SpaceWeather.com has photos of tonight’s total lunar eclipse.

Can Fairfield become the fourth #6 seed in Championship Week(s) to upset a #3 seed, joining the ranks of Campbell, Army and VMI? The Stags lead Loyola (Md.), 66-65, with 4:07 left in their MAAC quarterfinal game.

[UPDATE: Live audio here. Fairfield now trails, 71-68 with 2:15 to go.]

Fairfield is one of four Connecticut teams (out of six total) still alive for an NCAA berth. Two of the others are in action tomorrow: #1-seed Central Connecticut State and #3-seed Quinnipiac, both of the Northeast Conference, play in their respective semifinal games at 4:00 PM. The title game is Wednesday. The other Connecticut team still technically alive — though a serious longshot — is UConn, which will not be eliminated until Wednesday (the first round of the Big East tournament) at the earliest. Yale and Hartford have already been eliminated.

UPDATE: Fairfield loses, 76-72. So now only three Nutmeg State teams remain standing.

Sorry, Mom. No NCAA bid for the Leathernecks.

The CAA Final Four, that is.

The Patriots, last year’s mid-major darlings, are just 17-14 this season, the sixth-best team in the Colonial Athletic Association, with no at-large NCAA (or even NIT) hopes whatsoever. But they knocked off #3-seed Hofstra tonight — the day’s only CAA upset — to reach the conference semifinals. Two more wins, and GMU will be dancing again! Of course, they’d have to topple #2-seed Old Dominion tomorrow and then probably #1-seed Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday, but hey, if any team in America can attest to the truth of the phrase “anything is possible,” it’s George Mason.

Mason’s upset of Hofstra may actually be good for the CAA’s efforts to get multiple NCAA bids. According to most analysts, Hofstra was the least likely of the conference’s “big four” to get an at-large, while #4-seed Drexel actually has the best at-large profile in terms of non-conference performance (they won at Creighton in BracketBusters, recall), but was seen as seriously disadvantaged by its fourth-place finish — and, in particular, its place in the standings below third-place Hofstra. Now that the Patriots have eliminated the Pride in the quarterfinals while the Dragons have advanced to the semis, perhaps it will be easier for the NCAA selection committee to give Drexel a “bump” in the CAA “pecking order” (if such a thing actually exists), ahead of Hofstra and into more realistic at-large contention. A win over VCU tomorrow would certainly help the Dragons’ case… though it might also cripple VCU’s hopes, despite the outright league title and 16-2 record. The Colonial is very confusing, bubble-wise!

How’s this for a scenario: Drexel upsets VCU and George Mason upsets Old Dominion. GMU beats Drexel to earn the auto bid. Obviously Mason is in, but who else (if anyone)? What the heck is the “pecking order” then? Is it Drexel, then VCU, then ODU? Drexel-ODU-VCU? VCU-ODU-Drexel? ODU-Drexel-VCU? Ack!

Can USC end its regular season on a winning note against Washington State? The Trojans trail early in Pullman.

UPDATE: USC leads, 40-35 at the half. Fight on!

UPDATE 2: Overtime!! Lodrick Stewart hits a three-pointer in the closing seconds of regulation to tie it, and we’re goin’ to OT. w00t!

UPDATE 3: DOUBLE overtime!

UPDATE 4: F**k. Washington State wins, 88-86 in 2 OT’s.

Well, not having been able to watch the game (GRUMBLE GRUMBLE F*$&*%ING FOX PRIME TICKET GRUMBLE GRUMBLE F*#%%&ING COMCAST GRUMBLE GRUMBLE!!!), I can’t really comment on how the Trojans played, but based on the Yahoo box score thingy, it seemed like they hit an awful lot of clutch shots and admirably kept fighting back in a hostile environment when it looked like Wazzu had them on the ropes. There are no moral victories at this point in the season, and USC really, really needs to beat Stanford in the Pac-10 quarters, but… assuming they make it into the NCAAs as expected, it seems like this sort of game should be good preparation for the madness of March.

Creighton leads Missouri State 39 34

Villanova’s 78-75 win over Syracuse means Notre Dame is guaranteed the #4 seed in the Big East, and thus a bye into the conference quarterfinals, regardless of what happens today against Rutgers.

Still, that’s no excuse not to beat Rutgers. Which, so far, we’re doing.

Incidentally, our likely quarterfinal opponent in the Big East tournament? Syracuse, assuming the Orange can dispense with the #12 seed (either UConn or St. John’s).

UPDATE: Irish win, 73-66. Woohoo!

Notre Dame actually could end up with the #3 seed, in the unlikely event that Louisville loses at home to lowly Seton Hall tomorrow. But more likely, they’ll be the #4, as stated above.

