- The Field of 68 Daily
- Posts
- First at the dance
First at the dance
Tennessee State, LIU claim NCAA Tournament berths in the field of 68. Plus: A full rundown of what mattered on the bubble, UConn's upsetting day, Duke handles UNC, what to watch in Sunday's title games, and much more.
Mike Miller
March 08, 2026
Good morning! Hope your Saturday was as good as Nolan Smith’s.
In partnership with D1.relocation
1. Tennessee State, LIU first to punch dance tickets
Tennessee State’s offense isn’t built around shooting a lot of 3-pointers. So why not switch it up for March?
The Tigers hit 16-of-26 shots from deep during a 93-67 win against Morehead State in the Ohio Valley championship game on Saturday night, clinching the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 1994.
Tennessee State (23-9, 15-5 in OVC) was the league’s regular-season champ as well. It ranks 346th in 3-point rate; only 30.7% of its shots come from beyond the arc. But it got hot early — 12-of-16 in the first half — and didn’t really cool off, setting an OVC title game scoring record. (The shooting was similar to an earlier win vs. Morehead.)
It’s quite the start for first-year coach Nolan Smith, who wasn’t even hired at Tennessee State until mid-July.
"This is everything. This means more than when I was a player, 100 percent," Smith said.
"It really does mean more to me than as a player because this is what life is all about. This is what basketball is about, giving back, and becoming a coach means giving back to these young men."
Meanwhile, the Northeast Conference championship isn’t until today, but LIU already locked up its automatic bid by virtue of winning its NEC semifinal game AND Mercyhurst’s win over Stonehill.
Mercyhurst is still in the process of transitioning to D-I, making it ineligible for the Big Dance. So regular-season champ LIU also celebrated the automatic bid, its first since 2018.
It’ll play the championship game today. Not interested in the anti-climatic scene? There are four other automatic berths on the line today. Read on.
2. UConn’s upsetting day + more results
Dan Hurley’s had better Saturdays.
The UConn coach was ejected in the final second of a 68-62 loss at Marquette, a defeat that not only cost the No. 4 Huskies a share of the Big East title (that’s all St. John’s now), but possibly a shot at an NCAA Tournament 1 seed.
