Welcome to the Madness: ETSU Buccanneers

The 3rd spot in the NCAA tournament has been claimed by Atlantic Sun champion East Tennessee State Buccanneers. Let's take a look at their season.

ETSU Bucs
Record: (20-14 Overall, 13-7 Conference)
Conference: Atlantic Sun
Regular Season Finish: 5th Place
The Bucs repeat as tournament champions this year after a first round loss to 1 seeded Pittsburgh last year. The Bucs are back for more and will look to try and advance past the first round. The Bucs also have 3 players who average double figures in points per game.

Players to Watch:
G Tommy Hubbard - 14.1 PPG, 8.3 RPG
G Micah Williams - 12.5 PPG
G Justin Tubbs - 11.8 PPG

ETSU should look to be a pretty low seed with their 20-14 record, and most likely will lose in the first round. Congrats on making the NCAA's!

Welcome to the Madness: Winthrop Eagles

After another conference champion is crowned, there are now two teams locked into the NCAA tournament field. The Winthrop Eagles have joined the dance, so let's take a look at their season.

Winthrop Eagles
Record: (19-13 Overall, 12-6 Conference)
Conference: Big South
The Eagles return to the tournament after missing it last year after a 4 year streak of making the NCAA's. Winthrop beat Coastal Carolina, the favorites by far who led the conference this season. The Eagles resume isn't that good, with no major wins against anybody of note. Expect them to get a 13 or 14 seed on Selection Sunday.

Player to Watch:
G Reggie Middleton - 10.4 PPG, 3.0 APG

Congrats to the Winthrop Eagles on making the 2010 NCAA Tournament! Mercer and ETSU are in the second half of their championship game for the A-Sun at the time of posting, so a post should come up soon about that game.

Welcome to the Madness: Cornell Big Red

With many conferences coming to a close, I'm going to try to get through every automatic bid for conference champions. The first of 31 has clinched their spot in the NCAA tournament, so let's take a look at Cornell's season.

Cornell Big Red
Record: (26-4 Overall, 12-1 Conference)
Conference: Ivy League
The Big Red came into the season projected as the Ivy League champs, which usually doesn't give a team national buzz. But the Big Red did exactly that with probably the most impressive loss of any non-power conference school. They went into Allen Fieldhouse and took on the #1 Kansas Jayhawks and were up by 4 with a minute left. Despiet leaving with a loss, Cornell came as close as anyone had to beating Kansas at home in 3 years. The Big Red did not break their stride getting into conference play, and was ranked in the top 25 at one point. Despite a surprise loss to Penn late in the year, the Big Red took down their main competition for first in the conference in Harvard and Princeton. The Big Red are definitely a Cinderella to watch in the tournament.

Player to watch:
F Ryan Wittman - 17.4 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 41.2 3PT%

After today's games, we will have three more teams being added to the tournament field with the Big South championship game (Winthrop-Coastal Carolina), Atlantic Sun (East Tennessee St-Mercer) and the Ohio Valley title game (Morehead St-Murray St). Check back later tonight or early tomorrow for posts about those champions.