will be won by either Bry of Doogan.  A UNC-A win gives it to Doogan; a CCU win will give Bry his 2nd CTC Big South title in 3 years.

FINAL SCORE:  UNC-Asheville 60 – Coastal Carolina 47
UNC-Asheville is officially the first team to qualify for the NCAA Tournament with a 13-point win over the Chanticleers of CCU.  While, Asheville never trailed all game, it was close from the very start until about 1:30 left when they pulled away.  Coastal always seemed one play away from taking control of the game, but their 21 turnovers were just too much to overcome.  Doogan, Alexi, Waters, and Primm all nailed the Big South champion.  Doogan clinched his first ever CTC Big South championship.

ATLANTIC SUN CHAMPIONSHIP (16 points)
More craziness in the A-Sun tournament this year, but at least this time it didn’t involve the top-seed, like it has in the past.  The Belmont Bruins and their 29 wins will try and make it 30 and advance to The Dance (where I would not want to be the high seed that has to play them).  They will have to go through the Cinderella of the year, the Ospreys of N. Florida.

#1 Belmont vs. #6 N. Florida 
Bry, Waters, KA, and Scoot have all already lost this game (each with a different incorrect pick), and no one has N. Florida here.  The other 16 entries have Belmont.  J, Dan, and Dave are all tied for the A-Sun lead right now and that won’t change.  The three of them will share the title – the only question is whether or not they will do it with 42 points or 58.  J sure knows his A-Sun basketball, as this will be his 3rd A-Sun championship in the 4 years on the website (he won back-to-back titles in ’08-09).

FINAL SCORE:  Belmont 87 – N. Florida 46
Ah, a good ole fashioned ass-kicking.  Belmont outrebounded UNF 37-18 and forced 22 turnovers.  Ya, it wasn’t even a game.  The Bruins have 30 wins and are going dancing.

OHIO VALLEY CHAMPIONSHIP (16 points)
In the OVC semis last night, one favorite won and one favorite was upset.  If you told me that was going to happen, I would have been pretty sure we’d be previewing a Murray State – Austin Peay OVC final.  But, no…

#2 Morehead State vs. #4 Tennessee Tech
Kenneth Faried and his regular Eagles are one step away from the Big Dance – and they don’t have to go through their nemesis, Murray State.  But, Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles have been playing very good basketball lately and will not roll over.  For the CTC, J is currenly leading the OVC and has Morehead State winning the title, so an Eagles win here will give him his second consecutive CTC OVC title.  Alexi, as the only one with Tennessee Tech winning this tournament, would take the OVC crown with a Golden Eagles win.  (I should stop using the nicknames in this one, it’s confusing.)  Other than J, Doogan, Waters, KA, Teddy, and Dave would grab the 16 points from a Morehead victory.

*FINAL SCORE: Morehead St. 80 – Tennessee Tech 73
Kenneth Faried came through with 24 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks to lead his Morehead St. team back to the tourney.  That gives the rebounding machine another opportunity to audition for NBA scouts on the national stage.  Tennessee Tech made a very late comeback, but they fell just short of the unlikely title.  As noted above, J takes the OVC for the second straight year, while Doogan, Waters, KA, Teddy, and Dave also hit this champ pick correctly.

MISSOURI VALLEY SEMIFINALS (24 points each)
The Arch Madness quarterfinals gave us some great games, with three of the four games finishing within one possession and last-second victories by the 1- and 3-seeds to stay alive and avoid elimination.  Today’s semifinal double-header should be fantastic.

#1 Missouri State vs. #5 Creighton 
Missouri State survived the early game yesterday in a 58-56 win over S. Illinois.  The Bears made a furious comeback to keep their title hopes alive.  Creighton pulled off a mild upset in knocking off 4-seeded and defending champions, N. Iowa.  Today, the Blue Jays have an even taller order against #1 MSU.  This is a pretty huge game for the CTC, actually, as the winner here will get 24 points (plus upset points if Creighton).  And, to make it more dramatic, everyone still has a horse in this race.  Lynch, KA, Teddy, Dave, Primm, and Gross all have Creighton in what would be a great upset pick.  None of them have the Blue Jays winning the title.  The other 14 entries have Missouri State here, with Waters, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Cheryl, and Dan having the Bears winning this tournament.

FINAL SCORE:  Missouri State 60 – Creighton 50
After an underwhelming quarterfinal win yesterday, and a slow first half today, the Bears finally looked like the #1 seed midway through the second half.  Down by as many as 8 points in the second half, MSU went on a 15-2 run to take a 52-44 lead with under 5 minutes left and held on.  Jermaine Mallett stepped up with 18 points and a career-high 11 rebounds.  6 people missed the upset pick here, while 5 others kept their champion alive. 

#2 Wichita State vs. #3 Indiana State 
The Shockers had the only relatively easy quartefinal game yesterday, knocking off Bradley, 70-56.  Indiana State gave us a thriller in the nightcap, as Jake Odum hit a buzzer-beater to get ISU to the semis.  Scoot and Cheryl have already lost this game, with Evansville, but everyone else has a shot to pick up these 24 points.  16 entries have WSU in this one (13 of whom have WSU winning it all).  Only Alexi and Primm have Indiana State here – and they both have the Sycamores winning it all.

FINAL SCORE:  Indiana State 61 – Wichita State 54
After an ugly first half, Indiana State found its offense just in time and came from double-digits down to eliminate the Shockers and move on to tomorrow’s MVC title game against Missouri State.  Wichita, who swept ISU in the regular season, just couldn’t make shots down the stretch.  As good as they are, this season, that will almost assuredly end outside of the NCAA tournament, is just another example of how college basketball is won with point guard play.  Their only weakness all year was at the point where Demetric Williams, Joe Ragland, or even Toure Murry were supposed to be able to run the team and none of them really stepped up.  It is disappointing because this team has a TON of talent and should be in the field of 68.  Alexi and Primm come up huge with the upset pick here, and both keep their finalist alive.  13 entries lost their MVC champion here.

HORIZON LEAGUE SEMIFINALS (24 points each)
As much as I love Arch Madness and as great as the quarduple-header is in the CAA today, the one conference I might be most looking forward to today is the Horizon semifinal double-header.  It is fascinating, with two great mid-major teams (Butler and CSU), one very good mid-major team (Valpo), and one solid mid-major playing on their home floor (UW-Milwaukee).

#2 Butler vs. #3 Cleveland State 
Butler may or may not be a good at-large at this point, but they are hoping to make it a moot point by winning the Horizon.  CSU is almost definitely out of the at-large possibilities, so they need to win this tournament.  This is the game of the day, as far as I’m concerned, and I’m very much looking forward to the matchup between Norris Cole and whomever Butler decides to put on him – most likely Ronald Nored, but possibly Shelvin Mack, someone else, or a combination.  Lynch has Cleveland State winning this tournament, while Cheryl and Primm have them reaching the finals. 

FINAL SCORE:  Butler 76 – Cleveland State 68 
Everyone else has Butler in this one, many of whom have them winning it all.  While Norris Cole dropped 26 and the CSU defense turned Butler over 14 times, the Bulldogs just had too much firepower for the Vikings.  18 for Shawn Vanzant; 15 for Shelvin Mack; and, 14 for Matt Howard led Butler to Tuesday night’s championship game in the Horizon.  If Valpo upsets UW-Milwaukee it the late game, the final will be at Hinkle Fieldhouse.  This was a tough loss for Lynch, who lost his champion.  Cheryl and Primm both lost finalists here.

#1 UW-Milwaukee vs. #4 Valparaiso 
The argument can be made that, on the whole, UW-Milwaukee is the 5th or 6th most talented team in the Horizon this year.  But, they won enough games (including a season sweep of Butler) to earn the top-seed and the homecourt advantage for as long as they survive.  Valpo is probably the better team, but they had a tough game last night and are playing in a hostile arena, in which they lost 79-76 just two weeks ago.  This is a HUGE game for CTC implications.  19 of the 20 entries have a shot to win this game (Gross is the only one who cannot earn any CTC points here, as he had Detroit).  7 people have Valpo (J, Alexi, Waters, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Teddy, and Mac), while the other 12 have UWM.  Mac, however, has the most at stake with the Crusaders, as he has them winning this tournament.

FINAL SCORE: UW-Milwaukee 70 – Valparaiso 63
It was a single-digit lead all game, but top-seeded Milwaukee gets it done and will host Butler in the title game.  Valpo fans will wait another year for the second-coming of Bryce Drew.  That’s too bad for Mac, as his champ goes down.

COLONIAL QUARTERFINALS (12 points each)
A great quadruple-header on the Baltimore Comcast, with the familiar voice of the great Scott Graham calling the action.  Yes, I’d say there is a pretty good chance that we’ll be tuned in my house today.

#1 George Mason vs. #9 Georgia State
The top-seeded Patriots enter the CAA tournament today, and they do so as with a national ranking attached to their name.  The Patriots are starting to reap the benefits from the recruiting bump that they enjoyed from the Final Four run and beautiful brand-new building.  This program is not likely to go away any time soon.  Georgia State knocked off #8 UNC-Wilmington yesterday, 58-52, and bring a hard-nosed, defensive-oriented style to the mix today.  This Panthers style is really tricky this time of year because they are hard to score against and will knock you around physically.  The Patriots are not usually a team that can be rattled, but you never know when the bright lights of March start shining.  Georgia State has never made the CAA semis, so they will try and make history today.  No one in the CTC thinks they will, as all 20 entries have Mason here.

FINAL SCORE:  George Mason 68 – Georgia State 45
Looking at the final score, it is probably hard to believe how close this game was for most of the first half.  Georgia State was looking like they really could give the Pats trouble, but then Mason turned it on and absolutely dominated the second half, which included a 22-2 run at one point.  Everyone got this right and 13 people kept the champ alive.

