SWAC finals are basically the First Four semifinals, as the winner of this dreadful conference always ends up there.\u00a0 It would have been interesting to see what they would have done with Mississippi Valley St. if they had gone undefeated in the conference and then won the tournament.\u00a0 That might have been enough to earn them a “regular” 16-seed, but we’ll never know because they lost their last game of the regular season at AR-Pine Bluff.\u00a0 Now, this is truly a feeder tournament to Dayton and the First Four.\u00a0 But, these teams should be used to it, as they seem to love to get pounded.\u00a0 I will never understand the non-conference schedules of all of these teams.\u00a0 They all stink, and all they do in the non-conference is play the best teams in the country.\u00a0 I think the 10 teams combined for 3 or 4 D-I non-conference wins this season.\u00a0 They’re bad, but not that bad, they just offer themselves up as cannon fodder to the SEC and Big XII.\u00a0 I guess it’s all about the gate split, so it makes sense, but still…<\/p>\n
Tonight there is a day-night doubleheader with the top two teams in action in the quarters.\u00a0 Again, confusing.\u00a0 If you’re going to split up the quarters, don’t you think that the reason for that is to avoid the empty seats of the afternoon sessions?\u00a0 That makes sense to me.\u00a0 More people can come at night, so play two doubleheaders on consecutive nights and play it off as an “advantage” to the top two seeds in getting the day off.\u00a0 But, they have one of the games today at 1:30 and the other at 9:00.\u00a0 My head hurts…<\/p>\n
As for the CTC, half the field has the top-seeded Delta Devils, while the other 10 people are split between the 2nd and 5th seeds, with each getting at least two supporters.<\/p>\n
Championship Picks<\/em> Biggest Upsets<\/em> Previous CTC Champions<\/em> #2 Texas-Southern vs. #7 Alabama A&M<\/em> #1 Mississippi Valley St. vs. #8 Jackson St.<\/em> SWAC finals are basically the First Four semifinals, as the winner of this dreadful conference always ends up there.\u00a0 It would have been interesting to see what they would have done with Mississippi Valley St. if they had gone undefeated … Continue reading
\n10\u00a0for #1 Mississippi Valley St.
\n4 for #2 Texas-Southern (Lohse, Mac, RDoc, Waters)
\n2\u00a0for #3 Prairie View (KA, Teddy)
\n2 for #4 Alabama St. (Gersh, RSmith)
\n2 for #5 AR-Pine Bluff (Gross, J)<\/p>\n
\nQF – #8 Jackson St. (KA)
\nSF – #6 Alcorn St. (J)<\/p>\n
\n2011 – Lynch
\n2010 – Teddy
\n2009 – Ina*
\n2008 – Waters<\/p>\n
\nTexas-Southern was supposed to have the year that MVSU had – totally dominant.\u00a0 But, they were barely better than mediocre in the conference.\u00a0 They did rally though to finish in the 2-spot and avoid MVSU until the finals.\u00a0 Alabama A&M just isn’t good.\u00a0 19 people took TxS in this one, with KA as the only one that took a longshot at this nice upset pick.\u00a0 Lohse, Mac, RDoc, and Waters all have TxS winning this tournament.<\/p>\n
\nThe Delta Devils won their first 17 conference games (to improve their overall record to 1-10) before losing at AR-Pine Bluff in the regular season finale.\u00a0 They enter the tournament as pretty big favorites to take the auto-bid and the trip to Dayton on Tuesday.\u00a0 Between the top two seeds, though, they did get the tougher draw, as Jackson St. does have the potential to rise up and nip them, whereas Alabama A&M (or Grambling, who just missed qualifying for this tournament) would probably have been a walkover for a team like MVSU.\u00a0 KA has this huge upset, half the field has the Delta Devils cutting down the nets on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"