Mid-Major Block Party: 3 To Watch

A plethora of bubble teams, bracketologists and bloggers try their best to project who will be in and who will be out of the 65-team tournament field (link).

The most dire of situations have arisen in locations like Syracuse, St. Joe’s, Houston, Dayton, Florida, Ohio State and countless mid-majors leading their conference but perhaps requiring a conference tournament title to participate in the NCAA tournament (point and case: VCU out of the CAA).

Since we seem to flaunt a mid-major bias here at PHSports, let’s tackle 3 conferences and 3 tantalizing remaining matchups.

Colonial Athletic Association

Saturday, March 1^st: Old Dominion at UNC-Wilmington
-Right now, the conference’s top five consists of VCU, UNC-W, George Mason, ODU and W&M. With the Rams only requiring one victory or a combination of losses to clinch the regular season title, seeds 2 through 5 are separated by 1-game. No game seems more vital to the tourney standings than a season-ending showdown in Wilmington. UNC-W boasts two tie-breaker-friendly victories over George Mason (and a Wednesday matchup @VCU), while ODU has won 5 in a row (including over VCU, Mason, and Patriot League staple Bucknell). Who walks away the victor on March 1^st may slide into the 2-3 spot and avoid a semifinal matchup against the Rams in Richmond. Suddenly, it appears VCU is the conference’s only at-large candidate now. Yet, nothing is for certain as they may have to reach the CAA Final through a suddenly-crowded upper half of the CAA.

Big South

Saturday, March 1^st: UNC-Asheville at Winthrop
-The Big South race has gone under the radar this season; however, Winthrop being throttled at home by Davidson may have opened a few eyes into the one-bid conference. Asheville trails the Eagles by 1 game for the conference, yet already owns the first of two crucial matchups between this year’s Big South heavyweights. Both teams should cruise through easier matchups Wednesday, leaving all of the regular season marbles on the table Saturday night.

Big West

Thursday, February 28^th: CSU-Northridge vs. CSU-Fullerton
-Come tourney time, it might be a mistake to count out teams like Pacific and pre-season favorite UCSB; however, it’s all about the battle of California in the Big West. Despite Fullerton and Northridge not meeting in a climactic season finale, that doesn’t decrease the impact of their battle this Thursday. In fact, even further drama is added as both teams have “trap games” remaining on their schedule the next week plus. Who wins this Pacific Coast battle may very well have the momentum needed to carry into March Madness.

BracketBusters Fallout

Outside of Selection Sunday, the ESPN BracketBusters weekend is the most important for mid-major programs in terms of exposure to a national audience. Although the competition has become diluted by including a whopping 102 teams, it demonstrated yet again through the 13 televised games that the mid-majors can produce high quality basketball.

Performance by Conference
Big West (3-5): Double digit losses for Long Beach St. and Cal St. Fullerton can't help seeding.
Colonial (5-7): A bit deceiving. 3-1 for the top four teams in the conference. The caboose continues to let down the conference.
Horizon (7-2): Wright St. continues to gain credibility as the potential team who may win the league tournament. Butler's home loss to Southern Illinois may have been more meaningful than all seven wins.
Metro Atlantic (6-4): Nothing of import. Marist, Siena, and Loyola (MD) all win.
Mid-American (6-6): Akron trounces an outmatched Austin Peay team while Toledo falls at home to Old Dominion. If Kent State can learn to value the ball, they could win the league tournament.
Missouri Valley (5-5): So-so performance from the Valley. I expected more from the conference with the RPI of 7. SIU and Bradley took care of business while Creighton and Wichita St. disappointed. Northern Iowa and Missouri St. (to a lesser degree) lost to better teams in Nevada and Winthrop, respectively.
Ohio Valley (3-8): Ugly on all accounts.
Western Athletic (7-2): Another case of being undermatched, but the league took care of business. Utah St. and Hawaii with big road wins while Nevada continues to roll. New Mexico State gets its biggest non-conference win, although it's not enough to make a case for an at-large bid. Overall, their performance begs the question about a second bid allotment.

Big Winners1. Southern Illinois: The Salukis defeated Butler on the Bulldogs' home court, making an even stronger case for a #3 seed.

2. Winthrop: When your RPI suffers as a result of your conference affiliation, the Golden Eagles have to capitalize on every opportunity and capitalize they did.
T-3: Drexel & Bradley: Both teams were not supposed to win, especially if you watched the first 10 minutes of each game. Rebounding at both ends of the floor and never giving up earned these two teams victories crucial to their at-large bid resumes.
5. The WAC: The top seven teams in the conference won their games while the two that didn't carried 7 wins into Saturday ... combined. Expect heavy consideration for a second bid even if Nevada steamrolls through the conference tournament.

Honorable Mention: Appalachian St. defeated a hungry Wichita St. team who is just starting to come around after a disastrous January. DJ Thompson hit 'the shocker' to stun the crowd at Koch. Add that to neutral court victories against Vanderbilt and Virginia, as well as a road victory at VCU.

The Losers
1. VCU: They needed a win against a RPI top-50 opponent. They failed. No excuses.
2. Creighton: The home loss to Drexel appears worse than it actually is because Drexel has played less than stellar basketball in the last two months, falling earlier this week to William & Mary. Bluejays fans will now have nightmares about Frank Elegar for days on end.
T-3. Wichita St. & Missouri St.: Had Wichita pulled this off, I wonder if the media would've hailed this a quality win. Same case with Missouri State. Teams like Winthrop and Appalachian St. often get disrespected by pundits because of ignorance. When the day is done, the conference RPI of 7 is called into question following losses like these.
5. Butler: A win against a quality opponent would have refreshed the minds of fans who saw them win the Preseason NIT. Graves' bout with the flu made matters worse.