It’s that time of year, when “mid-major” and small conferences have their basketball tournaments, with the winners earning one shot at sports-geek immortality with a chance to score an upset in the first round of the NCAA’s. Four teams earned automatic bids yesterday, and they deserve a post of their own:
Winthrop: At 28-4, the Slow Moving Basset Hounds Eagles probably ought to be favored in their first-round game. The system being what it is, though, they needed to sweat it out a little bit, winning a tight game over VMI, who had a chance to tie at the buzzer.
Belmont: The Bruins blew out East Tennessee State with a three-point barrage, earning their second straight trip to the NCAA’s. They lost to UCLA last year, in a Bruin-on-Bruin clash, and it remains to be seen whether the selection committee will set them up for more fun nickname games this year.
Davidson: Davidson is another small team with a gaudy record (29-4), which earned another NCAA bid by holding off the College of Charleston. Davidson will be the only NCAA particpant to be rated one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the country, so I’ll be pulling for them provided they don’t draw one of my teams.
Eastern Kentucky: The Colonels earned an NCAA bid thanks to the one field goal hit by Josh Taylor, a freshman guard who hit a lay-up with 2.9 seconds left to win the game, 63-62. Someday, his grandkids will be really sick of that story, but today, he’s the most popular guy in eastern Kentucky.
The fifth team to secure a bid is Penn, who locked up the Ivy League title a few days back (the Ivies are old-school, and don’t have a conference tournament). I didn’t see any of that game, so they don’t get a blurb.
Congratulations to all these teams. Enjoy your moment in the spotlight, and good luck against anybody other than Maryland or Syracuse…