Never-Made-the-Tourney Club: March 7

Wednesday's never-made-the-tourney action

Atlantic Sun Tournament

In a Never-Made-The-Tourney deathfight, FGCU beat North Florida behind 22 points from Chase Fieler. We'll miss North Florida, or maybe we won't. Every team in this conference has never made the tourney.

Lipscomb's Never-Made-The-Tourney hopes were slim as they headed up against A-Sun favorites Mercer, and sure enough, the Bison were SMASHED 82-48 by Mercer, committing 18 turnovers and hitting 17 shots.

OVC Tournament

The Skyhawks got the score to 48-46 against Morehead State, but they're gonna have to wait another year to make it. In other news, Tennessee-Martin and Morehead State have the same logo.

Patriot League

ARMY, SON! The Black Knights are just two wins away from their first NCAA bid after winning 65-44 over American, who did the true American thing by losing. Unfortunately, next up is No. 1 Bucknell, and that game won't be at home.

NEC Tournament

We only bring bad news from the NEC: St. Francis got destroyed, 75-57 by Robert Morris - admittedly, a pretty high scoring game between a long-dead religious figure and a 1700's financier. Good effort by the gunner from Assisi, all things told.

Meanwhile, the Mighty Quinn led by as much as nine in the second half, but lost to LIU-Brooklyn behind 30 from C.J. Garner in a 92-83 loss. The Northeast Conference is not home to good defense: four Quinnipiac players fouled out, and Ousmane Drame's 23 points - off the bench - was for naught.

Thursday's never-made-the-tourney action

Atlantic Sun Tournament

I wrote about these two games yesterday. They're today! They're also both on ESPN3, if you're a weirdo.

2:30 p.m., No. 3 Stetson vs. No. 6 East Tennessee State: The Hatters being the No. 2 seed means that them winning will face the winner of UNF-FGCU, which is more never-made-the-tourney on never-made-the-tourney crime. (Note: That's FGCU!) Damn, one of these teams better win the tourney.

8:30 p.m., No. 5 USC Upstate vs. No. 4 Jacksonville: GO UPSTATE! I mean, not like get arrested, you know what I mean

Big South Tournament

2 p.m., No. 6 Longwood vs. No. 2 VMI: The Lancers actually have a slightly better chance of winning today in their first game against UNC-Asheville. VMI, in case you're not a crazy basketball nerd like me, is well known for its AHHHAHAHHHHAAAA LET'S RUN UP AND DOWN THE COURT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND SHOOT AS MANY THREES AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE AHAHAHAHAHAAAAA strategy under Digger Baucum, which led to 93 and 94 points in their two regular season matchups against Kenpom No. 336 Longwood - wins by 33 and 14 points, respectively. So it isn't looking good for our favorite lengthy, arboreal squad, but we'll see - they've already done it once.

6 p.m., No. 2 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 3 Campbell: And now the Big South's Never-Made-The-Tourney higher seeds get to play. The Kenpom No. 183 Runnin' Bulldogs have a 78 percent chance of victory against the Kenpom No. 291 Camels, and hopefully they can get revenge for Campbell's OT win over Presbyterian. However, it's not certain: these teams already went to triple OT in a 93-81 win for Campbell.

8:30 p.m., No. 1 High Point vs. No. 5 Liberty: Did you guys notice this bracket has multiple teams with the same seed? Yeah, there's divisions. But either way, the Panthers are a one seed facing off against Jerry Falwell's school, but this one's not so one-sided, with High Point just 66 percent favorites.

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

Eulogies coming for all as I get around to them.