#4 VCU vs. #5 Drexel
Drexel nearly laid an egg yesterday against 0-18 Towson, but they survived because the Tigers are just so adept at losing games.  But, if the Dragons play even half as poorly as they did yesterday, they could get blown out of the gym today by a very good VCU team.  The big matchup in what could be a great game is inside with Philly product Samme Givens of Drexel battling VCU’s versatile big Jamie Skeen.  Skeen, who played a year at Wake Forest before transferring, was actually a perimeter player for the Deacons and is now a dominant big in the CAA.  This game has some pretty big CTC implications.  The majority of the field (11 – J, Stri, Lynch, Lohse, Lil Lohse, KA, Cheryl, Dave, Gersh, Primm, and Mac) actually have Drexel in this one.  Teddy has already lost it (Towson), and the other 8 have VCU.  Lynch and Dave even have Drexel in the finals.  This is a major swing game in the CTC.

FINAL SCORE:  VCU 62 – Drexel 60
A great game that where no one led more than a couple points all day ended with a Jamie Skeen turnaround jumper at the buzzer to eliminate the Dragons.  Skeen had 24 & 8 for the Rams.  Sophomore Drexel star Chris Fouch, who has battled injury all year, had 20 points and 7 boards from the backcourt, including a game-tying 3-pointer with :13 seconds left that set the stage for Skeen’s heroics.  Tomorrow, VCU will get another shot at George Mason in the semis.  In a very important game for the CTC, the supporters of VCU come through, and Lynch and Dave lose a finalist. 

#2 Old Dominion vs. #7 Delaware 
With all the hoopla surrounding George Mason and their winning streak, VCU and their talent, and bit-time players like Charles Jenkins at Hofstra and Denzel Bowles at JMU, everyone seems to forget about ODU in this conference.  But, these guys are really good.  They have a ton of overall talent (pure scorers in Hassell and Bazemore, a solid big in Finney, and an excellent floor general in Darius James), but the best part is how committed they are on the defensive end.  This team is probably fine for an at-large bid, but they always want more.  It is a prideful program that had an excellent season.  The Blue Hens survived some really shaky play down the stretch last night against Northeastern and will have to step up their game quite a bit to compete with a good Monarchs team.  19 entries have ODU winning this game (including Bry, Lynch, Teddy, Dave, and Gross who have them winning it all).  The lone UD supporter is KA, who would gain 42 points on the whole rest of the field if they can pull it off.

FINAL SCORE: Old Dominion 59 – Delaware 50
A valiant effort from Jawan Carter and the Blue Hens but, in the end, too much talent on the ODU roster for them to hang.  Bry, Lynch, Teddy, Dave, and Gross all keep their CAA champ alive.

#3 Hofstra vs. #11 William & Mary 
The Tribe of W&M pulled off a big upset last night against #6 James Madison (who has a history of first-round disappoinments under coach Matt Brady) robbing us of what would have been a terrific matchup of superstars.  But, this game should be pretty good regardless as Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins can matchup with Quinn McDowell for supremacy in this one.  Stri and Teddy have a huge upset pick of W&M here (which will be worth 60 points if it comes through).  J, Doogan, Scoot, Dave, Primm, Gross, and Mac have already lost this game (JMU).  Everyone else has Hofstra.  Waters and KA have the prideful Flying Dutchmen winning this tournament.

FINAL SCORE: Hofstra 72 – William & Mary 56
It was looking like the 4th CAA game of the day might produce the first upset, as W&M took a lead into the half, but Hofstra flipped the switch in the 2nd half and advanced easily, setting up two nice games in the CAA semifinals.  Waters and KA keep their champ moving.

WCC QUARTERFINALS (8 points each)
With the opening round late last night on the Left Coast, we are now down to 6 WCC teams.  Two more enter the fray today to take on yesterday’s winners.  The two teams everyone awaits (St. Mary’s and Gonzaga) will enter the war tomorrow.

#4 Santa Clara vs. # 8 Loyola Marymount
Santa Clara had a decent season, including a nice win over Gonzaga.  They tied with Portland and own the tiebreaker to get 4th and the bye – which proved to be huge, as the Pilots went down to an upset yesterday at the hands of LMU.  Today, the Lions will try to do the same to Santa Clara, with the winner earning a date with #1 St. Mary’s in the semis.  Doogan and KA have a really nice upset pick here of LMU.  Bry, Cheryl, Dan, Gersh, and Mac all have Santa Clara.  Everyone else has already lost this game, having picked Portland.

*FINAL SCORE:  Santa Clara 76 – Loyola Marymount 68
In a game that was close pretty much the whole way, SC came through at the end and will move on to the semis, where they will face #1 St. Mary’s.  It is hard to win any game, let alone a close postseason game, when you shoot 14-for-29 from the free throw line.  Well, that is what LMU shot tonight and that is part of the reason they are going home.  Doogan and KA missed out on a good upset pick here. 

#3 San Francisco vs. #6 Pepperdine 
What a great season for the Dons, led by Michael Williams, who is probably the best player in program history…slightly better than some guy named Bill Russell.  Seriously, though, the Dons were outstanding this year under up-and-coming coach Tony Barbee (you may remember him from the great UMass teams of the past).  Pepperdine struggled but held on against a bad San Diego team last night.  The winner of this game will get Gonzaga in the semis.  Doogan, Lynch, Lohse, KA, Teddy, and Gross all have Pepperdine in this game.  Dave, Waters, and Stri all had USD winning this game, so they’ve already lost it.  Everyone else has USF.  Cheryl and Primm went with the Dons to win the whole tournament, so this is a big game for them.

*FINAL SCORE:  San Francisco 76 – Pepperdine 59
San Francisco shot 56% from the floor and held the Waves to 32% in this completely domination.  USF will advance to the semifinals against a Gonzaga team which they beat in overtime on January 22.  Cheryl and Primm keep their WCC champion alive.  6 people missed the upset pick here.

SoCON QUARTERFINALS (8 points each)
After four somewhat forgettable opening round games yesterday, the SoCon gets into full swing as the top four teams enter the tournament and it gets down to business.

#1N W. Carolina vs. #5N UNC-Greensboro
W. Carolina came out of nowhere to win the North Division.  The Catamounts have been red-hot down the stretch and now enter the tournament as, while not the favorites, a somewhat strong contender to take this crown.  UNC-Greensboro upset Davidson yesterday, which led to a ton of busted brackets in the CTC.  They will try and even the score by knocking of WCU today.  Dave is the only one with UNC-Greensboro winning again today, so if they do, he will gain 40 points on the rest of the field.  Bry, J, Stri, Alexi, Lynch, Lohse, Teddy, Scoot, Primm, and Mac have already lost this game with Davidson.  Everyone else has WCU.  Lil Lohse and Cheryl have the most at stake, as they have the Catamounts winning the SoCon.

FINAL SCORE:  W. Carolina 77 – UNC-Greesboro 66
The Catamounts pretty much had their way with UNC-Greensboro and cruise into the SoCon’s final four.  Lil Lohse and Cheryl should be pleased with this performance, as they keep their champ alive. 

#2S Wofford vs. #3N Appalachian State 
The defending champion Wofford Terriers had another excellent season, tying with College of Charleston for the South Division title.  App State was supposed to win the North Division, but struggled all year to find consistent scoring and slipped to 3rd.  They did knock off Georgia-Southern yesterday in the opening round and have a chance to save their season if they can grab three more wins.  J, Doogan, Lohse, and Cheryl have App State in this upset.  Lohse actually has them winning it all.  Everyone else has Wofford here.  Stri, Dave, Gersh, Gross, and Mac all have Wofford winning this title, so someone is going to lose a champion here, be it Lohse or those 5.

FINAL SCORE:  Wofford 69 – Appalachian State 56
Noah Dahlman (the brother of Michigan State reserve Isaiah) is one of the best players in the SoCon.  And, he showed it today, scoring 21 points for the defending SoCon champs in their quarterfinal win over App State.  A couple CTC’ers lost this upset bid, but no one lost more than Lohse, who lost his SoCon champ here.

#2N Chattanooga vs. #3S Furman 
The host Moccasins of Chattanooga take on a really good Furman team that handled Samford yesterday to get here.  Chattanooga had a decent year, but probably wouldn’t have finished in the top 4 of the South Division.  We’ll test that theory today, as the South Division’s 3rd place team battles them with a lot on the line.  J, Doogan, Dave, Gersh, and Gross all have Furman in the upset here.  Everyone else has Chattanooga.  Like the previous game, someone will lose a champion here.  KA has Chattanooga winning it all; Doogan has Furman.

FINAL SCORE:  Furman 61 – Chattanooga 52
Furman goes into Chattanooga and jumps out to a 13-0 lead and then holds on for the W.  Doogan keeps his champ alive, while J, Dave, Gersh, and Gross pick up this upset.

#1S College of Charleston vs. #4N Elon 
And the SoCon’s best team will entertain Elon in the nightcap.  Andrew Goudelock (a must-see superstar) and the top-seeded Cougars were dynamic all season, including a dominating win over Tennessee in the non-conference.  Elon took care of The Citadel last night to get a shot here.  Cheryl took a bold shot here at an Elon upset and will gain 36 on everyone if it comes through, plus it will eliminate the most popular championship pick.

*FINAL SCORE:  College of Charleston 78 – Elon 60
Goudelock dropped 25 on Elon, and the Cougars will advance to the semis to take on Furman.  This game was pretty much over from the start, as the Cougars scored the first 7 points and led 16-6 and never looked back.  Everyone except Cheryl got this one right, and a slew of entries keep their champion pick alive.

MAAC QUARTERFINALS (4 points each)
After the two opening round games last night, the MAAC is ready to welcome the full slate to Bridgeport for a quarterfinal quadruple-header today.

