Virginia Commonwealth point guard Joey Rodriguez celebrates after the Rams defeat Kansas 71-61 to advance to the 2011 Final Four Who will wear the glass slipper this year? It's that time of year again, college basketball fans - let the March Madness begin! Today, many of the small and mid-major conference tournaments begin, as we work our way to the Big Dance. Open thread with updates to come. Enjoy the games, and good luck to your teams! GO RAMS!!!
This weekend's conference tournaments: America East Atlantic Sun Big Sky Big South Colonial Horizon Ivy League MAAC Missouri Valley Northeast Ohio Valley Patriot Southern Sun Belt West Coast
ACC Atlanta March 8-11 America East Hartford, Conn. March 1, 3-4, 10 Atlantic Sun Macon, Ga. Feb. 29-March 3 Atlantic 10 Atlantic City, N.J. March 6, 9-11 Big East New York March 6-10 Big Sky Missoula, Mont. March 3, 6-7 Big South Campus sites (higher seeds) Feb. 27, 29, March 1, 3 Big Ten Indianapolis March 8-11 Big 12 Kansas City, Mo. March 7-10 Big West Anaheim, Calif. March 8-10 Colonial Richmond, Va. March 2-5 Conference USA Memphis, Tenn. March 7-10 Horizon Campus sites (higher seeds) Feb. 28, March 2-3, 6 Ivy League No Tournament MAAC Springfield, Mass. March 2-5 MAC Cleveland March 5, 7-10 MEAC Winston-Salem, N.C. March 6-10 Missouri Valley St. Louis March 1-4 Mountain West Las Vegas March 8-10 Northeast Campus sites (higher seeds) March 1, 4, 7 Ohio Valley Nashville, Tenn. Feb. 29, March 1-3 Pac-12 Los Angeles March 7-10 Patriot Campus sites (higher seeds) Feb. 29, March 3, 7 SEC New Orleans March 8-11 Southern Asheville, N.C. March 2-5 Southland Katy, Texas March 6-10 Summit Sioux Falls, S.D. March 3-6 Sun Belt Hot Springs, Ark. March 3-6 SWAC Garland, Texas March 7-10 WAC Las Vegas March 7-10 West Coast Las Vegas Feb. 29-March 5
Thanks for all the info. I don't even think my team deserves to go to the dance (UCONN). But as usual, I'll be cheering on the underdogs. Let's Go Harvard!!!
Hey Arjay. Congrats, again - last year was quite a ride! My guys at VCU are on the bubble again - we're the #2 seed in the CAA Tournament. Personally, I think we need to win the tournament to make it to the Big Dance, but a very solid Drexel team is the conference favorite and they're playing like it (I think they've got the second longest winning streak in the country right now). I'm amazed at how well we did after losing 5 seniors and starting a bunch of sophomores and freshmen this year. I thought we'd be lucky to reach 15-15 but we're headed into the CAA Tournament at 25-6.
My Favorite time of the Year ... The Basement is almost done and I'll have 3 Big Screens ready to go!
Thanks, it was quite a ride last year. VCU had a great ride themselves. Good luck to them this time around, it seems like their future is bright.
Thanks - the future is looking bright. I can't wait to see this squad in two years when most of these kids will be seniors and juniors. What's interesting is that there's a lot of good, up-and-coming young squads in the CAA. You can really see how the recruiting has improved since George Mason and VCU made their runs to the Final Four...
Yea, Calhoun returns & Connecticut beats Pittsburgh! But I do think UCONN needs a couple wins in the Big East tourney to secure a spot in the dance. If they go one & done, they should stay home.
Carolina@Duke about to tip off. I'm rather stunned that the Tar Heels are a 2 point fav in Durham!? I don't see it.
Good luck to your Rams tonight. From what "they" are saying, ya'll need to win tonight to go dancing. Hope it happens for them. PS: Oh, ya, good luck to the Fairfield Stags tonight - I can't remember the last time they made it to the tourney.
We're baaaaaaaack........ VCU returns to the Big Dance, defeating Drexel 59-56 in the CAA title game.
The following teams punched their tickets to the Big Dance last weekend: Atlantic Sun - Belmont 83-69 over Florida Gulf Coast Big South - UNC-Asheville 80-64 over Virginia Military Institute Colonial - Virginia Commonwealth 59-56 over Drexel MAAC - Loyola-Maryland 48-44 over Fairfield Missouri Valley - Creighton 83-79 over Illinois State Ohio Valley - Murray State 54-52 over Tennessee State Southern - Davidson 93-91 over Western Carolina West Coast - St. Mary's (California) 78-74 over Gonzaga
Tonight's conference championship games (not sure if the times are local or Eastern): Horizon - #3 Detroit vs. #1 Valparaiso (9pm ESPN) Summit - #4 Western Illinois vs. #2 South Dakota State (8pm; ESPN2/3) Sun Belt - #7 Western Kentucky vs. #5 North Texas (6pm ESPN)
This (*)(*)(*)(*) is why I love March Madness... Who the (*)(*)(*)(*) are those teams before tourney time? Yet, even still, every one of them is a potential threat... Yup, love March Madness, and, just, basketball as a whole... The unpredictability makes it so much fun to watch...
You can't beat college basketball and the tournaments. The games, the fanatical crowds, the bands and cheerleaders, rushing the court when your team wins... It doesn't get any better...
Congrats! Based on the highlights I saw, it got a little squeamish at the end for ya! But they pulled it out! Fairfield wasn't so fortunate. Better luck next year.
Thanks, arjay. It appears that our MO this year is to race off to a big lead and then hang on at the finish. We got on top of George Mason 32-4 at the beginning of our semifinal and almost managed to blow that lead, too. it seems that once we get out of our "Havoc" style and tempo of play and start sitting on a lead and killing clock we get into trouble. A lot of it has been our free throw shooting, which has been downright awful at times. Shaka's gotta get that ironed out in practice this week...
Well, you lost your best player and your roster looks pretty young. That's gotta be tough on any team in the Big East. Speaking of last year's Final Four teams, it looks like we won't be seeing Butler this year. They didn't even make it to the Horizon League final...
