Never-Made-The-NCAA-Tournament Club, February 28, 2012

By Rodger Sherman Feb 28, 2012, 1:31pm CST

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Last night's first game of never-made-the-tourney action was, well, not much of a doozy, as High Point killed their fellow never-made-the-tourney brethren, Gardner-Webb 68-58 - hyphens - proooooooobably somewhat on account of the Runnin' Bulldogs shooting 5-for-32 from three. Much respect due to Gardner-Webb's Tashan Newsome, who led G-W in points, rebounds, assists, and steals with 21, 9, 3 and 3. Can't do it all himself, boys.

Anyway, only one game on the slate tonight, so let's get to it.

(all probabilities per Kenpom)

6:05 p.m. CST, Youngstown, OH, Horizon League Tournament: No. 6 Youngstown State Penguins (15-14, 10-8, kenpom ranking 168) vs. No. 7 Green Bay Phoenix (15-14, 10-8, kenpom ranking 173)

Our squad: Youngstown State

Youngstown State's chances of winning today: 66 percent

Youngstown State's chances of winning the tourney: 2.4 percent

Something Youngstown State has going for them: This is a preposterously close game - look, same conference record, same overall record, only separated by five on Kenpom ranks - but the Horizon League goes to home sites for the first round, and YSU won the tiebreaker. They split the season series, but I'd assume they won the tiebreak by virtue of their win was a 20-point blowout and their loss was by five.

Something Youngstown State has going against them: Since beating YSU on Valentine's Day, the Phoenix haven't - hasn't? - lost, rattling off five straight to enter the tourney after a 3-8 start to the conference season. In fact, they've won eight of their last ten after starting 1-7. Also, one of my books in an English class last quarter had a sticker telling me that it was from Youngstown State's student union bookstore and that I should resell it there, and it had a penguin on it, which I assume means Youngstown State has a massive issue with people buying books from their student union bookstore and reselling them for better prices at student bookstores across the midwest, leaving the Penguins bookless. They should look into this.

Reason to irrationally hate UW-Green Bay: Ummm.... the... Packers?

And now, a tribute to our fallen brethren:

Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs

Club members since: 2003

Felled by: High Point, 68-58, first round, Big South Tournament

Why they will be missed: Hyphens, sweet hyphens, the Runnin' Bulldogs ran directly into our hearts. They did both Gardner and Webb proud.

Great moments in Gardner-Webb basketball history: As pointed out yesterday in the comments, GDub - who I will not refer to as "GW" to avoid confusion with George Washington is most famous in basketball for upsetting Kentucky in 2007 and putting an early dark cloud over the Billy Gillispie era at UK. They're also known for a 2002 scandal where the president of the school removed an F from his star player's transcript just a few years before the transition to DI. I give them an A for effort.

The list is after the jump.

Alive:

Northwestern Wildcats, Big Ten

High Point Panthers, Big South

Youngstown State Penguins, Horizon

UC-Davis Aggies, Big West

Cal Poly Mustangs, Big West

UC-Riverside Highlanders, Big West

UC-Irvine Anteaters, Big West

Sacramento State Hornets, Big West

Grambling State Tigers, SWAC

Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks, MEAC