#4 St. Peter’s vs. #5 Loyola (MD)
The St. Peter’s Peacocks were what they were this year.  They never slipped up against teams worse than them, but they also rarely stepped up to beat a team ahead of them.  Loyola, on the other hand, was a very dangerous team to the top dogs, but was always open to the shocking loss from a bottom-feeder.  Recently, these teams have been going in slightly opposite directions.  Loyola has been playing the best basketball as of late, where it looks like the Peacocks may have peaked earlier in the season.  Most CTC’ers went with Loyola in the upset here, as only Waters, Lynch, Cheryl, Dan, Rikey, Dave, Primm, and Mac have the Peacocks.  The rest has the mild upset pick of the Greyhounds.  Primm has St. Peter’s winning the whole tournament, while Lynch has them in the finals.  J, Alexi, KA, and Gross all have Loyola in the finals, though none have them winning it.

FINAL SCORE:  St. Peter’s 70 – Loyola (MD) 60
The Peacocks held Loyola to just 33% shooting and forced 15 turnovers in a nice win for the MAAC’s 4-seed.  Up by double-figures for most of the game, St. Peter’s had to survive a furious run late in the second half, but their defense was too good for Loyola to come all the way back.  The Peacocks will move on the semis.  Primm kept his MAAC champ alive; Lynch kept alive his finalist.  A lot of entries missed this upset pick here.

#1 Fairfield vs. #9 Marist 
The top-seeded Stags of Fairfield were rather dominant in the MAAC regular season this year.  At 15-3, they won the conference by two full games.  As the #1 seed, they get the chance to battle a 5-26 Marist team in the quarters.  KA has a huge upset pick of Marist here; everyone else has FU.  Bry, Waters, Dan, and Rikey all have Fairfield winning the tournament. 

FINAL SCORE:  Fairfield 55 – Marist 31
Fairfield shows off why they’re the top seed in this tourney, forcing Marist into 29% shooting and grabbing an incredible 19 steals.  Marist oughta be banned from next year’s tournament for this display.  KA’s upset bid falls well short.

#2 Iona vs. #7 Siena 
The Iona Gaels are red-hot heading into the tournament.  They had won 4 in a row heading into the BracketBusters weekend, where they pounded a solid Liberty team.  Then they returned to MAAC play to win at St. Peter’s and beat #1 Fairfield at home.  The Gaels seem to have hit their stride at just the right time.  On the other hand, Siena is struggling and they almost capped off a terrible season with a loss in the first round to dreadful Manhattan.  They needed OT to survive an untalented Jaspers team.  This could be a huge swing game in the MAAC CTC.  Bry, Waters, Lohse, Teddy, Dan, and Dave all have the Saints pulling off the upset.  Dan even has them in the finals.  On the other side, Iona is, by far, the most popular MAAC champion pick, as J, Doogan, Lynch, Lil Lohse, KA, Scoot, Gersh, Gross, and Mac all have the Gaels cutting down the nets on Monday night.  This game has some serious implications to the CTC.

FINAL SCORE:  Iona 94 – Siena 64
Fairfield did it with defense and Iona responds with a display of offensive firepower, shooting 58% en route to a romp of the once mighty Saints.  Dan loses a finalist and nearly half the field keeps their champ alive.

#3 Rider vs. #6 Canisius
Another red-hot team is Rider.  The Broncs enter the tournament winners of 7 of their last 8 and 5 in a row.  Canisius, who had no expectations in the preseason, played really well down the stretch to earn the bye position.  Rider is a legit title contender in this league, and Alexi, Lohse, Teddy, Cheryl, and Dave all have them winning it.  J, Doogan, Lil Lohse, Primm, and Gross all have Canisius in this upset.

*FINAL SCORE:  Rider 79 – Canisius 64
In a game that was a lot closer than the final score may indicate, the Broncs of Rider move on to the semis, where they will battle Iona.  There was bad news, however, for the Broncs today, as their starting point guard, Justin Thompson, was suspended from the team for an undisclosed violation of team rules.  It will be interesting to see how this affects them against Iona tomorrow.  Without Williams tonight, the Broncs put 4 different players in double-figures.  Canisius’s season comes to a close, as do the careers of its starting five, who are all seniors.  5 people missed on the upset here, while 5 others keep alive their champion.

AMERICA EAST QUARTERFINALS (4 points each)
Binghamton’s trouncing of UMBC on Thursday night rounds out theA-East final eight, who will play down to four in a quadruple-header in Hartford today.

#4 Albany vs. #5 Stony Brook
A somewhat disappointing season for Stony Brook was supposed to end with a real shot at the conference title.  But, they finished fifth in the Am East and are stuck in the 4-5 game here in the quarters.  The Great Danes of Albany have been pretty decent in a back-and-forth Am East regular season.  After the top two, this tournament is pretty wide open, so the winner of this game may only need one big upset to win this thing.  Bry, Doogan, Alexi, Waters, Scoot, Rikey, Dave, and Primm all have the mild upset pick of SB in this one.  Dave and Doogan have them winning again in the semis.  J is the only one that has Albany going any further than this, as he has them in the finals.

FINAL SCORE:  Stony Brook 67 – Albany 61
Stony Brook led most of the way here, but the Great Danes wouldn’t go away, cutting what was as much as a 12-point lead down to with :46 seconds left, but they did not score again and the Seawolves iced the game at the free throw line.  Tim Ambrose had 24 for Albany, while SB was led by the “other” Chris Martin with 18.  8 of the 20 CTC’ers hit this mild upset pick.  J lost the most, having Albany in the finals.

#1 Vermont vs. #9 Binghamton
This was supposed to be a bit of a retooling year in Burlington, but the Catamounts pretty much dominated the Am East from start to finish.  With 13 league wins and 22 overall, it was a surprisingly great year at UVM, led by a couple of really big bodies that are very hard to match up against for a low-major conference team.  Binghamton, who may never recover from the atrocious recruiting issues stemming from that transfer-led tournament team a few years ago, salvaged a little pride by hammering UMBC in Thursday night’s pigtail game.  Everyone has Vermont winning this game.  Bry, Alexi, Lynch, Teddy, Scoot, Cheryl, Dan, Rikey, Primm, Gross, and Mac all have them winning this tournament.

FINAL SCORE:  Vermont 57 – Binghamton 46
In what was probably not the most beautiful display of the sport.  Binghamton shot a gaudy 26% from the field and 26% from 3-point land (at least they’re balanced) and now they can take the rest of the year off.  Vermont advances to tomorrow’s semis where they will get Stony Brook.  Everyone got this right, and 11 people kept their champ alive.

#2 Boston U vs. #7 New Hampshire
If there is a real serious threat to the Catamounts in this field, it is probably BU.  The Terriers, picked to win this conference in the preseason, were solid all year, led by a dynamic duo of John Holland and Daryl Partin.  The Terriers have the offense to blow anyone out – the real question is will they be able to get halfcourt stops.  UNH should not be all that much of a problem in this one, as they drew the perfect matchup.  The Wildcats are one of the worst offensive teams in all of D-1, averaging less than 59 points per game.  Gross is the lone wolf on the UNH bandwagon here.  Everyone else has BU, including 7 entries that have BU winning the whole tournament (J, Doogan, Waters, Lohse, Lil Lohse, KA, and Dave).

*FINAL SCORE:  Boston U 69 – New Hampshire 60
BU’s big two of Holland and Partin didn’t disappoint, as they combined for 30 as the Terriers hold on to beat UNH.  It didn’t look good at the start, as the Wildcats jumped out to a 12-3 lead, but BU didn’t panic and came storming back to take an 8-point lead of their own into halftime.  Out of the locker room, the Wildcats scored the first 7 points to cut the lead back to one, but BU responded and closed it out.  Gross missed a big upset pick here, while 7 people kept alive their champion.

#3 Maine vs. #6 Hartford
With BU starting slowly and a seemingly retooling Vermont, it looked like this would be the year for Maine to take control of this conference, but it just didn’t happen.  They did finish a strong 3rd, but they seemed to be a step down from the top two teams.  Hartford, the tournament hosts, were picked last in the preseason, but won enough games to finish 6th, avoiding the pigtail game and either of the top two teams in the quarters.  Only 6 entries actually had the favorite in this one (Alexi, Waters, KA, Dan, Rikey, and Gersh); everyone else has the upset pick in Hartford.  Gersh fell hard for the Black Bears, picking them to win the whole tournament. 

*FINAL SCORE:  Hartford 66 – Maine 63
In a great back-and-forth affair, the Hawks come out on top and head to the semis to face BU.  Maine led the whole first half, but only went into the locker room leading by 1.  Hartford led for the first time 4 minutes into the second half and opened it up to 7 around the 10 minute mark.  But, the Black Bears responded with 10 straight to take the lead back.  Hartford immediately answered back with 8 straight of their own and never looked back.  14 CTC’ers had this upset pick correct, while Gersh got hit the hardest by the loss, losing his champion.

SUMMIT LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS (4 points each)
I have a real affinity for the Summit League.  Not exactly the whole Summit, but the battles between its top teams.  Oakland, Oral Roberts, and IUPUI have really built a great three-team rivalry in this league, and this year was no exception, as, despite a strong start to the season by IPFW, those three perennial powers finished 1-2-3 in the league yet again.  The top two teams play their quarterfinal games tonight in Sioux Falls, with the other 2 quarterfinals tomorrow night.

#1 Oakland vs. #8 S. Utah
Oakland has been one of the dominating forces in this conference for several years now, and this may be their best team yet.  Most people probably know about their win @Tennessee, but what people may not know is that they nearly upset Michigan State and Illinois right before that win.  They also played tough @West Virginia, @Purdue, and @Michigan.  They didn’t really put up much of a fight @Ohio State, but at least they got the experience of playing maybe the best team in the country.  S. Utah, on the other hand, was pretty bad early on and then started to find a little bit of a stride.  They are not a terrible #8-seed, but should be hard-pressed to send the Golden Grizzlies to the NIT just yet.  19 of the 20 entries have Oakland winning this one.  Dave is the only one that went with S. Utah.  Most entries (everyone except Waters, KA, Dave, and Gersh) have Oakland winning this tournament.