Up next: USC at Wazzu, at 7pm. Fight on Trojans, Beat the Cougars!

Sweeeet.

Seriously, if you’re not watching ESPN right now, you need to turn it on. The Big South championship game between Winthrop and Virginia Military Institute is immensely entertaining, and it promises to have an exciting ending. VMI has a losing record, and was the #6 seed in one of the nation’s worst conferences, but they’re playing their best basketball of the season in this conference tourney, are they are simply refusing to go away. Winthrop leads, 63-61 with 8:22 left.

UPDATE: ESPN has the score wrong!! Is the scoreboard wrong, too? It should be 84-80! Or am I crazy?? I swear it was 84-78 Winthrop, then VMI got a 2-point basket, and somehow it became 84-81, and nobody noticed! WTF??

UPDATE 2: Okay, maybe I’m crazy. According to the ESPN GameCast, it was 84-79, not 84-78, prior to the VMI hoop. So, uh, nevermind. :)

Anyway, it’s 84-81 Winthrop with 9.7 seconds left, and VMI has possession with a chance to tie.

UPDATE 3: Winthrop survives!! Winthrop wins!! Winthrop is going dancing!!

The red is Bradley fans. This place is sold out and is loud. Tied at 26 at half.

On Drudge right now:

Heh.

Yeah, he probably just forgot to put in a <hr> tag, but still. It’s fun to make fun.

(You can read my actual post about tonight’s eclipse here.)

After a couple of nationally televised big-conference thrillers that ended within about 60 seconds of one another — Kansas over Texas on CBS and Wisconsin over Michigan State on ESPN — the low-majors and mid-majors take center stage. In the Big South title game (on ESPN now), #1-seed Winthrop has a 23-19 lead over #6-seed VMI midway through the first half in what is already a highly entertaining, back-and-forth offensive battle.

If I could be assured that Winthrop would get an at-large bid despite a loss today, I’d totally be rooting for VMI. Not only are they Championship Fortnight’s first real Cinderella story, but their “freakout style” of absurdly high-octane offense would make for perhaps the most entertaining play-in game ever. But because Winthrop’s at-large hopes would be very shaky with a loss today, and because I want to see them do damage in the tournament, I have to root for ‘em today. Go Eagles!

Meanwhile, on Fox Sports Midwest and Comcast SportsNet in a few minutes, #1 Southern Illinois plays #4 Bradley in the first Missouri Valley semifinal. Coming up later on ESPN2: #1 East Tennessee State vs. #2 Belmont in the Atlantic Sun title game at 4pm, #1 Davidson vs. #6 College of Charleston in the Southern Conference title game at 6pm, and #1 Austin Peay vs. #2 Eastern Kentucky in the Ohio Valley title game at 8pm. Meanwhile, back on FSN and Comcast, #2 Creighton plays #3 Missouri State in the other MVC semi at 5:05 or thereabouts.

Earlier today, Hartford followed in Yale’s footsteps as the second Connecticut team to be eliminated from NCAA consideration, as the #8-seeded Hawks lost to #1 Vermont in the America East quarterfinals, 81-62. Later, as I mentioned yesterday, Fairfield becomes the next Connecticut team to see its season come down to a single game, in a 10:00 PM MAAC quarterfinal against Loyola (MD).

Wow, what a long day of hoops. Four games over 10 hours. And you can’t eat or drink anything because you have to take a loan out to do it!

In game one, top seed Southern Illinois took care of Drake 71-59 in game that was closer than that. SIU took a 12 point lead with about 12 minutes left and took out starters. That let Drake back into the game and they cut the lead to about 5 or so when SIU had to throw their starters back in to keep the lead. On a side note, SIU has the hottest dance line out of any of the Valley teams. Wow.

Read about the other three games after the jump.
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Yahoo! Sports has a nice write-up on Southern Illinois and their chances of earning a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament… but whoever designed the layouts on the front page and the college hoops page might want to do a little fact-checking:

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In a case of “my bigotry is better than your bigotry,” a young woman is suing because she got sent to the principal’s office. Why? Because classmates teased her about her LDS status, and she responded, “‘That’s so gay.”

I agree with the retired teacher in the article. Educate; don’t punish. But I don’t feel like emphasizing that part of the story. I feel like emphasizing the fact that this girl is an idiot with a limited vocabulary. Probably spoiled, too. Every time I hear that phrase, I can pretty well rest assured that the person who used it is quite shallow, somebody who doesn’t like thinking much and who doesn’t care to learn how to express themselves in clear and articulate fashion. I wonder how she’d feel if the most common way for morons to express contempt for an idea was to say, “Man, that’s so Mormon!” or “What are you, Mormon?”

Ah, well. As H.L. Mencken said, when you defend free speech, you must inevitably defend bastards.