Big Wins, Bad Losses: The bears don't have a single win over a team in the RPI 100. In fact, they only played three games against teams in the RPI 100, and lost by an average of 15 points. Their worst defeat was a 78-75 loss at Lousiana-Monroe, the 328th-ranked team in the country. Their best win was an 18-point win over Montana during Big Sky regular season play.
Tendencies: The Bears like to shoot and they like to score. Unfortunately, most of their scoring came against low-major competition. But regardless of who the opponent is, one thing is for certain: Devon Beitzil will get buckets. The senior guard has scored more 20 or more points in 20 games this season, including the last nine games in a row. He has been held to under ten points just twice, against Arizona (2) and Weber State (5).
How They Got There: The Bears won their first seven conference games in a row before suffering back-to-back losses. Since the final day in January, the Bears have won 10 of 11, including the Big Sky Championship.
Outlook: This is the program's first tournament bid in school history, so just being part of March Madness is special. The Bears will more than likely have to play a #2-seed, so the odds are not in their favor to get past the first round. But with a player like Beitzel and in a setting like March Madness, anything could happen. Think Ben Woodside and North Dakota State from 2009. Continue reading...
Everyone loves the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Four straight days jam-packed with 12 hours of do-or-die college hoops is more than most people can handle.
But for junkies like us, the next 13 days are just as good, for it is when the true Madness takes place. Over the course of these two weeks, we whittle some 347 teams down to 30 conference champions (the Ivy doesn't have a tournament). Auto-bids will be won. Bubbles will be burst. Buzzers will be beaten. And most importantly, a 68 team bracket will be made.
For a comprehensive listing off all the conference tournaments, follow this link or click the "Complete Conference Tournament Schedules" page at the top of the screen. To become more acquainted with the teams that have already sealed up autobids, follow this link.
Here is what happened on Wednesday:
Two more auto-bids were handed out, some Big-12 bubbles got busted, and a Big East tournament game was marred by poor officiating
Game of the Day: St. John's 65, Rutgers 63
For the second day in a row, the Scarlet Knights were involved in a tightly-contested game that ended with an exciting-yet-controversial finish.
This game did not start to get interesting until the final two minutes. St. John's led for the majority of the second half, and was up by as many as ten points. But for the second day in a row, Rutgers faught back, and forced the game to be decided in the final minute. Instead of trying to break down the controversial ending to the game, click here to read more (Seriously folks, I have never seen anything like this). Dwight Hardy led the way for the Johnnies with 17 points and Sean Evans scored 13 point and nine rebounds coming off the bench.
They were good too:
- UT-San Antonio 97, Northwestern State 96
The No. 7-seed Roadrunner of UT-San Antonio rallied back from tweleve points with under five minutes to play to beat No. 2 Northwestern State in the quarterfinals of the Southland Conference tournament. Jeremie Hill scored the game-winning dunk with 2.5 seconds left after teammate Devin Gibson drove into the lane and fed the ball inside to him while unguarded, giving UTSA the lead for only the second time in the game.
- San Jose State 75, Hawaii 74
Adrian Oliver, the WAC player of the year, hit a pull-up jumper with five seconds left to lift No. 8 San Jose State over over No. 4 Hawaii in the first round of the WAC tournament. Oliver's jumper did end the game however. The Rainbow Warriors responded, as Jeremiah Ostrawski launched a desperation heave that was tipped-in at the buzzer by Bill Amis, but was reviewed by referees and was ruled no good.
Team of the Day: Northern Colorado Bears
The Bears deafeated reigning-champions Montana in the finals of the Big Sky Conference tournament 65-60. Devon Beitzel, the MVP of the regular season and the tournament, led the Bears with 27 points, 13 of which came in the final five minutes. Montana won last season's tournament championship thanks to an unforgettable second-half rally that saw the Grizzlies erase a 22-point deficit. Northern Colorado made sure that this year would be different. The Grizzlies tried their best to erase a seven-point deficit with under 50 seconds left, but Beitzel hit a long 3-pointer to seal the deal. This was the first tournament championship in school history. Northern Colorado has just four postseason wins since 1994, one of which came when it was a member of the Division II Northern Central Conference
They were good too:
- Marquette Golden Eagles
If there were any questions as to wether or not Marquette was on the bubble, they answered them last night with a gutsy win against West Virginia in the second round of the Big East tournament. The Golden Eagles got a tremendous performance from Junior Cadougan, who led the team with 15 points, and Darius Johnson-Odom provided late-game heroics, sinking two clutch 3-pointers in the final minutes of the game. The key to Marquette's victory was their defense. They held the Mountaineers to just 6-27 (27.2%) from the field in the second half after a first half which saw them make 14-24 (58.3%).
Player of the Day: Devin Gibson, UT-San Antonio
Gibson logged his second triple-double of the season as the Roadrunner's defeated the Demons of Northwestern State in the first round of the Southland Conference tournament. Gibson's final assist, the stat that gave him the triple-double was the most important stat of the day. He fed a wide-open Jeromie Hill down low who made the game-winning dunk with five seconds left. Gibson finished with a career-high 28 points, along with ten rebounds and ten assists. He also had three steals.
They were good too:
.