*FINAL SCORE:  Oakland 82 – S. Utah 66
The Golden Grizzlies take care of business, shooting 53% from the floor and going 8-for-18 from behind the arc.  Dave misses out on a big upset, while the 16 people who have Oakland winning this tournament still have shot to be right.

#2 Oral Roberts vs. #7 North Dakota State
Another one of the dominating forces in this league each year is Oral Roberts, and even though this was a bit of a down year in Tulsa, the Golden Eagles still finished second in the conference and feature a talented group of athletes, led by 6’6″ junior, do-it-all forward, Dominique Morrison.  ND State had an interesting year where they seemed to beat up on the dregs of the Summit and get pummeled by the league’s elite.  The one exception – an 80-74 win over ORU on January 6.  Doogan and Primm both went for a nice upset pick here.  Gersh, Dave, and Waters all have ORU winning this tournament.

*FINAL SCORE:  Oral Roberts 72 – North Dakota State 65
 A game that was close throughout was finally put away by a couple big threes down the stretch by Warren Niles, who had 19, and the Golden Eagles move on to the Summit semis – after the day off tomorrow.  ND State ends a decent season with a loss over which they should not hang their heads.  Doogan and Primm just missed a really big upset pick.  Gersh, Dave, and Waters are fortunate that their champions are still alive.

BIG SKY QUARTERFINALS (4 points each)
The Big Sky is, a lot of the time, a forgotten tournament.  Maybe because of its smallish, 6-team field that is played right in the thick of a lot of other action around the country, or maybe because people don’t realize that there is some quality basketball played in this conference.  But, either way, it tends to get lost in the shuffle (even here in the CTC, at times).  This year, the quarterfinals will be in Flagstaff, AZ (UNA), and Ogden, UT (WSU), with the semis and finals played in Greeley, CO.  It should be interesting to see if the altitude of the Rockies affects this tournament at all, as “the other UNC” is undefeated at home this year.

#4 N. Arizona vs. #5 Montana State
These two teams are clearly moving in completely opposite directions.  NAU got off to a really slow start in league play, while the Bobcats of Montana State came out like gangbusters.  But, at some point in the middle of the season, both of their fortunes changed and now NAU is on the rise and MSU is in a free-fall.  If the season had 10 more games to it, NAU would likely win the league, while MSU might finish near or at the bottom with the likes of Sacramento State and Idaho State.  Scoot and Dan are the only two with the MSU upset pick here, while a ton of people have a lot of love for the Lumberjacks.  Alexi, Lynch, Teddy, and Mac all have NAU winning the whole thing.  Waters, Lohse, KA, Dave, Gross, and Gersh all have them going to the finals, but losing.

*FINAL SCORE:  N. Arizona 65 – Montana State 62
All night long it looked like many Big Sky brackets across the CTC were going to be busted with this one.  Montana State led pretty much the entire way and by as much as 16 points in the second half, but NAU came all the way back thanks to the red-hot second half shooting of Eric Platt.  Platt, who had 20 points for the game, hit 3 straight threes in the final 3:30, including the game-winner with under a minute left.  NAU will now play #1 N. Colorado next week in the semis.  Scoot and Dan missed upset picks, while Alexi, Lynch, Teddy, and Mac all have NAU winning the whole thing.  This must have been a great game to see in person…

#3 Weber St. vs. #6 E. Washington
Like the Lumberjacks of UNA, Weber State was expected to contend for a league title and just may have had they not lost a couple close games early in the year.  Arguably the two most talented teams in the league are the two home teams tonight, while two others (N. Colorado and Montana) await the winners here in the semis.  E. Washington made a late run just to qualify for the tournament, holding off Portland State for the final spot in the draw.  Alexi and Primm both went with the upset pick here of EW.  Alexi actually has EW in the finals.  There is, like UNA, a lot of love for Weber State here too.  Lohse, Scoot, Gross, and Gersh all have WSU winning the tournament.  Doogan, Lohse, Lil Lohse, KA, Scoot, Cheryl, and Gersh all have Weber in the finals.

*FINAL SCORE:  Weber State 79 – E. Washington 70
Two games in the Big Sky tonight, and two eerily similar results.  NAU, at home, overcame a 16-point deficit to advance to the semis next week.  Well, across the Arizona-Utah state line, Weber State did almost the exact same Houdini act.  E. Washington had them all but done, leading by 15 relatively late in the second half, but Weber came all the way back to actually win by 9.  E. Washington’s Cliff Colimon has 22 points AT HALFTIME, but only finished with 27.  Weber State draws #2 Montana in Greeley, CO, in the 2-3 semifinal matchup.  Alexi and Primm both missed a nice big upset pick here, while Lohse, Scoot, Gersh, and Gross all survived their champion.

SUN BELT OPENING ROUND (2 points each)
With the University of New Orleans dropping down to D-III, the Sun Belt tournament in Hot Springs, AR, has gone from an intriguing tournament because of its novelty of a 13-team field to just another cookie-cutter 12-team, 2-division type setup.  That certainly doesn’t take away from the intrigue that this league normally brings to March (though, one could argue that the inconsistency of some of its more prominent/touted teams this year has stripped a lot of the intrigue away).  Well, the two-site format here gives us a pair of simultaneous double-headers instead of day-long quadruple-headers.  Hey, whatever sells you the most tickets, people.  As for the CTC, this conference is nuts.  It is so wide-open and the CTC brackets show that.  They are all over the place.

#4W N. Texas vs. #5E Troy
The Mean Green of N. Texas were picked to win this conference in the preseason and had an outstanding non-conference schedule.  They entered conference play as – far and away – the favorites to win the league.  Then, they just started losing.  It was an absolute shock.  Troy, on the other hand, was picked to finish last in the league and started that way, but started playing really well towards the end.  The winner of this game will get #1 FL-Atlantic.  More than any other opening round game that I can remember in CTC history, this game could break some serious brackets.  Dave has N. Texas winning this game and upsetting FAU in the quarters.  Teddy has them beating FAU and then winning again to reach the finals.  And, Lohse and Cheryl actually have this #8-seed going all the way to the title game and winning.  Unprecedented for a #8-seed.  Bry, Alexi, Lynch, KA, Dan, and Gross all have Troy in the upset in this round.

*FINAL SCORE:  N. Texas 83 – Troy 69
It was unclear whether or not the Mean Green would circle the wagons and really show up in Hot Springs, or if they would just pack up the tents and call it a season.  Well, if tonight is any indication, this team might be the most dangerous 8-seed in the country, although they did only lead by one midway through the second half against an 8-21 team.  Either way, we will definitely find out tomorrow when N. Texas gets to face top-seeded FL-Atlantic in the quarters.  The incredible amount of love for the Mean Green in the CTC is one step closer to being rewarded.

#3E W. Kentucky vs. #6W LA-Monroe
The Hilltoppers are usually the class of this conference, but the beginning of this season, it looked like they might be the doormat.  However, they righted the ship and started to play really well down the stretch.  They take on a LA-Monroe team that was bad at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year, and the end of the year.  The winner of this game will play the other “class of the conference” team, LA-Lafayette in the quarters.  Nobody has ULM in this game, but the love for WKU is all over the map.  Waters, Lynch, KA, Scoot, Cheryl, Dan, Rikey, Primm, and Gross all have the Hilltoppers winning the next round.  Dan, Primm, and Gross have them in the finals.  Dan has them winning it all.

*FINAL SCORE:  W. Kentucky 66 – LA-Monroe 50
While struggling to find much offense at all, the Hilltoppers had nothing to worry about on this night, as LA-Monroe is just a really bad D-I team.  But, they get their arch-rival LA-Lafayette tomorrow night in the quarters and will need a better offensive effort if they are to advance.  Dan would certainly like them to advance, as he has WKU winning this thing.

#3W Denver vs. #6E FL-International
At the beginning of the season, Denver looked like they were going to be the real surprise team in the conference, but they completely fell apart down the stretch.  FIU was bad all year – maybe they need Isaiah Thompson.  The winner of this game will play #3 Middle Tennessee in the quarters.  A bunch of people went for this big upset pick – Bry, Doogan, Waters, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Dan, Gersh, Gross, and Mac.  Dan actually has them winning again in the quarters.  KA and Dave both have Denver going to the semis.

*FINAL SCORE:  FL-International 53 – Denver 49
It would be hard to even make up something interesting to say about a game with 102 total points between two really bad D-I teams, so I won’t.  What I will say is that 9 people nailed this big upset pick, and Dan is alive to maybe get another one with FIU in their quarterfinal tomorrow against Middle Tennessee

#4E S. Alabama vs. #5W AR-Little Rock
USA has fallen back, as a program, after a couple years of national prominence out of the Sun Belt.  UALR has not been relevant in a while.  Both teams struggled pretty much all season, but UALR pulled off a couple surprising performances throughout the season.  The winner of this game will get Arkansas State tomorrow night in the quarters.  Bry, Doogan, KA, Teddy, Scoot, Cheryl, and Primm all have UALR in the upset.  Gersh is the only one that has Arkansas State losing to either of these teams in the quarters – he has USA.

*FINAL SCORE:  AR-Little Rock 82 – S. Alabama 68
Solomon Bozeman exploded for 28 points for UALR, as they will move on to face in-state rival Arkansas State in the quarters tomorrow.  Gersh lost a semifinalist in this game, while 7 people hit this upset pick.

