The Guru’s March Madness Report: Temple Recovers in OT From Huge Blown Lead in American Opener While Delaware Takes CUSA Opener; NCAA Tickets Punched in Horizon, Mountain West and West Coast Conferences

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

If you missed the Temple regular season, the seventh seeded Owls (15-16) opened play Tuesday in Game 2 of the American Conference tournament in Birmingham, Ala., spending what became 45 minutes showing all the beauty and warts of the past four months morphing between a looming Cinderella and ugly stepsister dominating and blowing leads until living up to the survive and advance mantra spoken in time with an 86-77 victory over 10 seed Tulane (11-20) in overtime.

Next up is a Wednesday afternoon date at 3 p.m. (ESPN+) with No. 6 UTSA (14-15).

Game 1 before the Owls took the floor saw ninth seed Florida Atlantic also ride overtime to beat No. 8 Charlotte 74-70 and earn a round two date with No. 5 North Texas at 1 p.m.

In an adventure of highlights and lowlights Temple spent the first ten minutes showing the recent rock bottom trip experience at South Florida shooting shooting 15 percent but managing to keep the Green Wave at low tide for a 10-8 lead.

Then coach Diane Richardson’s squad switched costumes looking like the team that handled the home finale against FAU Saturday to erupt to a 14-point lead at the half off a 25-13 second quarter shooting 50 percent from the field including 75 percent from deep.

The margin grew to 17 and as the loyalists began to allow themselves the Green Wave launched a tsunami while the Owls suffered the worst Big Five postseason meltdown since Penn died against Texas A&M in an NCAA opener going scoreless the last 3:38 and making the evaporation complete when Tulane’s Kanija Daniel nailed a 3-pointer with ten seconds left to send the game into overtime.

Paced by a pair of threes and ten points overall in the extended period from Kaylah Turner, who finished with 31, the Owls went back to Cinderella mode trailing by four with an 11-0 run to live one more day.

Saniyah Craig added to the double-digit performance from Turner with 14 points.

Tulane’s comeback was paced by their conference’s freshman of the year Mecailin Marshall with 21 of her 25 points in the second half leading three other teammates also in double figures.

“It was a hard-fought game, and we just had to do what we do (in overtime),” Richardson said though many times this season the doing has been committing large amounts of costly turnovers.

“We got this, don’t let the turnovers before dictate the rest of the game,” Turner said of the attitude heading into the extra five minutes.

“I just wanted to win, my coaches told me to keep shooting,” Turner said of her game.

Additionally, Jaleesa Molina had 10 points and nine boards and Tristen Taylor scored 14.

Richardson never lost faith despite the second half collapse in the game at Legacy Arena dat the BJCC.

In recent years after UConn went back to the Big East the tournament moved from the Mohegan Sun to Fort Worth, Texas.

“We worked so hard in the game, let them come back, so I knew we had the resilience to bounce back and come back and play hard, so they did,” Richardson said.”

The two games mentioned are the only two Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s quarterfinal round.

Delaware Takes CUSA Opener

Ande’a Cherisier matched a career high with 24 points to lead the 8th seed Fighting Blue Hens (13-18) to a 66-47 win over ninth seed Kennesaw State (13-17) in a first round game of the Conference USA tournament Tuesday in Huntsville, Ala.

The road gets much tougher Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. (ESPN+) when Delaware faces Louisiana Tech, the No. 1 seed.

Ella Wanzer was 5-for-10 beyond the arc to propel her 17-point performance while Lay Fantroy grabbed 10 boards and Trinity Vance dealt a career-high six assists, one better than her previous best in the regular season ender at Liberty.

Delaware held the Owls to four points in the third quarter while scoring 22.

“I’m really excited and proud of our girls,” said Delaware coach Sarah Jenkins. “They came out and competed. We've had a tough stretch of games, and I'm really glad how they came out and competed today.”

In another CUSA game Tuesday 7 seed Jacksonville State (16-15) in the first tourney double overtime game since 2021 won 82-77 over 10 seed UTEP (13-17) at Propst Arena at the cVon Braun Center to advance against No. 2 FIU at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

The Gamecocks trailed by 10 in the third period

Brooklyn McDaniel connected from the line to send the game into double overtime  and she finished with 17 points and ten boards. Mya Barnes had nine of her 17 points in the extra periods.

