March gladness

Good morning! Hope you haven’t gotten your fill of games yet this week. There are almost 50 conference tournament games happening today.

But first, let’s get you caught up on Wednesday’s action, plus a middle-of-the-night coaching move.

1. American, McNeese and Montana punch tickets

Three title games were played on Wednesday, sending three teams to the NCAA Tournament. Celebrations ensued.

Patriot — American 74, Navy 52: The Eagles are going dancing for the first time since 2014. It’s the fourth league title in school history and American was able to do it on its home court. Senior forward Matt Rogers tallied 25 points and won the tournament MOP. Sophomore guard Jordan Pennick, Navy’s second-leading scorer, was ejected in the first two minutes of the game. That wasn’t ideal for Navy’s chances, and in turn, American led the whole time. Navy beat American twice in the regular season. Revenge sure is sweet.

“Our players played their tails off today,” American coach Duane Simpkins said postgame. “They defended like this was their last game of their life. And that’s where we won the game — the defensive end.”

Southland — McNeese 63, Lamar 54: Will Wade took over McNeese two years ago. The Cowboys have dominated the Southland since and are going dancing for a second-straight season. McNeese led Lamar from start to finish behind 18 points from junior guard Quadir Copeland. The Cowboys will be on the 12-line per our bracket projection and will be a trendy pick to upset a 5-seed in the first round. McNeese has never won an NCAA Tournament game.

“We knew this was going to be a rock fight,” Will Wade said on After Dark. “First one to 60 wins these type games. Fortunately, we were able to crank out enough offense and our defense was really really good, particularly in the second half. We had really good communication, we forced shots that we wanted. We didn’t rebound as well as we needed to, but we were able to get it done.”

Big Sky — Montana 91, Northern Colorado 83: No. 2 Montana upset top-seeded Northern Colorado to claw back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years. The Grizzlies have now won the Big Sky tournament 12 times. This game was electric with each team shooting above 58%. But it was the Grizzlies’ historic shooting — 65.2% from the field and 7-of-11 from deep — that got them over the hump. Four players finished with 15+ points, led by senior guard Kai Johnson with 23 points. The Grizzlies are probably praying to avoid Michigan. The Wolverines have ended their season the last two times Montana made the NCAA Tournament in 2018 and 2019.

2. Bubble winners and losers

Conference tournament results will carry weight on Selection Sunday. Take a peek at our latest NCAA Tournament projection, then we’ll dissect bubble Wednesday’s winners and losers.

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