CTC SNAPSHOT – SUMMIT LEAGUE

Championship Picks

• #1 Oakland (16) – everyone else
• #2 Oral Roberts (3) – Waters, Dave, Gersh
• #3 IUPUI (0)
• #4 IPFW (1) – KA

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds:

• QF – #7 North Dakota State – Doogan, Primm
• SF – #7 North Dakota State – Doogan

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Ina/Waters (perfect)
• ’09 – Ina/Doogan/Stri
• ’10 – Ina/Bry/Alexi/Lohse

CTC SNAPSHOT – BIG SKY

Championship Picks

• #1 N. Colorado (8) – everyone else
• #2 Montana (3) – Waters, Rikey, Dave
• #3 Weber State (5) – Lohse, KA, Scoot, Gersh, Gross
• #4 N. Arizona (4) – Alexi, Lynch, Teddy, Mac

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds:

• QF – #6 E. Washington – Alexi, Primm
• SF – #6 E. Washington – Alexi

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Ina/Bry
• ’09 – J
• ’10 – Lohse

CTC SNAPSHOT – SUN BELT

Championship Picks

• #1 FL-Atlantic (6) – everyone else
• #2 Arkansas State (4) – KA, Teddy, Dave, Primm
• #3 Middle Tennessee (3) – Scoot, Gersh, Gross
• #4 LA-Lafayette (4) – Bry, Doogan, Alexi, Lil Lohse
• #5 W. Kentucky (1) – Dan
• #6 Denver (0)
• #7 S. Alabama (0)
• #8 N. Texas (2) – Lohse, Cheryl

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds:

• OR – #11 FL-International – Bry, Doogan, Waters, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Dan, Gersh, Gross, Mac
• QF – #11 FL-International – Dan
• SF – #8 N. Texas – Lohse, Teddy, Cheryl

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Alexi
• ’09 – Ina
• ’10 – Stri

KA had 76 in the first three days combined; she had 172 in Day Four alone.  Her total was 28 points more than the second-highest total and catapulted her from the bottom three to the top five.  Teddy and Dave also made big moves, climbing to 4th and 11th overall, respectively.  Bry, Doogan, and J remain 1-2-3.  Cheryl, Gersh, and Gross had some struggles here in Day Four.  The jockeying for position will continue with a lot of games this weekend, but until we get some of these 5x conferences underway, the race is still in its early stages.

DAY FOUR SCORES (days won):

1. 172 KA (1)
2. 144 Teddy
3. 138 Bry (3)
4. 138 Dave
5. 136 Stri
6. 126 Dan
7. 126 J (1)
8. 124 Lohse
9. 118 Doogan (1)
10. 116 Alexi
11. 114 Waters
12. 106 Primm
13. 104 Lil Lohse
14. 102 Scoot
15. 94 Mac
16. 94 Rikey
17. 90 Lynch
18. 84 Gross
19. 82 Gersh
20. 80 Cheryl

OVERALL STANDINGS:

1. 314 Bry
2. 270 Doogan
3. 262 J
4. 254 Teddy
5. 254 Stri
6. 248 KA
7. 248 Lohse
8. 236 Lil Lohse
9. 224 Alexi
10. 220 Lynch
11. 216 Dave
12. 214 Dan
13. 208 Waters
14. 204 Gross
15. 200 Gersh
16. 198 Scoot
17. 188 Mac
18. 184 Rikey
19. 176 Primm
20. 148 Cheryl

You know that “storm” that has been brewing?  Well, it has officially started.  The rain is coming down and the winds are starting to howl.  22 games today, including a noon start time in the east should bring a lot of movement in the CTC standings.

MISSOURI VALLEY QUARTERFINALS (12 points each)
“Arch Madness” gets into full swing today with a quarterfinal quadruple-header starting at 1:00 eastern.  S. Illinois avoided the upset last night, beating Illinois State, but Drake could not, as 10-seed Bradley got through to play again today.

*CTC UPDATE:  Primm is the only one to nail all four quarterfinal matchups in The Valley today, but after missing both opening round games, he still trails Doogan and Gross, who lead the MVC.

#1 Missouri State vs. #8 S. Illinois 
The top-seeded Bears of Missouri State open their postseason today in the early game against the Salukis who, just 15 hours prior to tip time finished off a 3-point win over Illinois State.  Missouri State did have some bubble aspirations for much of the season, but a BracketBusters loss to Valparaiso might have popped their bubble.  That being said, with all the rich conference bubble teams losing, they may be right back on it – but anything less than an MVC tournament finals appearance and it’s probably an NIT season for Cuonzo Martin’s crew.  All 20 entries have Missouri State winning this game.  Waters, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Cheryl, and Dan, though, are the only ones with the Bears winning it all. 

IN-GAME UPDATE:  Upset Alert –> S. Illinois leads Missouri State 32 – 24 at halftime
IN-GAME UPDATE:  S. Illinois continues to MSU, 46-37, with 10 minutes left to play.  Could be disastrous for a couple CTC brackets and Missouri State’s already slim at-large chances.

FINAL SCORE:  Missouri State 58 – S. Illinois 56
MADNESS!!!  Missouri State comes all the way back for assured elimination to win it on a buzzer-beater by Kyle Weems from just inside the three-point line.  Weems and Adam Leonard combine for 34 of the Bears 58 points and the top seed survives a terrifyingly close quarterfinal here in Arch Madness.  For MSU championship supporters – Waters, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Cheryl, and Dan – this one was a little close for comfort, but a win is a win.

#4 N. Iowa vs. #5 Creighton
I have to say that the graduation of Ali Farukmanesh from N. Iowa last year made writing these CTC posts a lot easier.  But, aside from that, the loss of Faruk and Adam Koch hit the Panthers pretty hard (more Koch than Faruk, who only really made a name for himself with his onions in the tournament), which was not unexpected.  That being said, the momentum of a Sweet 16 run and the coaching acumen of Ben Jacobson has probably brought UNI into perpetual upper-division status here in The Valley.  This quarterfinal is fantastic, as Creighton has some talent as well, albeit a bit underachieving this year.   This game, aside from being great on the hardwood, is going to be great in the brackets, as well.  The CTC is very split on this game and it could go a long way to crowning this year’s CTC MVC champion.  The majority, actually, seems to prefer the Blue Jays of Creighton – only 9 entries (Bry, J, Alexi, Waters, Cheryl, Dan, Rikey, Gersh, and Mac) have the favored UNI.  And, not only does the majority of entries have Creighton winning this game, but a lot of those that like the Blue Jays really like them.  Lynch, KA, Teddy, Dave, Primm, and Gross all have Creighton in the finals, though no one has them winning the title.  On the other side, none of the 9 entries that have UNI in the semis have them beating Missouri State. 

*FINAL SCORE:  Creighton 60 – N. Iowa 57
The Blue Jays held UNI to just 17 points in the first half – leading by 8 at the break – and held on down the stretch to eliminate the Panthers and move on to face Missouri State in the semis tomorrow.  They got 18 points off the bench from a guy who only averaged 8 per game in the regular season, Kenny Lawson.  This is the last MVC game for Kwadzo Ahelegbe – one of the best players to go through the UNI system – who missed some crucial shots down the stretch.  Lynch, KA, Teddy, Dave, Primm, and Gross are the happiest with this result, as they keep a finalist alive.

#2 Wichita State vs. #10 Bradley 
The other team that played last night, Bradley, at least gets the whole day to recover before taking on the #2-seeded Shockers of Wichita State.  The Shockers have had a good year, but a rather inconsistent one.  This inconsistency, while rewarded in the rich conferences (see:  Missouri, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Florida State, and on and on) is punished in the mid-majors.  All year, these are their 7 losses:  UConn (neutral court) by 4, @San Diego State by 14, Missouri State by 3, N. Iowa by 3, S. Illinois by 3, VCU by 1, @Missouri State by 5.  You mean to tell me a 21-win team in a good conference with only 1 bad loss (and only one loss by double-digits) will not, should they lost to MSU in the finals, be one of the best 35 at-large candidates?  Who is better?  Memphis?  Minnesota?  Colorado?  Really?  Not in my book.  J.T. Durley and Toure Murry and big-time college players, and they have a ton of depth – going 10 deep of all guys who would get quality minutes on just about any team in America.  Sorry for the rant, I just think that this team is absolutely a tournament team.  In case you couldn’t tell, the author of this post has Wichita State winning this tournament.  He is joined by 12 other people (J, Doogan, Stri, Lynch, Lohse, KA, Teddy, Rikey, Dave, Gersh, Gross, and Mac).  No one has them losing this game.

*FINAL SCORE:  Wichita State 70 – Bradley 56
The deepest mid-major team in the country got 36 of their 70 points from their bench, including 16 from their “big ugly,” Garrett Stutz.  13 CTC’ers have WSU winning this tournament, so they were happy to see a relatively breezy quarterfinal.

#3 Indiana State vs. #6 Evansville
The two most surprising teams in the MVC this year match up in the nightcap of the quartefinal quadruple-header.  Picked in the preseason to finish last and second-to-last in The Valley, respectively, Indiana State and Evansville surprised everyone by finishing in the top 6 and avoiding the first round of the tournament.  The Sycamores even knocked off Missouri State, Creighton, and N. Iowa along the way.  Evansville, aside from a decent conference season, got a big win over Butler in the non-conference.  This is a very popular upset pick in the CTC, as only Alexi, Dan, Rikey, Primm, and Mac have them winning this game.  Primm and Alexi have them winning the whole tournament, actually.  No one else has them in the finals.

*FINAL SCORE:  Indiana State 52 – Evansville 50
Resilient.  That is the perfect word for the Sycamores this season, as they keep overcoming adversity.  Picked to finish last in the conference, they managed to beat most of the top teams and finish third.  Then, getting little respect heading into the conference tournament, they trailed Evansville pretty much all game, before coming back at the end and winning on a 17-footer from Jake Odum at the buzzer.  The Sycamores will have to bring back up their emotion tomorrow in the semis, as they face #2 Wichita State.  A bunch of people missed an upset pick here, while Primm and Alexi keep their champions alive. 

