— NEC tournament
LIU 64, Wagner 56
Sharks are first team in the Field of 68; they’re playing Mercyhurst for the NEC title Tuesday, but Mercyhurst isn’t eligible to go to the NCAA’s yet, so LIU is in.
LIU’s coach is Rod Strickland, who played 17 years in the NBA, scoring 13.2 points/game.
LIU is the #29 team in the country in continuity, #347 in bench minutes. They’re 23-10, 17-3 since New Year’s Day.
— OVC tournament
Tennessee State 93, Morehead State 67
Tigers are the second team in the Field of 68.
Tennessee State is in the NCAA’s for first time since 1994; they’ve won six games in a row and nine of last ten games.
— Texas A&M 94, LSU 91, 3OT’s
LSU led 26-11 midway thru the first half.
Aggies were +12 in turnovers (10-22)
Texas A&M is 21-10, their 5th year in row with 20+ wins.
— Duquesne 79, Richmond 77
Duquesne was losing this game 40-10. Forty. to. ten.
This is the 4th-biggest comeback in the last 40 years.
Dukes snap a four-game losing skid, shooting 64.7% inside arc.
Richmond has lost 11 of its last 13 games.
— Marquette 68, UConn 62
UConn shot 3-24 on arc, turned ball over 16 times.
Huskies led by 7 late in the first half.
With the loss, St John’s gets the top seed in Big East tournament.
— Upsets of the Day:
North Dakota (+11.5) 67, St Thomas 66
Loyola Chi (+9.5) 68, George Washington 62
Marquette (+8.5) 68, UConn 62
Wisconsin (+8.5) 97, Purdue 93
Stanford (+8.5) 85, NC State 84
Oklahoma (+7.5) 88, Texas 85, OT
George Mason (+7.5) 86, Saint Louis 57
South Carolina (+7.5) 64, Ole Miss 61
Pitt (+6.5) 71, Syracuse 69, OT
— Wisconsin 97, Purdue 93
Only a 66-possession game; not much defense was played.
Badgers shot 18-34 on arc, scored 1.48 ppp.
Purdue is 6-7 in its last 13 games, after starting season 17-1.
Wisconsin is 13-4 in its last 17 games.
— Louisville 92, Miami 89
Louisville shot 69% inside arc, scored 1.43 ppp.
Cardinals outscored Miami 10-5 over last 2:33 of the game.
Miami is 9-4 in its last 13 games (losses by 2-1-3-3 points).
— Cal-Irvine 79, Cal-Davis 69, OT
Very bad beat if you took the Aggies +7.5.
Cal-Davis led 38-28 at halftime.
Anteaters were 19-27 on foul line, Cal-Davis 6-9
Over the last seven years, Cal-Irvine is 96-30 in Big West conference games, but only 4-5 in Big West tournament games. Anteaters haven’t made it to the NCAA’s since 2019, when they upset Kansas State as a #13-seed.
— WCC tournament
San Francisco 82, Portland 65
Game was 29-29 at halftime.
Dons 6-9 junior Fuchs scored 23 points, grabbed 16 rebounds.
USF advances to play Oregon State Sunday night.
— Famous birthdays, March 8th:
Susan Clark, 83
Jim Rice, 73
Buck Williams, 66
Lance McCullers Sr., 62
Kenny Smith, 61
Jason Elam, 56
Hines Ward, 50
Tommy Pham, 38
Robbie Hummel, 37
Kyle Allen, 30
— SoCon tournament:
Western Carolina 77, Mercer 73
Mercer led by 17 midway thru first half.
Western Carolina had 53-29 edge on boards.
Catamounts have won seven in a row after an 8-15 start; they play East Tennessee State in the SoCon semi-finals Sunday afternoon.
— MAAC tournament:
Siena 63, Mt St Mary’s 58
Saints led 35-21 at halftime, hung on for the win.
6-10 soph McEldon had 18 points, nine rebounds.
Other than McEldon, Siena was 6-28 inside the arc.
Siena advances to play Fairfield Sunday night.
Last five years, Siena was 0-5 in MAAC tourney, with all five losses by 6 or fewer points.
— Arkansas 88, Missouri 84 OT
Arkansas gets quality road win; their star Acuff didn’t play.
Mizzou led by 5 with 8:20 left in the game.
Razorbacks won 10 of their last 13 games.
— Vanderbilt 86, Tennessee 82
Vandy never trailed, led 32-22 at halftime.
Commodores have #30 eFG% offense, #50 eFG% defense.
These teams wound up in a 3-way tie for 4th in SEC, with Texas A&M.
— Sun Belt tournament:
Georgia Southern 96, Coastal Carolina 72
#10-seed Eagles win for fourth day in a row, scoring 88-80-94-96 points.
Georgia Southern was 12-29 on 3-point shots; they were 23-44 Friday.
Georgia Southern plays Marshall in the semi-finals Sunday night.