“It wasn’t one person who carried us today, it was truly a team effort,” said Jacksonville State cosch Rick Pietri.

The two quarterfinal games are the only two Wednesday with two more Thursday.

The National Scene: Three More Tickets Punched

A trio of championships Tuesday grew the list of NCAA automatic qualifiers to 16 just over half the overall total of 31.

In the West Coast Conference in Las Vegas combo freshman and player of the year Lauren Whittaker out of New Zealand scored 26 points and grabbed nine boards to earn Most Outstanding Player honors leading Gonzaga to a 76-66 victory over Oregon State (23-11) at Orleans Arena.

Both teams and Washington State are headed to the re-organized PAC-12 next season.

Gonzaga (24-9) ended a four-year drought from the NCAA tournament.

In the Mountain West, third-seeded Colorado State (27-7) took its first conference title with a 56-42 victory at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas to end the Cinderella run of Air Force (16-18), which advanced to its first championship game having made top seed San Diego State one of the Falcons’ upset victims along the way.

Brooke Carlson scored 17 points, Madelynn Bragg scored 15, and Kloe Froebe had nine points and 10 boards.

In the Horizon at Corteva Coliseum in Indianapolis Green Bay (25-8) won 57-49 over Youngstown State (24-9) as Jenna Guyer scored 21 points.

On Wednesday, at 5 p.m., on ESPNU, Montana State and Idaho play for the Big Sky crown at

Idaho Central Arena in Boise while the Southland winner gets determined Thursday at Townsley Law Arena in Lake Charles, La.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guru’s March Madness Local/National Report: Villanova Routed by No. UConn in Big East Title Game; Rutgers Makes Hire; Fairfield Edges Quinnipiac for MAAC Crown Three-Peat

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

On Monday afternoon, No. 1 UConn (34-0) became the second team in the 50-year history of the Associated Press women’s poll to reach 600 appearances in the top ten, joining Tennessee, which had nearly a decade and a half of excellence ahead of the Huskies becoming a national force.

A few hours later, having been in a league of its own all season, UConn and Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, who now top almost every category in the poll, including 269 appearances at No. 1, demolished Villanova, the champion of the rest of the Big East, 91-50, at the Mohegan Sun to earn its 24th title playing in the conference.

The Huskies, going unbeaten for the 11th time into the NCAA tournament, also won all seven of their American Conference crowns the years they played following a Big East departure and later return.

Azzi Fudd scored 19 points and Sarah Strong scored 18 points in the rout of the Wildcats (25-7), whose consolation is they’ll likely be included as an at-large team when the 68-field NCAA is announced at 8 p.m. Sunday night on ESPN.

“I think it’s a great accomplishment what we’ve been able to achieve so far this year,” Fudd said. “We’ll have a couple of days off and our work isn’t done yet… Being Big East champion won’t really matter in a couple of weeks.”

UConn has won 50 straight since a loss late season to Tennessee, which in the last month has lost a program record seven straight losses, including a quick exit in the Southeastern Conference tournament and dropped from the AP rankings.

Six more wins and the Huskies, expected to be a No. 1 seed, perhaps the overall No. 1, will have to update their extended record of 12 NCAA titles, reached last season, to 13.

Villanova recently showed improvement playing UConn from the Wildcats’ earlier contest, taking a halftime lead at home, but the Huskies made sure of no repeat occurrence.

Strong, the tournament MVP, led the charge early to a 23-11 lead at the end of the first quarter and it only got worse for the Wildcats as play continued, trailing 49-23 at the half.

“We can’t let them get going, just try to play our defense,” Strong said. “Speed them up and get them out of their rhythm.”

Villanova’s Jasmine Bascoe scored 14 points for the second-seeded Wildcats.

Coach Denise Dillon, whose team has not been in the NCAAs since 2023, when program scoring leader Maddy Siegriest led them to a Sweet 16 appearance, said Villanova’s resume speaks for itself.

“We did what we needed to do to to build that resume,” she said. “Look at our record, 25-7,  three of those losses coming to the No. 1 team in the nation… Excited for next Sunday to see where we’re getting sent.”

