Tournament Watch: Kiss and Fight, Gonzaga cruises, Free Bellarmine!
Titanic evening of NCAA Men’s hoops on Tuesday. SIX conference champions crowned, police called during a brawl at Bryant, Northern Kentucky faces heartbreaking defeat and Bellarmine earned a bid for a different team.
Also, overhaul to the NCAA Tournament Manifest at the tail end of this post providing an exhaustive breakdown of who’s in, who’s likely in and who’s on the bubble.
Conference Championships addressed today: NEC (Bryant), A-SUN (Bellarmine, sort of), Horizon (Wright State), CAA (Delaware), WCC (Gonzaga), Summit (South Dakota State).
Northeast: Bryant over Wagner
Bryant raced out to a 36-6 lead with the nation’s top scorer, Peter Kiss, and his running mate, Charles Pride (heckuva name duo!) leading the charge. That tells you all you need to know about the matchup. Nevermind anything that happened on the basketball court, let’s address the pandemonium enacted with four minutes left to play in the game.
Bryant hosted the Northeast Conference title and some of their fans got into it with the visiting Wagner fans and some of the player’s families. Ugly scene. Coke cups flew, shirts were ripped off, frat boys fell all over the place. It was a downright shindy. Right in the middle of the Bryant bleachers! A Wagner player tried to scamper into the fight but was halted, then was seen mounting that his mom was involved in the action. Hard to believe this is real.
The aftermath was arguably more bizarre than the melee itself. A dozen or so Rhode Island State Policemen responded to the scene and REMOVED the Wagner fans from their section of the stadium. A process that lasted 15 minutes. Then, Bryant’s Athletic Director and coach both addressed the stadium over the PA system. Here’s the most insane part yet: Bryant’s AD issued instructions for how these unruly Bryant students should storm the court after the game concluded. As if we needed more of these rabble rousers spilling onto the court to interact with players.
At last, play resumed with four minutes left and Bryant up by 30. But in the final minutes, Bryant’s coach called TWO timeouts to sub in benchwarmers. Don’t know whether to call that classless or clueless. Maybe both.
March Madness never disappoints. A recap in photos if you wish:
Why Bryant can pull an upset: Peter Kiss and Charles Pride are an even better duo of basketball players than names. Kiss is one nasty character on the basketball court. Very emotionally animated (in a good way) with size, fearlessness and a whole lot of speed at the guard position. He averages 24 a game but Pride would lead most teams in scoring himself at 18 a night. No duo in the NCAA Tournament scores at the rate these to do. Very similar formula to the Max Abmas/Kevin Obanor combo that took 15th-seeded Oral Roberts to the Sweet Sixteen last year.
Atlantic Sun: Bellarmine wins, Jacksonville State goes to NCAA Tournament
Congrats to Bellarmine, who should be representing the Atlantic Sun in the NCAA Tournament. Instead, they’re a surrogate champion, earning a bid for another school. Why? Due to nonsense rules that prevent teams transitioning from Division 1 to Division 2 to qualify for the tournament for three years following the move. Bellarmine arrived to the A-SUN from the D-2 ranks just last season and already won its conference tourney. Too bad they can’t try their hand at the Big One.
An even odder rule is the one that governs who gets to represent the A-SUN in Bellarmine’s place. The tourney runner-up, right? Nope. Jacksonville, who defeated Jacksonville State in the semifinals and fell to Bellarmine in the title game, will not go to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, Jacksonville State, the league’s regular season champ, will serve as the representative.
Horizon League: Northern KY loses heartbreaker
The Norsemen of Northern Kentucky led by 16 midway thru the second half and were cruising to their fourth Horizon League title in the last six seasons. Wright State blitzed NKU with a 15-0 run to cut it to 57-55 with just over eight minutes to play. According to one of the announcers, “a spirit took over and possessed them in this second half.”