HORIZON LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS (12 points each)
After a two day respite to rest and relocate, the Horizon League continues with its two quarterfinal games.  The next two rounds will be hosted by regular season champion, UW-Milwaukee, though the hosts and the defending champs (Butler) get a night off tonight, as they await their semifinals opponents.  All four of the teams tonight took care of business on their home floors Tuesday to get themselves here.  As for the CTC, we had 8 perfect opening round entries, so we are still looking for a favorite to take the 2011 CTC Horizon League belt.

*CTC UPDATE:  A slew of people got both quarterfinals right here in the Horizon, including Bry, Alexi, Teddy, and Mac, who all remain perfect in this bracket.

#3 Cleveland State vs. #6 Wright State
The Vikings were not incredibly inspiring in their 12-point win over lowly UIC on Tuesday night, but the theme of this time of the year is survive and advance, and that is what they did.  Wright State also survived and advanced against a much tougher opponent, Green Bay.  This is a war.  I know that the Horizon League does not get much attention, but I would put this matchup up there against any quarterfinal matchup anywhere, including “star power,” as Norris Cole and Vaughn Duggins may not be household names, but they can flat-out play.  This should be a good one with the winner moving on to a semifinal date with Butler tomorrow night.  Everyone has a horse in the race here, except Dan, who had Green Bay winning this game and going to the semis.  Waters and Stri have Wright State here, while the other 17 all have CSU.  A loss by the Vikings would hurt the bracket of Lynch the most, as he has them winning this tournament, but it would also be a blow to Cheryl and Primm, who have them beating Butler.

*FINAL SCORE:  Cleveland State 73 – Wright State 59
Norris Cole “only” had 15 for the Vikings, but he scored 13 of them in a 9-minute span in the second half that blew this game wide open.  Regardless of your CC affiliations, you have to be somewhat happy to see this result, setting up a great Butler-CSU semifinal tomorrow night in Milwaukee.  A pretty good season for Wright State comes to an end; a great career for Vaughn Duggins does, as well.  Lynch keeps his finalist alive, while Stri and Waters both miss out on this upset.

#4 Valparaiso vs. #5 Detroit
Detroit hammered Loyola (IL) on Tuesday night, while Valpo survived a bad Youngstown State team.  This, the nightcap, should be every bit as good as the first game with the winner moving on to play the hosts, UW-Milwaukee tomorrow night.  Two entries already have L’s here (KA and Lynch) with the pick of previously eliminated Loyola.  Of the 18 remaining entries alive in this game, only 5 have Detroit (Doogan, Cheryl, Rikey, Primm, and Gross).  The other 13 have Valpo.  Gross has the most to lose with Detroit, as he has them in the finals.  On the other side, Mac is the biggest Crusader fan of the bunch, as he has them cutting down the nets in the Horizon.

*FINAL SCORE:  Valparaiso 88 – Detroit 78
When the going get tough, good teams have guys they can turn to to come through.  Valpo has that guy, and his name is Brandon Wood.  Wood dropped 30 on the Titans tonight, including seven 7-pointers in the second half alone, as the Crusaders win to advance to play #1 UW-Milwaukee tomorrow night in the Horizon semis.  Doogan, Cheryl, Rikey, Primm, and Gross missed their upset pick here.  Mac keeps his Horizon champ alive.

OHIO VALLEY SEMIFINALS (8 points each)
Two nights of play; four teams eliminated; and, the OVC welcomes its top two teams to the mix for the semis tonight and the championship tomorrow.  Gersh is still perfect in the OVC, so we’ll see if he can finish this thing off.

*CTC UPDATE:  Gersh lost both, so his dream of perfection is over.  J is now in the lead for this year’s OVC title.

#1 Murray State vs. #4 Tennessee Tech 
Tennessee Tech cruised past UT-Martin last night to earn themselves a date with the top-seeded Racers.  Murray State, always one of the darlings of the mid-major circuit, had another stellar year and notched another OVC title on their headboard.  The OVC this year had three very good teams and, as a reward for winning the regular season, Murray State gets to go through the bracket opposite the other two.  J and Alexi both have Tennessee Tech in a nice upset pick here.  Alexi has them winning this tournament.

*FINAL SCORE:  Tennessee Tech 64 – Murray State 59
Tennessee Tech jumped out to a big lead, as Murray State stuggled to hit shots all night.  The Racers – normally a great offensive team – was shooting less 35% from the floor and less than 20% from 3-point line in the first half.  But, they started making shots midway through the second and made a furious comeback, turning a 12-point deficit into a 2-point lead with less than 2 minutes left.  But, TT made the big shots down the stretch, including a huge 3-pointer by Zac Swansey to ice it.  The Racers great guard attack was almost completely neutralized, including an uncharacteristically terrible shooting night from their star, B.J. Jenkins.  J and Alexi were the only two to get this game right – Alexi has Tennessee Tech winning this, which would be a fantastic call if it comes through.  A ton of people lost their champion in this one.

#2 Morehead State vs. #3 Austin Peay 
The other late arrival to the OVC dance is the Morehead State Eagles and some guy named Kenneth Faried.  If you haven’t seen Faried play, you are truly missing out.  Maybe it’s the dreads, but he appears to be everywhere on the court.  He plays with an unbelievable energy level and crashes the boards like a madman.  He is an absolute force and should give the Governors (who lack some inside strength) all they can handle all night.  This is one of the biggest CTC games of the night, as the field was quite torn on this game (understandably, as it is a great game).  9 entries had Austin Peay in the upset here (Stri, Lynch, Lil Lohse, Scoot, Cheryl, Gersh, Primm, Gross, and Mac), with 5 of those having the Governors winning the whole thing (Stri, Scoot, Gersh, Gross, and Mac).  On the other side, of the 11 who picked Morehead in this one, 6 of them have the Eagles winning the tournament (J, Doogan, Waters, KA, Teddy, and Dave).

*FINAL SCORE:  Morehead State 68 – Austin Peay 49
If you are going to set a record – a pretty major one – you might as well do it in style.  With his 3rd rebound of the night, Kenneth Faried passed Tim Duncan as the all-time NCAA D-I rebounder.  Only needing 3, the record was pretty assured, but Faried decided to extend his lead a little bit, so he added EIGHTEEN more to finish with 21 boards in leading his Morehead State team into the OVC finals to take on Tennessee Tech tomorrow night.  It was a comfortable lead for most of the game, but it wasn’t a blowout until Austin Peay just stopped playing with about 6 minutes left.  Morehead took a 10-point lead and just walked away with it.  J, Doogan, Waters, KA, Teddy, and Dave are the happiest with this win because they have Morehead winning this tournament.  Stri, Scoot, Gersh, Gross, and Mac took the biggest blow, as they had Austin Peay winning it.

ATLANTIC SUN SEMIFINALS (8 points each)
After four quarterfinal games over two days, the A-Sun will crown its champion in tomorrow night.  To get to that point, we have to resolve the semifinal contests tonight in Macon.  Bry, Doogan, and Waters all submitted perfect A-Sun quarterfinal picks, so they will be going for perfection this weekend.

*CTC UPDATE:  J, Dan, and Dave all hit both semifinals in the A-Sun, and are all tied for the A-Sun lead.  And, with no one picking N. Florida to win the title, and all three of them having Belmont, they will all tie for the 2011 A-Sun title.

#1 Belmont vs. #5 Mercer 
Mercer upset Belmont’s arch-rival, Lipscomb, last night to get a shot at the top-seeded Bruins, who survived against #8 Kennesaw State on Wednesday night.  Waters is the only one with the upset call of Mercer here.  KA is already out, having gone with Lipscomb here, and everyone else has Belmont (including most people who have them winning it all).

*FINAL SCORE:  Belmont 80 – Mercer 72
Belmont is officially the first team in the country to reach the 29-win mark, as they win a pretty tight game against the tournament hosts, Mercer.  The Bruins – who lead the country in bench scoring – got 48 points off the pine tonight and will advance to tomorrow night’s championship.  Waters missed a big upset pick here and lost a finalist in the process.

#2 E. Tennessee State vs. #6 N. Florida 
ETSU survived a real scare on Wednesday night, inching past #7 Campbell and now they get #6 N. Florida, who pulled off the upset of #3 Jacksonville last night.  Three entries (Alexi, Scoot, and Primm) have already lost this game, having picked Jacksonville.  J, Waters, Dan, and Dave all would have a really nice upset here if UNF can come through.   Everyone else has ETSU.  Bry has the Bucs winning this tournament.

*FINAL SCORE:  N. Florida 59 – E. Tennessee State 55
Well, we have a winner of the annual “first team to be called Cinderella,” and it is N. Florida.  The Ospreys are one win away from the First Four.  And, they did it in style, beating ETSU for the first time in their school’s history.  Mike Smith, the A-Sun Player of the Year, did score 20 in defeat, but ETSU’s destiny is probably the CBI, at this point.  N. Florida’s destiny is yet to be defined, as they have a shot to write it tomorrow against Belmont.  J, Waters, Dan, and Dave all hit this upset – which is very impressive to nail a 6-seed in the finals.  Bry loses his champion here.

COLONIAL OPENING ROUND (6 points each)
I mentioned yesterday how the “Arch Madness” of the MVC is my second favorite conference tournament of the entire two weeks.  Well, the suspense is over – the Colonial is my absolute favorite.  Maybe because, living in the deep south of Baltimore, I get a ton of Colonial games or maybe because I just love Bruiser Flint.  Maybe it is because the divergent styles of the best teams make for fascinatingly intriguing matchups on a nightly basis, but, honestly, I think it’s just because the quality of basketball is so vastly underrated by the general public that I feel a bit of a kinship with CAA fans and their teams.  It is like a hipster and their obscure band.  Hopefully, this conference doesn’t “sell out” and sign with a major record label or I may go into a deep depression pining for the days when they were “pure” and struggled to sell out 250-seat holes in the wall and I could wait in line for 2 hours for tickets instead of having to sit in my living room with that bastard of convenience called TicketMaster and everything was great because they were “mine.”  (and, yet, we digress…)  So, yes, I love the CAA simply because very few other people realize how great it is.  I am a little ashamed to admit that that is the reason, but that’s me.