Villanova also has wins off West Virginia and James Madison, which became upset winners of the Big 12 and Sun Belt conferences, respectively.

The Wildcats have played UConn several times in Big East title games, notably pulling a 2003 upset that ended what was then an NCAA record 70-win streak from which the Huskies recovered to add to the trophy case in what was then the Diana Taurasi era.

They avoided a dubious distinction in this one, scoring a 3-pointer from reserve Iowa State transfer Kelsey Joens to avoid becoming suffering the worst loss in Big East title game history, at 42 points held by Boston College.

The Other Locals

Of local teams still alive and taking part in tournaments this week, Temple will hope to carry momentum from Saturday’s regular season ending win over FAU when the seventh seeded Owls Tuesday open play in the American Conference tournament, which has moved from Fort Worth, Texas, to Birmingham, Ala.

They meet they meet Tulane at 3 p.m. (ESPN+), the second of two games after Florida Atlantic opens against Charlotte, and the Temple winner advances to meet sixth seeded UTSA.

Delaware, in the Blue Hens’ season debut in Conference USA, opens the entire tournament Tuesday in Huntsville, Ala., as the eighth seed playing Kennesaw State, the winner advancing to play top seed Louisiana Tech Wednesday.

Drexel as the third seed in the Coastal Athletic Association has a double bye into Friday’s quarterfinals, playing the fourth of four games Friday against Hampton or Elon at 8:30 p.m. in Washington at the WNBA Mystics’ CareFirst Arena.

No. 23 Princeton, the only other ranked team after UConn playing this week, the rest out of the Power 4 Conferences concluded prior to Monday, opens as the No. 1 seed in the four-team Ivy Madness at Cornell’s Newman Arena in Ithaca, N.Y., Friday meeting 4th seed Brown, which edged Penn for the last spot.

The Tigers are the only Ivy team this season considered capable of an at-large bid, but they can dispense of that route by winning Friday and then beating Columbia or defending tournament champion Harvard in Saturday’s championship.

In the Patriot League, in quarterfinal play Monday night, Lehigh, the fourth seed joining the other top seeds above, beat Loyola of Maryland 68-54 at home in Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., winning all three games over the Greyhounds.

Sixth seeded Lafayette chased third seed and host Army until late in the game at West Point, N.Y., when the third-seeded Black Knights moved on for a 65-57 victory led by Kya Smith with 20 points and 20 rebounds.

In the other two games, Meg Cahalan had 21 points, 10 in the first quarter, to lead No. 2 seed Holy Cross at home in Worcester, Mass., to a lopsided 72-36 win over 10th-seed Colgate, while top seeded Navy at home at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., was challenged most of the night by eighth seeded Boston U. until gaining a 76-66 victory as conference rookie of the year Zoe Mesuch scored 31 points and set a league mark with eight makes from deep.

In Thursday’s semifinals, Navy hosts Lehigh at 7 p.m. while Holy Cross hosts Army at 6 p.m., both on ESPN+

The latter game has interesting local ties because in addition to Plymouth Whitemarsh grad Kate Flanagan on Holy Cross, the Crusaders roster holds one of Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin’s daughters, while Army is under first-year coach Katie Kuester, a Hawks grad who was an associate head coach on the staff prior to landing the hire after last season.

Rutgers Hire

A week after Rutgers, which finished last in the Big Ten and missed the conference tournament, fired Coquese Washington, the Scarlet Knights announced the hire of Gary Redus II, an assistant the last four seasons under Kim Mulkey at LSU.

Both athletic director Keli Zinn, a recent hire, and as well as relatively new president William F. Tate have ties to LSU, Tate having been president at the school in Baton Rouge.

Penn State is also opened after also not making a high enough appearance in the standings to qualify in the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis won by No. 2 UCLA, which has a chance to be overall No. 1 seed Sunday, pending which philosophy the committee leans on in assigning the slots from the S curve rankings.

The National Scene

Several other conferences Monday joined the crowd from Sunday locking up automatic qualifiers from their tournaments, notably down in Atlantic City, N.J., at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall where in a thriller Fairfield held off Quinnipiac for the second straight season, winning 51-44 to become the fourth MAAC team to three-peat.

The teams during the season won at each other’s arena and were tied for first heading into the tournament.

