Exciting Saturday

Wow. Just watched play-by-play as Utah Valley blew a 17-point lead in the last 6:42 left (missing at one point 4 straight free throws and getting 0 FGs in that span) to miss their chance to make the WAC final and a chance for their first berth. Up by 3, they lost fouling on a 3-point that was made with 4 seconds left as Southern Utah completed the 4-point play. Overall, they had a 23-point second half lead. There’s a reason why these young teams can’t win the big one.

But since we started the pool in 1995, we have six teams playing in a conference final Saturday that could join our pool (though Marist’s 13-19 record will definitely relegate them to the First Four if they win), two of them hoping to be first-time entrants. Could any of these join Kennesaw St and Furman in our pool for the first time?

  • 8 am PST America East – UMass Lowell will try to make their first appearance but are 5.5 point underdogs to Vermont
  • 10 am MEA – Howard will try to make their first tourney since 1992 and have a better conference record than Norfolk St but are still 2 point underdogs
  • 12:30 pm Atlantic 10 – Fordham will also try to make their first tourney since 1992 and although they have identical 12-6 conference record with Dayton, they are 6.5 point underdogs
  • 2:30 pm SWAC – Grambling (15-3 in conference) will try to make their first tourney since 1978 and against 13-20 Texas Southern, they are a 6.5 point favorite
  • 4:30 pm MAC- Toledo will try to make their first tourney since 1980 and are actually slight 1-point favorite over Kent State
  • 4:30 pm MAAC – Marist will try for their first tourney since 1987 but against MAAC regulars season champ Iona (26-7), there isn’t even a line on ESPN

New Teams in Our Pool

Well, Kennesaw State made the tourney for the first time and Furman made it for the first time since 1980. Considering both were regular season champs as well and their conferences (Atlantic Sun, Southern) typically don’t play in the First Four, it’s pretty safe that at least 2 teams will join our pool since we started in 1995. And we should’ve seen Merrimack, who won the NEC tournament, but they are not eligible until next year (5-year transition to Division I) (Fairleigh Dickinson got the bid). There are still quite a few teams still playing and might join this group of 2 when Sunday concludes.

Our 28th HWCI NCAA Pool begins Sunday night (Web entry by Monday morning).