2018 Championship “Week” Update: March 6

We have two brand new automatic bids to celebrate!

Tim Cluess has guided Iona to a MAAC championship and to their third straight NCAA tournament appearance, and his fifth appearance with the Gaels since 2012. Meanwhile, down in the SoCon, UNC-Greensboro clinched up their regular season title with a tournament title, knocking off #2 seeded East Tennessee State with relative ease in the title game.

That brings us to today, where we will see five automatic bids handed out. Perhaps even more fun, four of them involve the #1 seed in the respective tournament. We could, in theory, have four brand new NIT automatic bids on the board at this time tomorrow.

Or maybe all four #1 seeds win and we don’t. Who knows!? That’s the fun of March Madness.

We also get the continuation of the America East and MEAC tournaments, and the first day of action in the ACC, Big Sky, and SWAC tournaments. The good news is that the ACC and Big Sky give us DAYTIME BASKETBALL to tide us over until the title games start at 6pm Central.

Oh, and be sure to catch Marquette’s women’s basketball team tangling with DePaul for the Big East championship. Tipoff is scheduled for 6pm Central on FS1 or Fox Sports Go.

NCAA AUTOMATIC BIDS

Iona (MAAC)
Lipscomb (Atlantic Sun)
Loyola-Chicago (Horizon)
Michigan (Big Ten)
Murray State (OVC)
UNC-Greensboro (SoCon)
Radford (Big South)

NIT AUTOMATIC BIDS

Florida Gulf Coast (Atlantic Sun)
Northern Kentucky (Horizon)
UNC-Asheville (Big South)
Rider (MAAC)

AMERICA EAST SEMIFINALS (WatchESPN)

6pm: #5 Stony Brook at #1 Vermont
6:30pm: #3 Hartford at #2 UMBC

ACC FIRST ROUND

11am: #12 Boston College vs #13 Georgia Tech (ESPN2)
1:30pm: #10 Notre Dame vs #15 Pittsburgh (ESPN2)
6pm: #11 Syracuse vs #14 Wake Forest (ESPNU)

BIG SKY FIRST ROUND (Pluto.tv, which is apparently a thing)

2pm: #8 North Dakota vs #9 Montana State
4:30pm: #5 Northern Colorado vs #12 Northern Arizona
8:30pm: #7 Idaho vs #10 Southern Utah
10pm: #6 Portland State vs #11 Sacramento State

CAA CHAMPIONSHIP (CBS Sports Network)

6pm: #1 College of Charleston vs #2 Northeastern

HORIZON LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN)

6pm: #2 Wright State vs #6 Cleveland State

MEAC FIRST ROUND (WatchESPN)

3pm: #8 Howard vs #9 Florida A&M
5:30pm: #6 North Carolina Central vs #11 Coppin State
8pm: #7 Morgan State vs #10 South Carolina State

NEC CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN2)

6pm: #1 Wagner vs #4 LIU-Brooklyn

SWAC QUARTERFINALS

7:30pm: #8 Mississippi Valley State at #1 Arkansas-Pine Bluff
7:30pm: #5 Jackson State at #4 Southern
8pm: #6 Alabama State at #3 Texas Southern
8:30pm: #7 Alcorn State at #2 Prairie View A&M

SUMMIT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN2)

8pm: #1 South Dakota State vs #2 South Dakota

WCC CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN)

8pm: #1 Gonzaga vs #3 BYU