Saturday, March 04, 2006

Yes, there were other basketball games on Saturday...

I'll write about Duke/UNC later (don't know if you heard that they were playing), but for now, let's focus on the rest of what was a good day of college basketball.

First, the story that I've been following, the MVC Tournament. As I predicted yesterday, Bradley upset top-seeded Wichita St. by a 60-52 score. As I did not predict, Southern Illinois beat Northern Iowa 55-46 in OT. Yes, that was an overtime score. This really muddles up the bubble, as Bradley and Southern Illinois were the two teams in the conference that were probably the most firmly on the bubble. My general feeling is that Bradley is probably safe, but Southern Illinois may need the win tomorrow to get in. The final tomorrow is at 2 Eastern time on CBS.

In the most wild finish of the day, George Washington continued their one-loss season with a 86-85 win in OT. But the big story of the game was the absolute boneheaded move by Charlotte's Leemire Goldwire. Up 84-82 and with Charlotte about to be headed to the line looking to seal it, Goldwire decided that now was a good time to throw a couple of elbows. Long story short, he got a technical, and George Washington wound up winning on a last second tip-in. Pat Forde says it doesn't get any better than this for George Washington, and I agree. Charlotte is not a bad team, and they have a couple of really good players, but at home on senior day, it took pure luck for George Washington to get the W. I can't see them making much of a run in the tourney, but regardless, it's been a great year for them.

In other action, Louisville gave Connecticut a scare before the Huskies won it 84-80. Illinois played very well as they beat Michigan St. 75-68. UCLA hammered Stanford 75-54 for their first Pac-10 title in 9 years, which is scary because they are still a very young squad. If Farmar and Afflalo stay, UCLA will be a top 10 and possibly top 5 team next year.

One more week until Selection Sunday!