Championship Week! March 8

Yesterday saw the start of the long, five-day Big East tournament, as well as a few more tickets punched. Let's get to it!

Atlantic 10: (9) Dayton def. (8) Massachusetts, 78-50.
*Not good for X fans -- any game to Dayton can be a L.*
(12) St. Joseph's def. (5) George Washington, 71-59, OT.
**Pretty big upset, as Saint Joseph's has been playing with an inexperienced, highly freshman-based team.**
(10) LaSalle def. (7) St. Bonaventure, 75-73, 2OT.
*Bonnies looked flat and defeated in the OT's.*
(6) Rhode Island def. (11) Saint Louis, 70-61.

Big East: (9) Connecticut def. (16) DePaul, 97-71.
*Notably, UConn's first win in the Big East Tournament since 2005.*
(13) Rutgers def. (12) Seton Hall, 76-70, OT.
**Jonathan Mitchell went 8-10 in OT to notch the win for the Scarlet Knights.**
(15) South Florida def. (10) Villanova, 70-69.
**A huge upset for the Bulls of USF, as Villanova has now lost 5 straight and 10 of its last 15. Are they still in in the tournament? We'll see.**
(11) Marquette def. (14) Providence, 87-66.
**With this win, I move Marquette to LOCK status for the tournament.**

Big Sky: (2) Montana def. (3) Weber St., 57-40.
**Notably, Weber St. still has a game left: against Saint Mary's.**
(1) Northern Colorado def. (4) Northern Arizona, 73-70.

Horizon: (2) Butler def. (1) Milwaukee, 59-44.
*Bubble teams rest easy yet again, as another bid-stealer was defeated here. This also prevented Milwaukee from the trifecta of wins against Butler this season.*

Ivy: Princeton def. Penn, 70-58.
*A one game playoff with Princeton versus Harvard will take place at Yale.*

MAC: (7) Bowling Green St. def. (10) Northern Illinois, 74-54.
(6) Akron def. (11) Eastern Michigan, 67-53.
(8) Buffalo def. (9) Central Michigan, 64-50.
(5) Ohio def. (12) Toledo, 74-57.

MEAC: (9) South Carolina St. def. (8) Delaware St, 64-59.
(10) Maryland-Eastern Shore def. (7) Florida A&M, 87-85, 2OT.

Summit: (1) Oakland def. (2) Oral Roberts, 90-76.
*Big bracketbusting possibility here.*

Sun Belt: (5W) Arkansas-Little Rock def. (4W) North Texas, 64-63.
**A great game with a classic finish. Sun Belt Player of the Year Solomon Bozeman goes coast-to-coast and hits a game-winning trey with 1.5 seconds left to clinch it for the Trojans.**