- Alec Burks, Colorado
The sophomore forward scored 25 of his 29 points in the second half to lead the Buffs to a must-needed win over Iowa State in the first round of the Big-12 Tournament. The unanimous pick for the Big-12 first team all-conference was 9-16 from the field and 11-14 from the charity stripe. He also grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds and dished out six assists.
- Malik Story, Nevada
Story hit all six of his 3-point attempts en route to scoring a career-high 34 points as the No. 6 Nevada Wolfpack beat the No. 7 Fresno State Bulldogs in the first round of the WAC tournament. Story was 11-14 from the field and made 11-15 from the charity stripe. He had not scored more than 15 points in six games, when he set a then career-high of 29 against San Jose State.
Bubble Banter
- Colorado kept their tournament hopes alive by withstanding a strong comeback from Iowa State. A win against No. 4 Kansas State tonight would do them wonders.
- Any shot that Baylor had is now certainly gone after they were trounced by Oklahoma in the first round of the Big-12 tournament, 84-67. The Bears may very well have locked up the title of "most dissapointing team of the year".
- Nebraska's outside chances were dashed due to end-of-game mismanagement against Oklahoma State. The 'Huskers needed at least one tournament win to pad their resume, and they didn't get it.
- Marquette cemented their tournament status with a huge win against West Virginia in the night-cap at Madison Square Garden.
Wednesday Results
Northeast Conference Tournament Finals
#1 Long Island 85 #3 Robert Morris 82 OT
Big Sky Conference Tournament Finals
#1 Northern Colorado 65, #2 Montana 60
Big East Conference Tournament Second Round
#9 UConn 79, #8 Georgetown 62
#5 St. John's 65, #13 Rutgers 63
#7 Cincinnati 87, #15 South Florida 61
#11 Marquette 67, #6 West Virginia 61
#1 Bethune-Cookman 66, #9 South Carolina State 50
#2 Hampton 77, #10 Maryland-Eastern Shore 55
#6 Norfolk State 68, #11 Howard 53
Mountain West Conference Tournament First Round
#9 TCU 70, #8 Wyoming 61
Pac-10 Conference Tournament First Round
#9 Oregon State 69, #8 Stanford 67
#7 Oregon 76, #10 Arizona State 69
Southland Conference Tournament Quarterfinals
#7 Texas-San Antonio 97, #2 Northwestern State 96
#3 Sam Houston State 61, #6 Stephen F. Austin 45
#1 McNeese State 61, #8 Nicholls State 54
#4 Texas State 72, #5 Southeastern Louisiana 68
12:00PM - #9 Miami vs. #8 Virginia
2:30PM - #12 Wake Forest vs. #5 Boston College
7:00PM - #10 NC State vs. #7 Maryland
9:30PM - #11 Georgia Tech vs. #6 Virginia Tech
12:00PM - #1 Long Beach State vs. #8 UC Irvine
2:30PM - #4 Pacific vs. #5 UC Santa Barbara
6:30PM - #2 Cal Poly vs. #7 UC Riverside
9:30PM - #3 Cal St. Northridge vs. #6 Cal St. Fullerton
1:00PM - #W5 Auburn vs. #E4 Georgia
3:30PM - #E6 South Carolina vs. #W3 Ole Miss
7:30PM - #E5 Tennessee vs. #W4 Arkansas
10:00PM - #W6 LSU vs. #E3 Vanderbilt
We here at B.I.A.H don't fancy ourselves gamblers, but we do know a lot of people with crippling addictions to gambling. So why not help enable them, right? Semi-regularly, we will provide you a couple of picks and one lead-pipe-lock that you can take to the bank. But if you take our advice and don't win any money, you aren't allowed to come bash are knee-caps in.
Its a light night for college hoops, but there are a couple of lines that I like.
8:30 pm: Northern Colorado (11-8, 7-1) @ Northern Arizona (11-8, 3-4) Northern Colorado has been the best team in the Big Sky since conference season kicked off. In fact, if it wasn't for a 40 footer at the buzzer over the weekend at Weber State, the Bears would be undefeated in the league at the midway point of the season. Northern Arizona has struggled to close out some close games this season, including a 68-67 loss to Weber State at home two weeks ago. The Lumberjacks do have a star in Cameron Jones, but UNC has done a pretty good job this season against big time back court players -- Demetri McCamey had just 11 points against the Bears while Santa Clara's Kevin Foster finished below his season average with 19 points. Oh, and UNC is getting 3.5 points. I like it.
The Pick: Northern Colorado +3.5
9:00 pm: No. 3 Texas @ No. 16 Texas A&M
The line in this game is Texas -1.5. I don't love it, and my gut tells me to stay away from it. That said, it looks great on paper. Texas A&M is a tough team at home, I'll admit that, but the Longhorns have been awesome of late, especially on the road. They came back from 15 down to beat Kansas at Phog Allen Fieldhouse and then beat Oklahoma State by 15 in Gallagher-Iba Arena on the same night that the Cowboys were celebrating the ten year anniversary of the plane crash that killed ten members of their program. Throw that in with the beatdowns they handed Missouri this same Texas A&M team in the past 12 days, and there may not be a team playing better basketball than Texas right now, especially on the defensive end of the floor.
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