*CTC UPDATE:  Stri and KA were the only two to hit all four opening round games in the CAA.  Dave and Gross only hit 1 of 4.

#8 UNC-Wilmington vs. #9 Georgia State
Georgia State started the conference season like gangbusters, beating two of the preseason favorites, James Madison and VCU, to start conference play.  Led by a great defense, they actually led the CAA as late as mid-January.  But, it started to unravel for the Panthers and they stumbled to 3-11 record down the stretch and a 9th place finish.  UNC-Wilmington was pretty consistent all season, beating the teams they should and rarely beating those they shouldn’t.  The winner of this opening round noon game with another noontime affair tomorrow against #1 George Mason.  The field is pretty split on this game, as 9 of the 20 picked Georgia State in the minor upset (Primm, Cheryl, Teddy, KA, Lohse, Stri, Doogan, J, and Bry).  What the field is not split on is that no matter who wins this game will go down tomorrow to #1 George Mason.

FINAL SCORE:  Georgia State 58 – UNC-Wilmington 52
A close game throughout, Georgia State, who was led by the defense all year, got the big stops down the stretch to move on in the first CAA tournament game of 2011.  The Panthers got 37 of their 58 points from their bench and will now move on play #1 George Mason in the opener of tomorrow’s quarterfinal quadruple-header.  9 CTC’ers picked up 12 points for this upset pick.  KA, Primm, and Cheryl all pass Dave, who falls to the cellar overall.  Bry gains no ground on either of the 2 closest chasing him (Doogan and J), but does pick up ground on Lil Lohse, who is passed by his big bro into 4th.

#5 Drexel vs. #12 Towson
I have to say that of all 6 Philly school, Bruiser Flint’s coaching performance at Drexel this year may have been the best.  He came in with a team picked towards the bottom of the conference and, on top of that, battled several injuries along the way.  But, he rallied the team to pretty good heights all year, none higher than a win at the Yum! Center in Louisville.  They suffered a couple close losses in conference play (including a heartbreaker at VCU) and just didn’t have the horses to compete with the top 4 in the conference and finished just outside of bye position here in the 5-12 game.  Fortunately, they earned a “virtual” bye by drawing Towson in the first round.  Pat’s Cats, as they called down here, failed to win a conference game in 18 tries this year.  That being said, there are still three people (all of whom live in the general Towson vicinity, including this author) have the Cats in the upset here – Bry, Teddy, and Gross.  Teddy even has them winning again tomorrow.  Drexel is a popular pick to win their quarterfinal game, as J, Stri, Lynch, Lohse, Lil Lohse, KA, Cheryl, Dave, Gersh, Primm, and Mac all have them beating VCU in the quarters.  Lynch and Dave even have them making the finals.

FINAL SCORE:  Drexel 75 – Towson 69
It wasn’t pretty, but the Dragons move on to face VCU tomorrow afternoon.  Tied at the half, Drexel extended their lead to as many as 13 before Towson came storming back to draw with 3 point, with possession, with :33 seconds left.  But, a missed layup by the Tigers’ leading scorer, Josh Brown gave the ball back to Drexel, who salted it away at the free throw line.  The Dragons were led by 6’5″ junior from Academy of the New Church High in Philly, Samme Givens, who had a monster game of 22 points and 14 boards.  The Dragons outrebounded Towson 41-24, which was pretty much the difference in this one.  Bry, Teddy, and Gross all missed their longshot upset pick.  Teddy lost a semifinalist here.  KA remains perfect on the day; Gross is struggling today.  Bry’s overall lead is cut to 18 by Doogan here.

#7 Delaware vs. #10 Northeastern
The Fightin’ Blue Hens of UD have one of the greatest nicknames in all of sports.  However, their basketball history is not quite as amazing.  They did have a decent season this year, led by two guys I watched play in high school – D.J. Boney and Jawan Carter – but they really just don’t have the talent to compete with the big boys in the CAA.  Northeastern is rebuilding after a solid run over the past couple of years and struggled to find the right mix throughout this season.  But, they have been playing better as of late.  The winner of this game will get Old Dominion tomorrow in the quarters.  This is another popular upset pick as 8 entries have Northeastern in this one (Bry, J, Doogan, Teddy, Scoot, Cheryl, Dave, and Primm).  Everyone except KA (who has Delaware upsetting ODU tomorrow) has their winning pick here losing in the quarters to Old Dominion.

*FINAL SCORE:  Delaware 60 – Northeastern 58
The Fightin’ Blue Hens and the most overrated high school player I’ve ever seen (Jawan Carter) did everything they could to give this game away down the stretch – a ton of missed free throws, bad turnovers, and stupid fouls – but Northeastern just couldn’t get enough shots to fall to take advantage.  The Blue Hens survive to fight another day and will get ODU tomorrow in the quarters.  8 CTC’ers missed an upset chance here, while KA keeps a semifinalist alive.

#6 James Madison vs. #11 William & Mary
Who is the best player that you have never heard of?  Many people would say Norris Cole at Cleveland State, and while he is a truly fantastic player, his 41-point, 20-rebound, 9-assist game a couple weeks ago probably put him into the level of “heard of.”  Mickey McConnell at St. Mary’s is a great player that very few people know, but the Gaels have been ranked most of the season, so hoops fans should know their best player.  My vote for this distinction is Denzel Bowles at James Madison.  The dude is a flat-out stud, but because the Dukes have been a bit disappointing this year, he is really not getting any ink.  But, trust me, their Dukes struggles have very little, if anything, to do with Bowles.  If you are around a TV and this game is on late tomorrow night, tune in for Bowles alone.  He is worth the effort.  On the other side, you will see a William & Mary team that, well, isn’t very good.  After heartbreaking near-misses the last couple of years to break the streak of never making the NCAA tournament, this year won’t be as heartbreaking when it finally ends.  The winner here will move on to the nightcap of tomorrow’s quarterfinal quadruple-header against Hofstra (who sports another unknown player that should not really be unknown – 23-point per game Charles Jenkins).  A few people went for the William & Mary upset here (Teddy, KA, Stri, Waters, and Bry).  Stri and Teddy actually have the Tribe going to the semis.  JMU, on the other hand, is a popular pick to pull of the upset next round, so J, Doogan, Scoot, Dave, Primm, Gross, and Mac are all hoping they survive this round to give themselves a shot at the upset tomorrow.

*FINAL SCORE:  William & Mary 72 – James Madison 68
If you told me that one team’s star would take over this game, while the other’s would be rendered essentially inconsequential, I definitely would have predicted which one was which in the CAA nightcap.  Denzel Bowles, whom I rapped poetic about in the preview for this game, scored a whopping 5 points in a foul-plagued 24 minutes for the Dukes, while the most nondescript 1,200-point junior you will see, Quinn McDowell, lit it up for 35.  McDowell, who is not that quick, not that athletic, not that big is just a flat-out gamer, and he put the Tribe on his back tonight and carried them into the quarters, where his team will get to try and matchup with Charles Jenkins and the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen (they will never be the “Pride” to me).  Teddy, KA, Stri, Waters, and Bry all nailed a pretty nice upset here.  Stri and Teddy are still alive to hit the Tribe as a semifinalist.

SoCON OPENING ROUND (4 points each)
The Southern Conference gets its tournament underway today with a quarterfinal quadruple-header in Chattanooga.  While Steph Curry is gone, there are still some great individual players with guys like Donald Sims at App State, Emu Saaka at Furman, and Andrew Dahlman at Wofford.  But, none are better than the future pro from College of Charleston, Andrew Goudelock.

*CTC UPDATE:  The great decathletes, Dan and Dave, were the only two to hit all 4 SoCon games in the opening round.  Bry, Waters, and Primm only got 1.

#4S Davidson vs. #5N UNC-Greensboro
Steph Curry is not walking through that door.  But, Davidson is still a quality team with a very strong coach in Bob McKillop.  UNC-Greensboro, after an 0-11 non-conference slate, somehow managed to win 6 SoCon games this year and not finish last in the North Division.  The winner of this game will get the North Division champion W. Carolina tomorrow in the quarters.  KA, Dan, and Dave went for a nice upset pick here with Greensboro.  Everyone else went with Davidson – but it doesn’t stop there.  You ready?  Bry, J, Stri, Alexi, Lynch, Lohse, Teddy, Scoot, Primm, and Mac all have Davidson making the semis.  J, Alexi, Lynch, and Teddy all have them making the finals.  And, Lynch and Teddy went all the way and picked them to win the SoCon tournament.  So, a Greensboro upset here could be a real “bracket buster.”  It would also be great news for Dave, who has the Spartans beating W. Carolina tomorrow as well.

IN-GAME UPDATE:  UPSET ALERT –> Greensboro up on Davidson, 30-22, with 4 minutes left in the first half.
IN-GAME UPDATE:  Greensboro leads Davidson 32-24 at the half.

FINAL SCORE:  UNC-Greensboro 71 – Davidson 64
A devastatingly bad way to end the season for Bob McKillop’s Davidson team.  Trailing pretty much the whole way, they are eliminated by 6-23 UNC-Greensboro.  It was also devastating for a ton of CTC’ers.  Lynch and Teddy got hit the hardest, as they had Davidson winning the whole thing.  You know who was not devastated?  KA, Dan, and Dave, who picked up a cool 16 points for this upset pick.