The winning Stags were led by Jillian Huerter with 16 points while Cyanne Coe scored 15 points with 10 rebounds.

Anna Foley scored 17 for the Bobcats and Ella Ryan added 14 points.

Earlier in the day, fourth seed James Madison won 69-52 over second seed Troy in the Sun Belt tourney in Pensacola, Fla.

Peyton McDaniel had 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Dukes, while Ashanti Barnes scored 19 points with 12 rebounds.

JMU, a former member of the CAA, was ousted in overtime games the last two seasons after entering the conference.

In the Atlantic Sun, Jacksonville in overtime edged Austin Peay 66-63 as Priscilla Williams had 16 points and 13 rebounds, Carmaya Bowman and Comari Mitchell each scored 10 points.

On Tuesday, the Mountain West final in Las Vegas will be contested by Cinderella Air Force, which ousted top seed San Diego State and Boise State, and Colorado State.

The Horizon final will be decided between Green Bay and Youngstown State, while Gonzaga and Oregon State will contest the West Conference title game in Las Vegas.

That will bring the total to 16 with the winners previously claimed through Monday from the ACC (Duke), Big Ten (UCLA), Big 12 (West Virginia), SEC (Texas), Ohio Valley (Western Illinois), Big East (UConn), A-10 (Rhode Island), MAAC (Fairfield), ASun (Jacksonville), Big South (High Point), Southern (Samford), Summit (South Dakota State), and Sun Belt (James Madison).

The 15 left through the weekend are American (Sat), America East (Fri), Big Sky (Wed), Big West (Sat), CAA (Sun), Conference USA (Sat), Ivy (Sat), Mid-American (Sat), MEAC (Sat), Missouri Valley (Sun), Northeast (Sun), Patriot (Sun), Southland (Thurs), SWAC (Sat), and Western Athletic (Sat).

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

The Guru’s March Madness Report: Day 4 as Rhode Island Unseats George Mason for First A-10 Crown; Villanova Advances to the Big East Title Round; No. 3 South Carolina Upset by No. 4 Texas in SEC Championship

 By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsgurux

HENRICO, Va. – Just a short drive from here across the lower Appalachian Mountains from where Tammi Reiss hooked up with Philly’s Dawn Staley short of four decades ago to form one of the all-time collegiate women’s basketball backcourts and lead Virginia to its first ACC championship and onto national prominence, Reiss was back in the Old Dominion State Sunday afternoon to earn another date with history.

Now coach of Rhode Island, a program that had spent most of its history in the depths of the Atlantic 10, Reiss’ Rams (28-4) completed the mission that fell just short two seasons ago against nearby Richmond winning a defensive low-scoring slugfest to unseat reigning tournament champion George Mason 53-51 here at Henrico Sports & Events Center, earning URI it’s first automatic qualifier to the NCAA women’s tournament and second overall appearance.

The last one? They were an at-large choice in 1996.

The way Reiss partook in the Rams celebration after the game’s conclusion, brought recollections of all that energy she provided in Charlottesville and often showed the future coach in her persona the many times she took over postgame press conferences from Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan.

In year 50 of the conference’s existence and 30 years after appearing as a 10th seed losing to Oklahoma, Reiss made sure her team knew of what it had just accomplished after the squad reached the locker room.

“You’ve done something that in 50 years no one else has ever done,” Reiss revealed her post-game words to her players. “The first one feels so good. This one is special because it’s never been done at our school. You can only be first once.”

This tournament saw the high seed win each round, a first since 2001, although George Mason needed a late comeback on Dayton in the quarterfinals and Saint Joseph’s had a potential winning shot denied in the closing seconds against Davidson by an offensive charge call from the officials.

Finland’s post player Albina Gray, the tournament MOP, had nine points and 10 boards, but dominated Rhode Island’s comeback the previous day.

Brooklyn Gray and guard Sophia Vital also were cited, Gray scoring 16 points Sunday and Vital adding to four points she sprayed the stat sheet with seven boards, a pair of assists, two steals and a key make in the closing minutes.

For the Patriots (23-9), Zahirah Walton and Kennedy Harris were the other all-tourney picks, Walton scoring 10 points and Harris 15, while Mary Amoateng provided 13 points.

