First things first: Congratulations to the Creighton Bluejays on outlasting Illinois State in overtime to win the Missouri Valley Championship and pick up the 4th automatic bid to the NCAA tournament!
Ok, with that out of the way: What the H happened in the Sun Belt quarterfinals???? #3 seed Denver was the only one of the top 4 seeds to win their game. The top 2 seeds, Middle Tennessee and Arkansas-Little Rock were playing a team that had played the day before! At least #5 seed North Texas beating #4 Louisiana-Lafayette makes a little sense since they finished just 1 game apart in conference play and both had byes to the quarterfinals.
Moving on to today's action, four bids will be handed out, with all four title games coming tonight on either ESPN or ESPN2. We have just one conference getting started today with the Mid-American first round taking place on campus sites.
Just a heads up for tomorrow: I will be omitting the Big East from tomorrow's Championship Week Update, as we'll be giving our conference its own Open Thread. Only makes sense, y'know?
CAA Championship (on ESPN):
#1 Drexel (27-5) vs #2 VCU (27-6), 6pm
MAAC Championship (on ESPN2):
#2 Loyola (23-8) vs #4 Fairfield (19-13), 6pm
Mid-American First Round:
#12 Northern Illinois (4-25) at #5 Eastern Michigan (14-17), 6pm
#11 Central Michigan (10-20) at #6 Bowling Green (16-14), 6pm
#10 Miami (OH) (9-20) at #7 Toledo (16-15), 6pm
#9 Ball State (15-14) at #8 Western Michigan (12-19), 6pm
Southern Championship (on ESPN2):
#1S Davidson vs #3N Western Carolina (17-17), 8pm
Summit Semifinals:
#1 Oral Roberts (27-5) vs #4 Western Illinois (17-13), 6pm
#2 South Dakota State vs #6 Southern Utah (14-16), 8:30pm
Sun Belt Semifinals (on ESPN3):
#5 North Texas (17-13) vs #9 Arkansas State (14-19), 6pm
#3 Denver (22-8) vs #7 Western Kentucky (13-18), 8:30pm
West Coast Championship (on ESPN):
#1 Saint Mary's (16-5) vs #2 Gonzaga (25-5), 8pm