Never-Made-The-Tourney, March 11

Sunday's never-made-the-tourney action

America East Tournament

Stony Brook was the No. 1 seed and needed only to beat Albany - a team they'd beaten twice - to make the championship. But alas! The tournament was hosted by the Great Danes, and Stony Brook - inexplicably forced to play a road game - took an L as Mike Black made a game-winner to give Albany a 61-59 win. That's two games for Albany, two game-winners against never-made-the-tourney squads, as you may remember they also downed Maine on Sam Rowley's jumper the day before. You know what? Screw the Great Danes. They're not that great, and they - probably - aren't from Denmark. I'm not impressed by their size or their stupid jowls. They're in my bottom 10 percent of dog breeds. Anyway, the America East has disintegrated from four never-made-the-tourney squads to zero in just two days, and we're done.

SoCon Tournament

Elon was also two wins away from a tourney spot, but the College of Charleston never gave the Phoenix a chance. They started off on an 11-0 run, held Elon to 19 points in the first half, led by as much as 13, and eventually won 68-60. Here's to Charleston becoming the second team with "Charleston" in the title to lose a conference championship game this March after Charleston Southern lost in the Big South the other day.

Summit League Tournament

IPFW did the easy part, dropping 91 points on Oakland thanks to 12-for-20 shooting from deep and 23 points from Frank Gaines. UMKC did not follow suit, allowing 50 second-half points to North Dakota State.

Monday's Never-Made-The-Tourney action

MAC Tournament (props to T.J. Doyle for photo choice there)

7 p.m., No. 8 Buffalo vs. No. 9 Central Michigan: Who will get to play top-seeded Akron? It's looking good for the Bulls, who blew out Central Michigan 91-73 in their only regular season meeting behind 21 points from Cameron Downing off the bench. Buffalo's one of the few teams from conferences you're sort of familiar with in the Never-Made-The-Tourney club and the only one in the MAC, so a few wins here would be okay.

MEAC Tournament

They have four Never-Made-The-Tourney teams and one super-weird bracket. It starts today, with two of those teams fighting to the death.

6:30 p.m.: No. 4 Savannah State vs. No. 13 Maryland-Eastern Shore: These teams met for the first time a few days ago, with Deven Williams dropping 21 for Savannah State in a comfortable 71-54 win. Shouldn't be a problem for

Summit League Tournament

We got two teams in the semis here, so 1-in-2 chance of making the tourney, right?

7 p.m.: No. 5 IPFW vs. No. 1 South Dakota State: Mastodons! Jackrabbits! It's SUMMIT LEAGUE BASKETBALL! The Mastodons haven't had much luck stopping Nate Wolters this season, giving up 29 points in their first loss, an 83-57 defeat, and 53 points - 53 points! - a season high amongst any player in Division I in the rematch, an 83-74 loss. They'll be looking to keep Wolters to like, 38 if they want to advance to the finals.

9:30 p.m.: No. 2 Western Illinois vs. No. 3 North Dakota State: I, um, sort of missed Western Illinois' first tourney matchup, where they beat fellow never-made-the-tourneyers South Dakota - KIYOAAAAAAAAAATS - by the slimmest of margins, 54-53 behind 21 from Ceola Clark III. Ceola had also been the guy in their matchup just days earlier dropping 27 on the Coyotes. Now, the Leathernecks face North Dakota State, a team they've beaten twice behind two hideous scorelines: 49-36, and 50-42. The Leathernecks are strictly anti-points, apparently.

Going dancing

Florida Gulf Coast Eagles

Back next year

Chicago State Cougars
NJIT Highlanders
Texas Pan-American Broncs
Utah Valley Wolverines
Presbyterian Blue Hose
Cal-State Bakersfield Roadrunners
Kennesaw State Owls
Sacred Heart Pioneers
Jacksonville State Gamecocks
SIU-Edwardsville Cougars
Lipscomb Bison
North Florida Ospreys
Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks

Quinnipiac Bobcats
St. Francis (NY) Terriers
Bryant Bulldogs
High Point Panthers
Longwood Lancers
Stetson Hatters
USC-Upstate Spartans
Garnder-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs
Youngstown State Penguins
The Citadel Bulldogs
William & Mary Tribe
Elon Phoenix
Stony Brook Seawolves
UMKC Kangaroos
South Dakota Coyotes

Eulogies for the dead when I get around to em.