Championship Week: March 6

Finally, some exciting, big-time upsets!

America East: (5) Stony Brook def. (1) Vermont, 69-47.
**This was a stunning development, and Stony Brook is looking for its first ever NCAA berth.**
(2) Boston def. (6) Hartford, 55-49.
*This was a tough loss for Hartford, on their homefloor and finally playing well.*

Colonial: (4) VCU def. (1) George Mason, 79-63.
**This was a shock, a big shock. George Mason has four players that average 40% from downtown, but they were dominated down low by the Rams.**
(2) Old Dominion def. (3) Hofstra, 77-69.

--The bubble teams will certainly be cheering for Old Dominion, as both OD and GM are by all means tournament teams, and are locks for the tournament. VCU, if they were to win against OD, would make the bubble shrink a bit and throw out a team such as Virginia Tech or Colorado.--

MAAC: (4) St. Peter's def. (1) Fairfield, 62-40.
**Except for VCU's win, this was the most shocking development. Fairfield is usually a great defensive team, holding Marist to 31 in their last game. But the usually tough Stags allowed an amazing 40 points in the first half, while only scoring 15 to put them in a hole that they could not escape out of. This was also on Fairfield's home floor.**
(2) Iona def. (3) Rider, 83-59.
*Iona has defeated their two opponents in the tournament by 54 points total.*

MVC: (3) Indiana St. def. (1) Missouri St., 60-56.
*Personally, this result broke my heart. Missouri State was a team that rose from the bottom of the MVC to the top, winning the regular season championship. Because of this loss, Missouri State is now OUT.*

NEC: (1) Long Island def. (4) Central Connecticut St., 69-67.
(3) Robert Morris def. (2) Quinnipiac, 64-62.

Patriot: (1) Bucknell def. (4) Lehigh, 66-64.
(6) Lafayette def. (2) American, 73-71, 2OT.
**This was a heart-stopping loss for American, another team to lose on their court before reaching the title game in their conference.  Lafayette made a trey in the corner with 0.2 seconds left to clinch the win.**

Southern: (2S) Wofford def. (1N) Western Carolina, 86-72.
*Not as surprising as it looks, given the North was much weaker than the South.*
(1S) Charleston def. (3S) Furman, 63-58.
**Charleston looked very ugly early on, trailing by double digits for much of the game. Andrew Goudelock stepped up for the Cougars, scoring a big 31 points. Goudelock continues to rank among the NCAA elite in scoring, averaging 23.3 PPG. He is now 4th in the NCAA. If Charleston wins the Southern conference, they are a team to look out for in the NCAA Tournament, as they probably will be a 13 seed. They have had big wins against Coastal Carolina, a very close loss @UNC, another close loss against Clemson, a huge upset win @Tennessee, and a Bracket Buster win against Vermont.**

Summit: (5) San Diego St. def. (4) IPFW, 85-75.
*That completes SDSU's dominance of IPFW, winning all three matchups this season.*
(3) IUPUI def. (6) UMKC, 79-55.

Sun Belt: Exciting bunch of games here.
(3E) Western Kentucky def. (2W) Lousiana-Lafayette, 81-76.
(4W) North Texas def. (1E) Florida Atlantic, 78-64.
*FAU had been a big team on the rise this year, and finds their chances shot down.*
(2E) Middle Tennessee def. (6E) Florida International, 73-38.
*What an ugly score. The second half saw MT outscore FIU 49-21.*
(5W) Arkansas-Little Rock def. (1W) Arkansas St., 59-52.
**Another team with NCAA hopes goes down; notably, Arkansas St. had given Memphis trouble earlier in the year.**

West Coast: (1) Saint Mary's def. (4) Santa Clara, 73-64.
(2) Gonzaga def. (3) San Francisco, 71-67.
**Both (1) and (2) were expected to win easily, but had more trouble than initially thought. With reaching the championship game, both of these teams are IN the tournament.**