March 12, 2016
Peter Solari
New York - Before we get to the A10 and Big East tournaments, have a look at Friday's shot of the day, courtesy on UConn's Jalen Adams against Cincinnati in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference tournament in Orlando, Florida. It looked like the Bearcats were on their way to a hard-fought victory when Kevin Johnson hit a three-pointer with less than a second left in the third overtime, which put Cincinnati up 88-85. With 0.8 seconds left, the Huskies inbounded the ball to Adams, who heaved it about 60 feet, from beyond half court, for a miraculous three that sent the game into a fourth overtime. Check out the video, courtesy of ESPN. This is why they call it March madness:
UConn (22-10) outscored Cincinnati (22-10) 16-9 in the fourth and final overtime, and escaped with a 104-97 victory. The Huskies will play top seeded Temple (21-10) in Saturday's semifinal. Daniel Hamilton led the way for the sixth-seeded Huskies with 32 points, while Adams chipped in 22. Cincinnati Troy Caupain had a career and game high 37 points for the fourth-seeded Bearcats. For complete coverage of this game, check out
The Score.
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Game recap from The Score
 Old Friends Villanova, Seton Hall, To Meet In Big East Finals
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In the first semifinal of the 2016 Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Providence (23-10) gave Villanova (29-4) a run for their money, but at the end of the day, the top-seeded Wildcats, ranked #3 in AP Top 25 (#2 in the USA Today Coaches Poll), proved too much for the fourth-seeded Friars. Villanova clawed their way to a 76-68 victory and move on to Saturday's Big East final, where they will meet Seton Hall, who knocked off Xavier, #5 in both the Top 25 and Coaches Polls, for the second time in the last two weeks. Seton Hall walloped Xavier 90-81 on February 28th in Newark, New Jersey.
This is a pretty big upset, but not if you ask Pirates coach Kevin Willard or Seton Hall's fans. Seton Hall has flown under the radar for most of the season, but they're certainly capable of doing some damage in the NCAA Tournament, which they will undoubtedly make, regardless of Saturday's outcome.
Here's a look at all of Friday's semifinal action from The Garden. All scores and game recaps are brought to you by
The Score.
Here is a look at the updated bracket for the 2016 Big East Tournament presented by Jeep, from
Wikipedia:
Friday's semifinals featured the Big East's four best teams and they showed us why. We were treated to some great action from some really good teams. None of them will have to sweat it out on selection Sunday as they are all locks to make the field of 68. Saturday's final could have implications on potential seeding, however.
Tip-off for Saturday's Big East championship game between Villanova and Seton Hall is set for 5:30 PM at Madison Square Garden. This will be Seton Hall's first Big East championship game appearance since 1993, when the top-seeded Pirates schalacked third-seeded Syracuse 103-70.
On Saturday, Seton Hall will be looking for some magic, in order to beat their second top five team in as many days. However, they are riding an incredible wave of momentum, and they're playing their best basketball of the season. And they're confident, too, so don't count them out just yet.
Saturday's game will be televised nationally by Fox. This will be the first time since 1995 that the Big East championship game will air on broadcast television.
A10 Down To Their Final Four
The quarterfinals of the 2016 Atlantic 10 Championship at Barclays Center are in the books and like the Big East, there weren't many surprises. Top seeded Dayton (25-6) took care of ninth-seeded Richmond (16-16), and second-seeded VCU (23-9) dominated tenth seeded UMass (14-18). Sixth seeded Davidson (20-11) was the only underdog to win in Brooklyn Friday, knocking off third-seeded Saint Bonaventure (22-8) in the evening's final game. This could certainly be considered an upset, but it isn't terribly surprising to anyone familiar with the Davidson program.
The Wildcats are a very good team that has kind of gotten lost in the shuffle of a pretty deep A10 this year. Nobody was talking about them making the NCAA Tournament heading into the league championship, but if they make a run and win the conference's automatic bid, things could get pretty interesting on the bubble.
Also, keep on eye on where the projections for Saint Bonaventure go from here. A loss to a 20-win team with an RPI of 63, like Davidson, shouldn't be a killer for the Bonnies, but you really never know.
In what was the tournament's most interesting game of the day, fourth seeded Saint Joseph's (25-7) overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to knock off fifth seeded George Washington (23-10). The victory was St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli's 400th of his career. Martelli is in his 21st season as the Hawks' head coach.
Here are all Friday's scores and game recaps from Brooklyn, brought to you courtesy of
The Score:
And here is a look at the updated bracket for the 2016 Atlantic Championship, from
Wikipedia:
In their latest projections, bracketologists
Joe Lunardi from ESPN, and
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, both have Dayton, VCU, Saint Bonaventure, and Saint Joseph's in their fields of 68. Palm has George Washington included as well, but Lunardi doesn't.
George Washington coach Mike Lonergan said he was confident his team would be in the tournament after their win over Saint Louis (11-21) on Thursday, but not everyone agrees. With GW squarely on the bubble, let's take a look at their resume and see if they've got enough to get into the big dance. All of these statistics were compiled by
RealTimeRPI and are reflective of the timing of this post.
George Washington Colonials: 23-10 (11-7, 5th A10) RPI: 61, SOS: 110, Coach: Mike Lonergan
Expected NCAA Tournament teams
- Schedule Highlights:
- W VS #6 Virginia (RPI: 2)
- W VS Seton Hall (RPI: 28)
- W @ VCU (RPI: 42)
- W VS Penn State (RPI: 117
- W VS Tennessee (RPI: 136) - Neutral site
- L @ Dayton (RPI: 18)
- L VS Saint Joseph's (RPI: 32)
- L VS Saint Joseph's (RPI: 32) - A10 Tournament
- L @ Saint Bonaventure (RPI: 25)
- L VS Cincinnati (RPI: 40) - Neutral Site
- Schedule Lowlights:
- L @ St. Louis (RPI: 203)
- L @ DePaul (RPI: 197)
- Summary:
- VS RPI Top 50: 3-6
- VS RPI 51-100: 1-1
- VS RPI 101-150: 4-1
- VS RPI 151-199: 6-1
- VS RPI 200+: 9-1
- Current Projections:
- Joe Lunardi, ESPN:
- Jerry Palm, CBS Sports:
- Last four in
- West Region: #11 GW VS #11 Tulsa (First Four) - Dayton, OH
- Winner to face #6 Iowa State in Raleigh, NC
The Colonials have quietly put together a pretty strong resume. The victory over Virginia and Seton Hall are huge wins. Winning in Richmond over VCU isn't too shabby either. However, at this point, GW appears just a little short of an NCAA Tournament bid. Another win over one of the A10's top four teams could have really solidified their chances. The Colonials were in a position to do just that on Friday against Saint Joseph's, but they blew a golden opportunity that could cost them mightily. A win over a top-50 team like Saint Joe's could have given GW a real boost, but instead, they'll have to sweat it out Sunday, and it wouldn't be all that surprising if the Colonials' bubble bursts.
By now, you're probably aware that the madness of March, doesn't wait for selection Sunday to commence. And we've still got two more days of this, before all of our questions will finally be answered. Bear with me, my friends. We're almost there.
