Did you hear the one about the guys who worked all winter to go 16-2 in their league and clinch the regular season title, rolled into their conference tournament and promptly lost to the team that finished ninth? Then the next year went 15-3 to take the season crown again, returned to the conference tournament and immediately lost to the team that finished last?
It can happen. Matter of fact, it just did happen. Eastern Washington in the Big Sky, last year to Northern Arizona, this year to Sacramento State. So the Eagles went 31-5 in Big Sky play during the season and had their NCAA tournament dreams crushed by two opponents who went 9-27. Any wonder why coaches can get heart palpitations when they think of March?
Here in the preamble to Selection Sunday, things can grow pretty intense. The mid-major conference tournaments produce their own flavor of March Madness for the teams pressing their noses to the NCAA tournament window. They’re not Connecticut or Purdue or Houston, concerned only with seeds. They just want a way in.
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For them, fate is like a spelling bee. One goof, and they’re toast. Time for a little tour of this year’s struggle for survival.
Ohio Valley
First stop, Ohio Valley Conference, the first NCAA tournament ticket to be punched.
Little Rock won the season title. No, wait. So did UT Martin. And Morehead State. Not many league tournaments have a semifinal round with three champions. The OVC hadn’t had a three-way tie at the top in 52 years.
“Sharing the title with those teams is nothing to be ashamed of. We’re all happy to be in the same conversation with one another,” Morehead State coach Preston Spradlin was saying before the semis. “We get the opportunity to kick off March Madness every year so it’s very worthy of having three teams who are going to have a ring this year playing on Friday night.”
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Morehead State won 84-78 against UT Martin — who had been hoping to grab it first-ever NCAA tournament bid. Little Rock knocked off Western Illinois — the fourth-place team that wasn’t even in the OVC last year but somehow went 8-1 this season in league road games while only 5-4 at home. The 82-57 romp was Little Rock’s 10th win in a row, leaving Darrell Walker, the former Arkansas and NBA star who has coached in the NBA, WNBA, Division II and Division I, with a shot at the NCAA tournament.
“It’ll be a sleepless night like most nights in tournament time,” he said. “If you don’t win the tournament people look at you like it’s a lost season. It’s been a good season for us. We were in last place last year (actually next-to-last), we won 10 games last year. Then the NIT has done us no favors by taking that away from teams that have won their league and giving it to teams who may be 14-14 in the Big Ten. It hurts guys at our level, it really does.”
Little Rock’s road abruptly ended Saturday as Morehead State won 69-55. Spradlin is the 37-year-old go-getter who has won 94 games the past four seasons at Morehead State — the most of any program from the state of Kentucky, including the big names in blue in Lexington.
The Eagles know about disappointment. They won the OVC by three games last season but didn’t get out of the league tournament and remember how lousy that felt. “Last year we came down here and we were tight, we were serious and we were all-business and we played that way,” Spradlin said. “That’s why we fell short.”
His message to his team before the title game: “In the postseason you’ve got to be able to challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone.” And he knew just who to use as an example. The student manager with torn joggers. The kid was was doing team laundry the other night and found himself locked in Evansville’s Ford Center, the tournament site. To get out, he stacked some pallets and climbed a fence, ripping his pants. Of such resolve are league tournaments won. Spradlin said they’ll be displaying the pants and a piece of the fence as keepsakes.
When it was over in Evansville Saturday night, there Spradlin was on the ladder, cutting down the net with his daughter.
Hero student managers and little girls cutting down nets. You’ve got to love mid-major tournaments.
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Missouri Valley
Next, the Missouri Valley.
In the title game, Indiana State shot 52.5 percent, had all five starters score in double figures and erased an 18-point deficit in six minutes in the second half. Alumnus Larry Bird had to be so proud. Alas, Drake won 84-80 with Tucker DeVries scoring 27 points on behalf of his father Darian, the coach.
Now the losing Sycamores must fidget for a week, wondering if their 28-6 record and No. 29 NET rating is enough for an NCAA at-large berth. Or has conference tournament week broken another locker room of hearts? ”March Madness is not one Power 5 upsetting another Power 5. March Madness has always been about the underdogs having a chance to make a run,” Indiana State coach Josh Schertz said, understanding he has a nervous week ahead waiting to see if his team is one of them,
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MAC
Next stop, the Mid-American Conference. Namely Toledo.