The two teams tied for first in the regular season a game ahead of preseason favorite Richmond, though Rhode Island went most of the way unbeaten in the A-10 until a stunning upset in Philadelphia delivered by La Salle.

At one point during Reiss’ press conference, speculating on a potential matchup, she grinned and said, “How about South Carolina,” where Staley has had a long coaching stint after leaving Temple in 2008 building the Gamecocks to one of the top programs in the nation.

Early on it appeared George Mason might be the first to go back-to-back in nine seasons taking a lead the way Davidson had done against the Rams in the quarterfinals.

“Give credit to Vanessa (Blair-Lewis) and her squad,” Reiss said. “I knew this game was going to be a drag out knock out war.

“We didn’t start the game with any discipline, so we really went in and settled them down a little bit. We had to remind our team who you are and what you do. They came out and executed, especially defensively.”

Speaking of the co-champions going in, Palmire Mbu said, “Today was our game to prove we were the real champions, and it just feels great.”

As the second half through the third and fourth quarters came along, Rhode Island, defending GMU into a 32.2% overall effort from the field, was able to build a slim lead and hold on to it.

“I thought it was a great game by two powerhouses,” Blair-Lewis said. “It was a slugfest nd both teams really stepped up and competed today. I’m proud of these ladies, three games in three days.

“I just think at the end of the day, we did not put the ball in the hole, the way we needed to. We are still regular seasons champions and to be able to get to this point again, somebody had to win, and somebody had to learn.”

Reiss when asked what the comparison was as a player helping to lead Virginia to its place in history and now Rhode Island, she responded, “It’s different as a coach. When you’re a player, you control the game.

“And I’ve always said, ‘players win games,’ so winning that first one at Virginia was so special.

“It’s why we all went to Virginia. They had never won one. We wanted to be the first. We didn’t want to be another horse in the stable. I always went there for that reason and to get to Final Fours, but as a player, it’s just absolutely fulfilling for all the hard work you do through the course of your career, and Brooklyn said it best, ‘Everything flashes in your mind. All those 6 a.m. track workouts, …, everything flashes when suddenly the buzzer goes off.

“As a coach, I don’t think about myself at all. All I thought about was them. I told them all I cared about was for them to have that feeling, because I know what it feels like as a player to cut down nets and win championships so as a coach it’s completely different.

“It’s like a mother. All you want your child to do is succeed. I have 14 children. It was so fulfilling, but in a different way.”

So far, the act of bid stealing at other mid-majors has been nil, raising the possibility that Richmond and George Mason could be taken by the NCAA as at-large bids.

The data points for the Patriots are a little further off from Richmond, whose coach Aaron Roussell noted after the Spiders’ loss the team had done all necessary to be ahead of the class when it comes to mid-major teams.

A key will be this weekend at Cornell, the site of the Ivy tourney, where No. 23 Princeton with another title, could be the only Ivy team in the field, opposed to three representatives a year ago caused when Harvard won the title.

Princeton is the only one this year believed to have enough to be rescued if failing to add another trophy.

Fast Start on Seton Hall Sends Villanova Against No. 1 UConn for Big East AQ Bid

The Wildcats (25-6) will be a heavy underdog to the defending national champion Huskies Monday night in the Big East title game at 7 p.m. (Peacock) at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn., playing UConn (33-0) a third time.

But consider Villanova a lock for the NCAA tourney, after finishing the regular season second in the Big East and making it stand by gaining the title round for the sixth time and first since 2023 with a 62-48 win Sunday afternoon against Seton Hall (19-12), which will end a three-season drought since the run to the Sweet 16 led by Maddy  Siegriest.

Coach Denise Dillon’s team also has a chance to be ranked Monday when the next-to-last Associated Press women’s poll is released at noon. The AP has tacked on a final vote right after national championship weekend.

On Sunday, Villanova jumped to a 12-0 lead and then held the Pirates off the rest of the way.

Brynn MccCurry scored 16 points for the Wildcats, who will break the absence of Philly teams on the women’s side. Jasmine Bascoe added 15 points while Seton Hall’s Zahara Bishop and Jordana Codio each scored 13 points.

Codio and Bascoe each passed 30 points in their respective quarterfinal games.

