Your Championship “Week” Update: March 9, 2020

We have three new teams on the NCAA tournament automatic bid list after Sunday’s action. Top seeded Liberty won the ASun title, knocking off #3 Lipscomb with relative ease. The Big South tournament reverted to normalcy with #2 Winthrop securing their automatic bid in a 2/5 title game. Finally, the Missouri Valley’s random championship generator came to a stop on #4 Bradley instead of #7 Valparaiso. There’s your three new champs, but we don’t have anyone new to add to the NIT bid list as a result.

The SoCon will determine their champion today. #1 seed East Tennessee State is the favorite, but they’re taking on #7 Wofford after Storm Murphy did this to #6 Chattanooga yesterday:

The CAA got crazy yesterday, as the quarterfinals were properly seeded 1-8, but top seeded Hofstra was the only favored team to advance. You’d figure the Pride are now the favorite to come out of that league even more than they already were, but the agents of chaos are loose now.

The Patriot League and the Summit League were the other two leagues in action yesterday, but all four of their combined games went according to chalk.

There are semifinal games in four leagues today, so that’s pretty exciting stuff. The MAC joins the party with four first round games, but because they’re using campus sites, all of those games will be going on at the same time tonight. In fact, there is no DAYTIME BASKETBALL~! at all today, which is kind of a bummer. In fact, there will only be afternoon basketball tomorrow, which isn’t even quite as fun. Patience, y’all. The fun is only beginning.

NIT Automatic Bids

Northern Iowa (MVC)
Radford (Big South)

NCAA Tournament Automatic Bids

Belmont (OVC)
Bradley (Missouri Valley)
Liberty (ASun)
Utah State (Mountain West)
Winthrop (Big South)

Here’s your schedule for the day, with all times Central as always.

CAA SEMIFINALS (CBS Sports Network)

5pm: #1 Hofstra (24-8) vs #5 Delaware (22-10)
7:30pm: #6 Northeastern (16-15) vs #7 Elon (13-20)

HORIZON LEAGUE SEMIFINALS

6pm: #1 Wright State (25-6) vs #4 UIC (17-16) (ESPNU)
8:30pm: #2 Northern Kentucky (21-9) vs #3 Green Bay (17-15) (ESPN2)

MAC FIRST ROUND (ESPN+)

6pm: #9 Central Michigan (14-17) at #8 Ohio (16-15)
6pm: #10 Western Michigan (13-18) at #7 Toledo (16-15)
6pm: #11 Eastern Michigan (16-15) at #6 Kent State (19-12)
6:30pm: #12 Miami-Ohio (12-19) at #5 Buffalo (20-11)

SOCON CHAMPIONSHIP (ESPN)

6pm: #1 East Tennessee State (29-4) vs #7 Wofford (19-15)

SUMMIT LEAGUE SEMIFINALS (ESPN+)

6pm: #1 North Dakota State (23-8) vs #4 Oral Roberts (17-13)
8:30pm: #7 Purdue Fort Wayne (14-18) vs #6 North Dakota (14-17)

SUN BELT SECOND ROUND (ESPN+)

6pm: #8 Louisiana (14-18) at #5 Georgia Southern (18-13)
6pm: #10 Coastal Carolina (16-16) at #6 Appalachian State (17-14)

WEST COAST SEMIFINALS

8pm: #1 Gonzaga (29-2) vs #5 San Francisco (22-11) (ESPN)
10:30pm: #2 BYU (24-7) vs #3 St. Mary’s (25-7) (ESPN2)