Championship Week Day 5 Rewind: Saturday Sets Stage For Selection Sunday

Daily rewind for Day 5 of Championship Week and look ahead at Sunday’s action.

We all know it’s Championship Week, and the last of the conference tournaments will wrap up Sunday, but Championship Day was unquestionably Saturday. It was a day that might not have had the drama of Friday but certainly taught us some lessons.

What we learned Saturday

Kansas put any doubt that it should be the top overall seed to bed when it put an 81-71 beating on West Virginia to win the Big 12 Tournament. The Jayhawks actually trailed this game at halftime before outscoring WVU 48-37 after the break to roll to the win. Devonte Graham dropped 27 points on the Mountaineers, and KU as a whole just dominated West Virginia down the stretch.

WVU prides itself on being a defensive-minded team, but that meant nothing to Kansas. Scoring nearly half a hundred in 20 minutes in the biggest game of the year to date showed the Jayhawks are ready for the Big Dance.

If iron sharpens iron, count Michigan State among the teams that are razor sharp right now. The Spartans built an eight-point lead on Maryland and were held to just 23 points after halftime, but MSU held on for the win to head to the Big Ten Tournament title game. MSU turned up the defense on a talented Terrapins team, holding Maryland to 33.3 percent shooting and harassed guards Melo Trimble and Rasheed Sulaimon into a combined 5-of-25 night from the floor.

Tom Izzo knows how to pace his team to have it playing its best when the Big Dance rolls around, and this year the Spartans are going to be very, very dangerous.

Not looking so dangerous is Villanova, which fell to Seton Hall in the Big East Tournament final. It’s not that Seton Hall isn’t good. The Pirates are very good, and they were headed to the NCAA Tourney regardless. Still, ‘Nova was playing to prove its doubters wrong, to show that it was deserving of a No. 1 seed.

It’s not going to happen now, not when the Wildcats fell behind by 11 in the first 20 minutes and could execute on the final possession to get a decent shot off to try to tie or win the game.

Villanova showed some signs of being in a groove, but now we’re not so sure.

North Carolina made its case for a No. 1 seed by knocking off Virginia, a team that is actually ranked higher than the Tar Heels even if they weren’t the favorite in this one. UNC’s 61-57 win showed the team’s ability to lock down on defense and beat the Cavaliers at their own game, and North Carolina adjusted masterfully when UVA simply wouldn’t let the game speed up.

Roy Williams’ team is playing with a lot of confidence right now, and no one will want to face UNC in the Big Dance.

Oregon’s hammering of Utah in the Pac-12 tournament final should serve notice that the Ducks are as focused as ever. Most impressive was Oregon’s effort to shut down Utes center Jakob Poeltl, who managed to take just six shots in an 88-57 loss. Poeltl was held to just four rebounds, and he was harassed into five turnovers.

The defensive effort by Dana Altman’s crew raised some eyebrows and proved the Ducks have what it takes to make a deep run at the Dance.

Dayton continued its slide by falling to Saint Joseph’s 82-79 in the semifinal of the Atlantic 10 Tournament, and it’s going to hurt the Flyers when the bracket is announced. The loss gave Dayton its fourth defeat in its last eight games, and even though the Selection Committee looks at an entire body of work, the Flyers’ slide is going to send the team farther away from home than it would have been a couple weeks ago when the brackets are revealed.

San Diego State wasn’t awful vs. Fresno State, but the Aztecs’ 68-63 loss in the Mountain West Tournament final not only leaves the team sweating on Selection Sunday but also kills any kind of momentum the team might have. The loss wasn’t exactly shocking—the two teams split during the regular season—but for a team looking for respect, scoring just 27 points in the second half and shooting 23.1 percent from 3-point range overall won’t do anything to make people think SDSU is ready for prime time.

What to watch for Sunday

The season has been building to Selection Sunday, and we’re going to be blessed with some huge games on the final day before the Big Dance.

For instance, the Kentucky-Texas A&M battle at 1 p.m. ET for the SEC Tournament title is exactly what both teams need to get ready for the NCAAs. UK has been searching for respect all season, and winning the conference tournament will make the Wildcats feel dangerous next week. Texas A&M, meanwhile, rolled LSU Saturday, and it needs to be challenged to keep it sharp.

Be sure to check out Louisiana Monroe vs. Arkansas-Little Rock in the Sun Belt Conference title game at 1 p.m. ET. No, these aren’t marquee teams, and neither will be cutting down the nets in Houston, but this one is a story of a solid ULM team looking to cap off an already successful season by reaching the Big Dance. To get there, it will have to go through a UALR team that is very good and sits at 28-4 on the year. The Trojans have an outside chance of getting an at-large bid, but for all practical purposes, it’s a win-or-go-home situation for both teams. This one should be intense.

Over in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, Memphis hopes to cap its hot weekend by beating Connecticut and earning an unexpected trip to the NCAA Tournament. Memphis is just 19-14 overall and 8-10 in the American this year, and without a win here, it will be packing up and heading for the NIT. UConn hopes to find its stride, and it will have to work hard defensively to slow a Tigers team that has been rolling teams of late.