#3N Appalachian State vs. #6S Georgia-Southern
The second game of the day has App State – probably the most disappointing team in the SoCon this year, all things considered – against Georgia-Southern – the worst team in the SoCon this year, all things considered.  GA-Southern won one conference game (home against The Citadel) and were not really competitive in many others.  App State – who was the preseason pick to win the North – was seriously up and down, seemingly able to beat or lose to just about anybody.  Defending SoCon champ, Wofford, awaits the winner of this game in tomorrow’s quarterfinal.  Primm was the only one bold enough to go for the big upset pick of GA-Southern here.  J, Doogan, Lohse, and Cheryl all have App State in the semis.  Lohse actually has them winning it all.

*FINAL SCORE:  Appalachian State 65 – Georgia-Southern 57
In a game that App State probably didn’t want to be as close as it was, they do survive and advance.  This game was tied as late as the 10-minute mark in the second half, but the Mountaineers, led by one of the best players in the SoCon, Donald Sims and his 20 points, made enough plays down the stretch to get the W.  They get a big matchup with Wofford in the quarters tomorrow.  Primm missed a real nice upset pick here; Lohse kept his longshot champion pick alive.

#3S Furman vs. #6N Samford
A hell of a year for the Furman Paladins, winning 20 games and 12 conference games.  But, because they are stuck in the far superior South Division of the SoCon, they are stuck playing in the first round.  Samford was not very good this year, finishing last in the inferior North.  The winner tonight will earn themselves a showdown with the tournament hosts, Chattanooga.  Bry, Waters, and KA all took a shot at the big upset here and went with Samford.  Furman is the darling of Doogan’s bracket, as he is hoping to ride them all the way to a SoCon championship.  Dave has the Paladins in the finals, but not winning it.  J, Gersh, and Gross have them in the semis.

*FINAL SCORE:  Furman 61 – Samford 48
In a game that must have been incredibly exciting to watch, the Paladins smother Samford to move on to the SoCon quarters against Chattanooga tomorrow.  Bry, Waters, and KA missed a large upset pick here, while Doogan keeps alive his champion.

#4N Elon vs. #5S The Citadel
Elon started slowly, but started to play better down the stretch, finishing in 4th in the North.  The Citadel had a bit of a disappointing season, but still managed a 6-12 conference record in the tougher South Division.  The two teams will play in the nightcap in Chattanooga with the winner earning a shot at South Division regular season champ, College of Charleston, in tomorrow night quarterfinal nightcap.  8 people like The Citadel in the mild upset – Bry, J, Doogan, Stri, Waters, Teddy, Gersh, and Primm.  No one has either of these teams beating C of C tomorrow night.

WCC OPENING ROUND (4 points each)
For the first time in a very long time, Gonzaga did not win the West Coast Conference.  The Australian National Team, sorry, I mean the St. Mary’s Gaels took the regular season title and the subsequent #1 in this year’s WCC tournament.  Along with a top-2 seed, the Gaels (and Zags) get a double-bye and aren’t slated to play until the semifinals on Sunday.  The opening round between the league’s bottom four teams gets underway in Sin City tonight.

#5 Portland vs. #8 Loyola Marymount
Portland is a very good team that somehow finds themselves in the WCC first round because they just didn’t quite win enough games.  LMU was supposed to be a very good team that finds themselves in the first round because, well, they didn’t really win any games.  The winner tonight will play #4 Santa Clara in the quarters tomorrow.  Bry, Doogan, and KA all went with the underdog here.  Doogan and KA actually have LMU reaching the semis.  13 entries – J, Stri, Alexi, Waters, Lynch, Lohse, Lil Lohse, Teddy, Scoot, Rikey, Dave, Primm, and Gross – have Portland upsetting Santa Clara next round, though only 1 (Gross) have the Pilots going to the finals.

*FINAL SCORE:  Loyola Marymount 72 – Portland 68
The Pilots, one of the dark horses in this tournament, just couldn’t stop Drew Viney and are eliminated from the tournament almost as soon as it starts.  LMU will advance to face #4 Santa Clara tomorrow in the quarters.  Gross got hit the hardest here, as he lost a finalist.  Bry, Doogan, and KA picked up a pretty big upset pick here.  Doogan and KA now have a shot for another one, as they have LMU winning again tomorrow.

#6 Pepperdine vs. #7 San Diego
Why would either of these teams even care about basketball?  One side lives in the San Diego and the other in Malibu.  Well, apparently, neither did care all that much this year, as both teams were pretty bad.  The survivor of this sure-to-be-thrilling game gets to play San Francisco in the quarters.  Stri, Alexi, Waters, Dan, Dave, and Mac all have San Diego in the minor upset.  Stri, Waters, and Dave all has USD beating USF next round, too.  Doogan, Lynch, Lohse, KA, Teddy, and Gross all have Pepperdine beating the Dons tomorrow.

*FINAL SCORE:  Pepperdine 84 – San Diego 81
Leading by double-digits most of the game, the Waves held off a late comeback attempt by USD to advance to Saturday’s quarters to take on San Francisco.  This loss ends a very forgettable season for the Torreros and also puts a bit of a hurt on the WCC brackets of Stri, Waters, and Dave.

MAAC OPENING ROUND (2 points each)
Without a completely dominating Siena team, life in the MAAC is a lot more interesting.  And, as it would have it, life in the MAAC tournament should be a lot more interesting this year, too, as it moves out of Siena’s gym.  The only catch?  It has been moved to the gym of maybe the new dominant team – Fairfield.

#8 Niagara vs. #9 Marist
It was not that long ago when Niagara was the one real threat to Siena in the MAAC.  Those days seem distant because the Tides were rather dreadful this year.  Fortunately for Niagara fans, their opening round opponent, the Red Foxes of Marist, may have been one of the few teams even more dreadful.  The winner here will get the chance to take a shot at #1 Fairfield.  KA, Scoot, Dan, Dave, and Primm all have Marist in the mild upset.  KA actually has a real nice upset pick with Marist going to the semis.  No one has Niagara any further than this.

*FINAL SCORE:  Marist 73 – Niagara 61
A pretty terrible season for the Waves ends with a 32% shooting night and a 12-point loss to a really bad Marist team.  The Red Foxes advance to the quarters tomorrow, where they might just be cannon fodder for #1 Fairfield.  KA, Scoot, Dan, Dave, and Primm all hit this mild upset.  KA keeps alive what would be an epic semifinal prediction. 

#7 Siena vs. #10 Manhattan
My how the mighty have fallen.  I guess that Philly guy, Fran McCaffrey is a pretty good coach, huh?  With McCaffrey gone for the riches of the Big Ten, the Saints are left to pick up the pieces and they fell from the perennial #1 spot all the way to #7 this year and into the opening round.  They did catch a break, though, as they get a pretty terrible Manhattan team today before, if they hang on, gearing up for #2 Iona tomorrow.  Lynch and Gross took a shot at Manhattan in the upset here, while Bry, Waters, Lohse, Teddy, Dan, and Dave all need Siena to win here to keep alive their shot at correctly predicting a semifinals appearance for the Saints.  Dan really needs them to survive here, as he has them going all the way to the finals.

*FINAL SCORE:  Siena 68 – Manhattan 66 (OT)
A huge three by Owen Wignot in overtime lifted Siena into the quarterfinals over a very poor Manhattan team.  The Saints will now get #2 Iona in the quarters.  Ryan Rossiter (yes, he’s still there) had 17 points, 14 rebounds and huge block to help seal the win.  Lynch and Gross came awfully close to a nice upset here.  A lot of people can breathe a sigh of relief with the Siena survival, but none more than Dan, who has them in the finals.

CTC SNAPSHOT – COLONIAL

Championship Picks:

• #1 George Mason (13) – everyone else
• #2 Old Dominion (5) – Bry, Lynch, Teddy, Dave, Gross
• #3 Hofstra (2) – Waters, KA

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds:

• OR – #12 Towson – Bry, Teddy, Gross
• QF – #12 Towson – Teddy
• SF – #5 Drexel – Lynch, Dave

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Alexi
• ’09 – Ina
• ’10 – Bry

CTC SNAPSHOT – SoCON

Championship Picks:

• #1 College of Charleston (8) – everyone else
• #2 W. Carolina (2) – Lil Lohse, Cheryl
• #3 Wofford (5) – Stri, Dave, Gersh, Gross, Mac
• #4 Chattanooga (1) – KA
• #5 Furman (1) – Doogan
• #6 Appalachian State (1) – Lohse
• #7 Davidson (2) – Lynch, Teddy

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds:

• OR – #12 Samford – Waters, KA
• QF – #11 UNC-Greensboro – Dave
• SF – #7 Davidson – J, Alexi, Lynch, Teddy

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Ina
• ’09 – Lynch
• ’10 – Stri

CTC SNAPSHOT – WCC

Championship Picks:

• #1 St. Mary’s (6) – Stri, Alexi, Waters, Teddy, Gersh, Mac
• #2 Gonzaga (12) – everyone else
• #3 San Francisco (2) – Cheryl, Primm

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds:

• OR – #8 Loyola Marymount – Bry, Doogan, KA
• QF – #8 Loyola Marymount – Doogan, KA
• SF – #5 Portland – Gross

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – Waters
• ’09 – Ina (perfect)
• ’10 – Lynch

CTC SNAPSHOT – MAAC

Championship Picks:

• #1 Fairfield (4) – Bry, Alexi, Dan, Rikey
• #2 Iona (10) – everyone else
• #3 Rider (5) – Alexi, Lohse, Teddy, Cheryl, Dave
• #4 St. Peter’s (1) – Primm

Lowest Seed Picked to Win Earlier Rounds:

• OR – #10 Manhattan – Lynch, Gross
• QF – #9 Marist – KA
• SF – #5 Loyola (MD) – J, Alexi, KA, Gross

Previous CTC Champions:

• ’08 – J
• ’09 – Bry
• ’10 – Bry (perfect)