Besides the NCAA Tournament, Championship week is a college basketball fan’s favorite time of the year. Every conference is figuring out who’s the best of the best during their conference tournaments and unknown, low-rated teams can clinch a spot in the big dance by simply rising to the occasion and winning their conference. As Championship week is at it’s halfway point, here’s a rundown the automatic qualifiers as well as a few games to look forward to.
St. Mary’s Stuns #1-ranked Gonzaga
Many experts have said throughout the season that the West Coast Conference is too weak for a powerhouse like Gonzaga who rolled through their conference season with virtually any hiccups. However, Saint Mary’s showed that it can be tougher than meets the eye, winning the WCC Tournament over Gonzaga in dominating fashion with a 60-47 victory. Led by Jordan Ford, who played all 40 minutes and had 17 points, this gave the Gaels their second appearance in the the NCAA Tournament in six years. Are they possibly this year’s cinderella? They are projected by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi to square off against fifth seed Mississippi State.
One of them was going to go home, one would move on, into the depths of the ACC Tournament where challenges would await them in their quest for the ACC Title. FSU’s Terance Mann was determined to make sure his team moved on as he made many big plays throughout the game, the biggest coming with 1.8 seconds left in the overtime period. That was the moment when he launched an off-balance shot in the corner which somehow swished through the net giving the Seminoles the opportunity to face Virginia in their next matchup.
Liberty Makes their first season in the ASUN memorable one
Liberty athletics has had quite a memorable year. Their football team finished their first year at the FBS level with a 6-6 record and hung in with teams like Virginia, Troy and New Mexico. Now, their basketball team has made their mark in their first year in a new conference, the Atlantic Sun, and capped it off by winning the conference tournament. This is will be their first tournament appearance since 2013 when they fell to NC A&T in the first four. Considering that they had enough talent to take down UCLA, and the fact that they make 56% of their two-point shots, good enough for a top 10 national ranking in that category, the Flames aren’t a team to sleep on.
Zion Williamson returns
After missing the last few week of the regular season, the Freshman dunking sensation returned Thursday night to help Duke beat Syracuse and move on in the ACC Tournament. Impressively, he scored 29 points and shot a whopping 100% from the field, a performance that has to make Duke fans feel confident heading into the NCAAs.
Top seeds fall
It is extremely interesting how some teams can go a whole season running over their conference opponents and then get beat in the first or second round of their conference tournament. Surprisingly, this happened on multiple instances Friday evening. Florida State, coming off a shocking buzzer-beater victory the previous day, were able to slide past #1-seeded Virginia 69-59. Over in the Big 10 Tournament, #2-seeded Purdue fell to #7 seed Minnesota, who were powered by forward Jordan Murphy, who scored 27. In perhaps the most shocking instance, #1-seeded LSU, was stunned by underrated #8 seed Florida, 76-73.
Projecting the Big 6 Conference Tournaments
Big Ten: Michigan State over Michigan
Big 12: Kansas over Iowa State
Big East: Seton Hall over Villanova
SEC: Tennessee over Auburn
ACC: Duke over Florida State
Mountain West: San Diego State over Utah State
Enjoy the games!
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