The teams from the one-bid leagues all know the score about conference tournaments. Win or else. Toledo has now captured four consecutive MAC season titles, something not done in 73 years. The Rockets are 62-13 in league season play since 2021, with 48 of the wins by at least eight points. Monsters of the MAC. They also won the season title in 2014 and 2007 and are money from the line, finishing first or second in the league in free throw percentage 11 of the past 12 seasons.
But here’s the thing. Toledo hasn’t played in the NCAA tournament in 44 years.
The MAC tournament is where the bid must be secured. Something. Always. Happens. The coach has tried to think of everything in a program that has been spectacular in consistency but keeps having to watch the NCAA tournament on television.
“I talk to a lot of people. We’ve had sports psychologists. I’ve talked to coaches who have had success in the tournament,” Tod Kowalczyk said the other day. “It comes down to basically your best players have got to play well. I know it’s a simple thing but that’s really what it is.
“I’ve been a head coach for 22 years. I’ve had enough heartbreak that I think the basketball gods owe me one.”
Maybe the bill will get paid this weekend? “It’s a one-bid league. That’s the world we live in, I don’t think it’s going to change,” Kowalczyk said, “Now we’ve just got to go and play with confidence and have fun.”
And it helps if a team is playing its best at the end. “Which we are right now,” Kowalczyk said.
ASUN
Next, the ASUN.
This mayhem is what league tournaments are all about. No. 10 seed Jacksonville upsets No. 1 seed Eastern Kentucky 67-65 after 17 lead changes and 17 ties, then gets beat two days later when Stetson’s Stephan Swenson — who started the season 2-for-25 in 3-pointers — goes 7-for-9 from beyond the arc, including the game-winner with four seconds left.
Stetson then chases its first NCAA tournament bid in its history in the league title game against Austin Peay, who had made it there by outlasting North Florida 101-98 in overtime and North Alabama 77-71 after 24 lead changes, all in the first 28 ½ minutes.
More drama? Oh yeah. Stetson’s first NCAA bid ever comes with a lot of tension and Jalen Blackmon’s 43 points as the Hatters edge Austin Peay, 94-91. They made only 20 of their first 29 free throws but with the season on the line, buried 12 of their last 13. “That just tells you who they are,” coach Donnie Jones said.
These tournaments can make great coming-out parties. Last year, Stetson had its first winning record in 22 seasons. This year, the Hatters are dancing, the 331st different school to make it. “You don’t get many of those moments,” Jones said. “These guys will go down in history here as the greatest team to ever play here. First to ever do it.”
Big South
Next, the Big South.
Both semifinals went to overtime and one of the victims was the league’s top-seed, High Point, after blowing a 15-point lead in the last 12 minutes on its own court against Longwood and losing 80-79. UNC Asheville finally got past Gardner Webb 83-72 after 18 lead changes and 13 ties.
No extra time was needed in the final as Longwood rolled 85-59, meaning the Lancers stormed to the NCAA dance floor over the top two seeds in the league. As late as 2021, Longwood had endured 12 losing seasons in a row. On Feb. 7, the Lancers were 2-8 in the Big South. But Griff Aldrich’s teams keep finding a way and in the past three years have won 26, 20 and 21 games and now gone to the NCAA tournament twice. “We’ve really wanted to build a program, not just a team,” Aldrich said.
About Aldrich’s journey. First, he was an attorney in an international law firm, later CFO in an energy-focused investment firm. And then a basketball coach. Top that, Dan Hurley.
Horizon League
Finally, the Horizon League.
The four top seeds were all at home for the quarterfinals. Three of them lost. This included Wright State, who couldn’t hold a 17-point lead on its home court against Northern Kentucky. The Norse tied the game at the buzzer of regulation and then won 99-97 in overtime, meaning Wright State — the best-shooting team in the nation by some margin — was one and done and 18-14. “The only thing that will get rid of this pain is time,” Wright State coach Scott Nagy said.
Eastern Washington understands something about that.
“I know it was an incredible season and these guys got a lot out of it,” coach David Riley said after the shocker to Sacramento State. “It just sucks that it’s got to end this way.”
Welcome to March.