In the opening semifinal game, UConn pulverized Creighton 100-51, Sarah Strong having 23 points, seven rebounds, and six steals on the way to the Huskies’ 22nd straight conference championship, including seven when they were in the American Conference.

Coach Geno Auriemma’s squad has won 49 straight overall dating to a late season loss at Tennessee in 2025, and has won 38 conference tournament games

But it’s the first 100-point game for UConn in Big East tourney competition.

Southern Cal transfer Kayleigh Heckel added nine boards, eight boards and seven assists.

Kennedy Townsend scored 13 for Creighton (16-15).

The Huskies jumped to a 27-4 lead in this one, but in the last meeting at Villanova the Wildcats held a three-point halftime lead.

Strong is the first NCAA women’s star in Division I the last 25 seasons with 500 points, 200 boards, 100 assists, 100 steals, 50 from deep, and 50 blocked shots.

Azzi Fudd has 100 3-pointers on the season joining Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Katie Lou Samuelson as the only Huskies women’s stars with 100 assists and 100 3-pointers the same season.

The National Scene

Eight teams Sunday joined Saturday’s Ohio Valley champion as those winning conference titles.

The most notable was in Greeneville, S.C. at the Southeastern Conference championship where No. 4 Texas (31-3), which joined the conference last season, beat No.  3 South Carolina (31-3), 78-61, as Madison Booker scored 18 points for the Longhorns while Joyce Edwards scored 13 for Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad.

In the Big Ten in Indianapolis, No. 2 UCLA (31-1), which joined the conference last season, blasted No. 9 Iowa 96-45 to make it back-to-back titles as Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens scored 18 points against the Hawkeyes (26-6).

Iowa’s Ava Heiden scored 15 points and grabbed four rebounds.

In the Big 12 in Kansas City, No. 15 West Virginia (27-6) deprived No. 10 TCU (29-5) of repeating as champions, winning 62-53 as Jordan Harrison scored 21 points and grabbed six boards for the winning Mountaineers while the Horned Frogs got 17 points from Notre Dame transfer Olivia Miles and 16 points with eight rebounds from Cal transfer Marta Suarez.

The top two teams in the ACC, last of the Power Four leagues here, met with No. 13 Duke (24-8), the top seed, rallying for a 70-65 overtime win against No. 12 Louisville (27-7), the second seed, in Duluth, Georgia, as Taina Mair scoring 19 points with 12 boards and Delaney Thomas matching her teammates’ total.

The Cardinals had led all but five minutes of regulation.

Imari Berry scored 18 for Louisville, while Mackenly Randolph scoring 17 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, playing all 45 minutes.

The Blue Devils’ season was like a reverse bell curved, ranked in the top 10, falling out of the poll, which is in its 50th season, with a 3-6 plunge and then going 21-2 the rest of the way.

Samford upset Chattanooga 72-67 to win the Southern Conference, while Quinnipiac (26-5) in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) survived in overtime beating Iona 63-62, the Gaels falling to 20-12, and No. 25 Fairfield (27-4) ousted Merrimack 65-48 in the semifinals in Atlantic City, N.J. Setting up a rematch in Monday’s championship at 6 p.m. between the two-time defending champion Stags and Bobcats, who shared the league’ s regular season title.

In Sunday’s huge upset among mid-majors, in the Mountain West quarterfinals in Las Vegas, Air Force (15-17) upset No. 1 seed San Diego State 93-76 and making it unlikely the Aztecs (25-5) will be taken as an at-large entry setting up a stolen bid.

Next season in a big realignment among mid-majors in the West, the Mountain West and West Coast Conferences will lose members to a re-organized Pac-12 retaking Oregon State and Washington State, which spent two seasons in the WCC, and adding perennial WCC contender Gonzaga among its new lineup.

Besides championships in the MAAC and Big East on Monday, in the Sun Belt fourth seed James Madison (25-8) meets Troy (25-6) at 2 p.m. on ESPNU.

Most of the second and final wave of conference affairs this week begin Monday and run, in some cases, right to a few hours this Sunday ahead of the revelation of the NCAA field at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

The top 16 teams, in alphabetical order, but not by seed number, in a new move,  will be announced Saturday on ESPN.