The goal of every Division I college basketball team is to be selected to compete in the 68-team playoff in March. Larger enrollment, well-respected coaches, better facilities, die-hard fan bases, and historic programs benefit many of the premier college basketball programs and conferences. You can count on Kentcuky, Duke, and North Carolina to participate in March Madness on an annual basis, and usually as some of the top seeds. The Big East typically sends seven, eight, or nine teams to the Big Dance every spring. These are luxuries that smaller basketball programs can only dream of and have two ways to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The first possibility is to play a near-perfect season, meaning fewer than eight losses, and then hope for an at-large bid or secondly, to win a conference tournament at the end of the season. Conferences such as the Summit League or the Northeast are not considered elite by any means, in fact, most basketball fans probably cannot name a single team from either of these conferences. Schools that have "good seasons" for their standards can go unnoticed and the only guaranteed way to have their ticket punched is by winning three or four games in their conferences tournaments. For the most part, these automatic-bid qualifiers from smaller, weaker conferences fill up the thirteen through sixteen seeds, which is historically a recipe for a first round blowout loss.
Over the weekend, three teams won their conference tournaments, which guarantees them an opportunity to play for the national title later this month. Belmont overcame a thirteen-point deficit to beat Florida Gulf Coast Saturday night 83-69 to secure the Atlantic Sun automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins were 27-7 during the regular season and lead the conference with a 16-2 record. They are currently projected to be a fourteen seed and face the struggling Baylor Bears. With the momentum in Belmont's favor, Baylor may be on upset alert as a three seed.
The second team to win its conference tourney was the Murray State Racers, who finished off an impressive 30-1 season by besting the Tennessee State Tigers 54-52 on a game-winning layup with only a few seconds remaining in the game. The Racers were down for most of the second half but rallied in the end to finish with best record in all of Division I college basketball for the time being. Murray State won its second straight game against Tennessee State, who gave the Racers their only loss this season with a 72-68 victory on February 9th. Murray State is projected to be a six seed and face Mississippi State in the first round, a matchup in which the Racers are favored. If they win their opening matchup, the Ohio Valley Conference champions will be tested in the second round against only of the best teams in the Big East, the Marquette Golden Eagles.
UNC-Asheville claimed the Big South title over the weekend after an 80-64 victory over the Virginia Military Keydets. The Bulldogs led the conference with a 24-9 overall record and they were 16-2 in conference play. UNC-Asheville is scheduled to play in a play-in game against Savannah State to decide which team will play the number one overall team Kentucky. A number of sixteen seeds have been on the verge of upsetting their higher-ranked opponents but the higher seed has never prevailed. Murray State once took Michigan State into overtime but the Spartans won by four as well as Princeton had two shot attempts at the end of the game to upset Georgetown but both were blocked and the Tigers lost by two. Kentucky has been hot for the entire season, led by player of the year candidate Anthony Davis, and I see UNC-Asheville sharing the same fate as its sixteen seed predecessors.
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