1. With its victory over North Texas in the Sun Belt Tournament Championship game, Western Kentucky is taking its 15-18 record to the NCAA Tournament. What a run for the Hilltoppers. This is going to be a valuabe experience for a team with its best basketball ahead of it. There's only one senior on the roster, and I expect WKU freshmen George Fant and Derrick Gordon to have the Hilltoppers in contention for a NCAA bid for the next three years.
2. While I was pulling for the Hilltoppers, it would have been a lot of fun to watch North Texas freshman Tony Mitchell competing against top-flight talent in the NCAA Tourney. The 6-8, 235-pound Mitchell was supposed to attend Missouri but enrolled at North Texas after being declared an academic nonqualifier. (Just imagine how scary Mizzou would be with Mitchell in its lineup.) He became eligible for the Mean Green (yes, that's UNT's nickname) after the conclusion of the fall semester. As you may recall, Mitchell was a consensus top-20 high school senior. NBA scouts have compared him to both Dominique Wilkins and Shawn Marion. He has a 41-inch vertical and a 7-4 wingspan. Oh, and he shoots better than 43 percent from beyond the arc. He's actually North Texas' most accurate 3-point shooter. And just so you don't think he's a big guy that spends too much time hanging out on the perimeter, he also averages a double-double (14 and 10) and blocks more than 3 shots per contest. If he decides to come out this year, I think he's a first-round lock and borderline lottery pick. He looked like a pro tonight against Western Kentucky.
3. Speaking of the Sun Belt, I hate it that we're not going to have the chance to see Middle Tennessee in the Dance. The Blue Raiders made noise back in November when they crushed UCLA by 20 on the road (back when we thought UCLA was good). MTU finished the season 25-6 with a 14-2 conference record. They entered the conference tourney as the prohibitive favorite but inexplicably fell to lowly Arkansas State. An at-large bid is a long-shot at this point, which is a shame because this is a good team led by a very talented player - 6-9 senior forward LaRon Dendy.
4. RBP joins writers around the blogosphere in what amounts to seemingly universal disappointment that Iona will not be participating in the NCAA Tourney. For those of you who have not been keeping up with MAAC hoops this year, the Gaels finished 15-3 in conference and 25-7 overall. In the non-conference portion of its schedule, Iona picked up a double overtime home win over St. Joseph's and a 26-point neutral court victory over Maryland. A season opening loss by one point to Purdue on a neutral court has come back to bite the Gaels, as an at-large bid appears to be out of reach. Iona is the nation's highest scoring team, averaging 83.3 points per contest - a full point ahead of second place North Carolina. The Gaels' potent offense features senior point guard Scott Machado, a Wooden Award finalist who leads the nation in assists at 9.9 per game, Arizona transfer Lamont "MoMo" Jones, who is the Gaels' second leading scorer at 16.0 points per game, and senior forward Mike Glover, who averages 18 and 9 for Tim Cluess' squad.
5. While the most intriguing mid-major on the offensive side of the ball isn't going to be invited to the Dance, there's still hope for the most exciting mid-major on the defensive end - Ohio University. The Bobcats force 17.8 turnovers per game - good for 2nd best in the country - and only 0.2 off the pace of NCAA leader Texas-Arlington. Ohio has the 3 seed in the MAC Tourney and split its season series against top-seeded Akron. In what seems to have been a banner year in terms of the sheer number of extremely stout defenses in the power six conferences (Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Louisville, Syracuse, Kentucky, Virginia, and Florida State come to mind), I would love to see one of the mid-majors' best go up against the traditional powers.
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