Well, you had to know the Missouri Valley Tournament couldn’t just keep going according to seed… it’s the Missouri Valley Tournament!! :)

As noted below by Our Man In St. Louis, #2-seed Creighton won, 67-61 over #1-seed Southern Illinois in the MVC championship game, breaking the Salukis’ 13-game winning streak (2 of those wins were over Creighton) and probably putting an end to any talk of SIU getting a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

For their part, the Bluejays — a #10 seed in Lunardi’s bracket as of yesterday — have surely improved their standing significantly over the last 48 hours. Congrats to Creighton head coach Dana Altman (who is a man) and star Nate Funk, who scored 19 points to follow up his 33 against Missouri State yesterday.

Anyway, the Bluejays are officially headed back to the NCAA Tournament — not like that was in doubt even if they’d lost today, but still, after being one of the two “snubbed” Valley teams last year (along with MO State), it must be nice to spend the next week knowing they’ll be dancing. They’ll be a tough out for whoever they face.

And now… GO BLUE DEVILS!!! No, not those Blue Devils… these Blue Devils. Duh. :)

Creighton wins 67-61!

Fun game! Creighton leads SIU 32-28 at half.

As usual, “of interest” means “of interest to me personally,” and thus excludes such far-less-weighty contests as Duke vs. North Carolina. :) Anyway…

2:05 PM: Southern Illinois vs. Creighton, MVC title game (CBS)
3:00 PM: Virginia Commonwealth vs. Drexel, CAA semifinal
4:00 PM: Central Connecticut State vs. Mount St. Mary’s, NEC semifinal (Live audio)
4:00 PM: Quinnipiac vs. Sacred Heart, NEC semifinal
5:30 PM: Old Dominion vs. George Mason, CAA semifinal

And of course the big one:

9:30 PM: Gonzaga vs. San Diego, WCC semifinal (ESPN2)

GO ZAGS!! BEAT THE TOREROS!!

UPDATE: In a “game of interest” that I forgot to mention, Louisville beat Seton Hall, which means Notre Dame gets the #4 seed (rather than the #3) in the Big East tournament. At 2:00 PM Thursday, the Irish will face the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between #5 Syracuse and the #12 seed (which will be either UConn or St. John’s, the latter only if they lose to Providence today). If ND wins on Thursday, a likely semifinal date with #1 seed Georgetown would await at 7:00 PM Friday.

Much was made of Penn earning the first NCAA auto bid (as it seems to do every year) on Friday, followed by four more “dance tickets” being “punched” yesterday by Winthrop, Davidson, Eastern Kentucky and Belmont. But where’s the love for the first two teams to secure invitations to the NIT? :) By losing yesterday to EKU and Belmont after winning their regular-season conference titles, Austin Peay and East Tennessee State each guaranteed themselves a spot, and most likely a #8 seed, in the Little Dance, where they will probably face first-round games at disgruntled high-majors like Clemson or Oklahoma State… or perhaps a heartbroken Missouri State squad.

This is bad news for teams like UConn, Northern Iowa, and two-time NIT defending champion South Carolina, all of which are on the NIT at-large bubble, and just saw two spots disappear. (Click here for “NIT-ology.”) Whereas NCAA bubble teams need to root for mid-major powerhouses like Butler and Nevada to win their conference tournaments, NIT bubble teams need to root for low-major favorites like Central Connecticut State and Marist. Every time a #1 seed with no at-large prospects loses during Championship Week, an NIT bubble bursts. Which raises the question: If an NIT bubble burst in the forest in the middle of Championship Week, and nobody cared, would it still make a sound?

What an awesome atmosphere for the first semifinal at the MVC tournament. The game was sold out at 22,000 strong and they announced that it was the largest crowd to ever watch a college basketball game at that arena. That includes Illinois/Missouri which plays there every year.

So in game one, top seed SIU held on to beat fourth seeded Bradley in a fantastic game. Bradley led for most of the game before SIU gained the lead late. SIU’s Matt Shaw had a rebound tip in with 3.2 seconds to give them the lead. Unlike the day before when BU hit a 3 pt shot at the horn to win, BU missed a three this time at the buzzer and SIU moves on to the final.

In game two, Creighton gained control early over Missouri State, before Missouri State crawled back into it at halftime. In the 2nd half, Creighton controlled and rolled to an easy win. Creighton’s Nate Funk had 33 points in the game. He’s an amazing player.

So today’s final is #1 vs #2. MO State is firmly on the bubble and may be looking at the NIT again. I think had they beat Creighton they would have been in, but we shall see. We don’t need for someone like Ohio St or Wisconsin or someone like that to lose in their tournaments. I want all the big conference top seeds to take the auto bids.

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!!