Top 10
- 1
Danny Stutsman Jersey Theft
OU star's Senior Day jersey stolen
- 2
SEC fines OU twice
Sooners get double punishment
- 3
Big 12 title game
Scenarios illustrate complexity
- 4Hot
AP Poll Shakeup
New Top 25 shows Saturday carnage
- 5
Auburn punished
SEC fines Tigers for field storming
Not sure there was paranormal foul play, but WSU’s Tanner Holden, Grant Brasile and Trey Calvin certainly played like men possessed. They combined for 58 in the game as Calvin nailed a free-throw line jumper with 15 seconds left to take a 72-71 lead that also wound up as the final score.
Northern Kentucky led by double figures for much of the game and got a world-beating performance out of Lexington-native Marques Warrick — who also nailed a contested three right before Calvin’s jumper to take the lead with 15 seconds left. Heartbreak for the Norse meant euphoria for the Wright State Raiders.
Why Wright State can pull an upset: Wright State is one of the most consistent mid-major powers of the last half-decade. They won the previous three Horizon League regular season titles but failed to win the tournament. This year, they disappointed with a fourth-place finish but rallied to finally win the title for the first time since 2018. Five years in a row with a trophy for the Raiders. Coach Scott Nagy runs a well-oiled vessel.
CAA: Delaware upsets its way to NCAA bid
Delaware finished with a bottom-half seed in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament, but that mattered to the Blue Hens nary a bit. They upended (4) Drexler, (1) Towson and then (2) UNC-Wilmington in consecutive days to earn their second NCAA Tournament appearance of the century.
Why Delaware can pull an upset: Their run may be surprising but Delaware is hardly untalented. The leading scorer is directly related to Jameer Nelson. As in: his name is Jameer Nelson Jr. (probably makes most of you feel old). He’s flanked by 3,000 combined points between his fellow guard duo and a fifth-year Villanova transfer. Blue Hens are a likely 13 or 14-seed that pack a punch.
WCC: Gonzaga overcomes valiant Saint Mary’s effort
Saint Mary’s was the only team to offer Gonzaga any resistance whatsoever in WCC play. Of course, the Gaels were the only conference foe to topple the Zags and even played them tough in the WCC title when they simply had no business hanging in from an athleticism standpoint. Credit coach Randy Bennett for having this group of hipster-looking ballers comfortably in the tourney field. Their name will appear in bold as an at-large team in the manifest now that their season is done until next week.
Summit League: Dakota State bowl
One of the Dakota State’s has won at least a share of the Summit League every year since 2013. So meeting once again in the conference championship is an appropriate result. This season, SOUTH Dakota State is the superior power in the Summit. The Jackrabbits bombarded league competition with an 18-0 regular season record and only four wins by less than 10 points. Including their conference tourney run, SDSU rides a 21-game winning streak into the NCAA Tournament. Narrowly edges Murray State for the longest in the nation.
Why SDSU can pull an upset: Etch it in stone: 12-seed. A 12-seed with a 30-4 record, 21-game winning streak and nuclear shooting. The Jackrabbits lead the nation in three-point percentage at 44.3%. That’s 4.2% higher than the second-best team! The difference between SDSU and second place is the same as the second and 63rd-best three-point shooting teams. These dudes are historic from beyond the arc. And also have two 16-per-game scorers and the best effective field goal percentage (60.1%) in the country. Pristine offense from Eric Henderson’s unit.
NCAA Tournament Manifest
Movement on the manifest since yesterday:
- Added SIX conference champs (Delaware, Bryant, Gonzaga, Jacksonville State, South Dakota State, Wright State)
- Saint Mary’s moved from “lock” to “at-large” after losing in WCC title
- Updated sheets for bubble teams
Indulge yourselves. And remember some rules:
- 32 Conference champs + 36 at-large bids = 68 total teams
- Bold teams are IN tournament and DONE with season
- Locks move to at-large once/if they lose in conference tournament
Discuss This Article
Comments have moved.
Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.
KSBoard