Conference USA Title Game

That was the result of the Big East Semifinals, as Cincinnati held off Syracuse; handing the Orange their second loss of the year, while Louisville romped Notre Dame in the other. For the Bearcats, this is their first Big East title game, while Louisville is in it's third in four years. We'll see for sure if the Cardinals will maintain their dominance of MSG tomorrow night, or if Yancy Gates, Sean Kilpatrick and Cashmere Wright lead Cincinnati to their first title.

Mixed Day In The Bubble

Today was also a chance to see if bubble teams would take advantage of opportunities or fail at them like Thursday. Xavier probably locked up a bid and eliminated Dayton in the process with their comeback win over the Flyers. N.C. State, while maybe not locked in a berth, put themselves in good shape after defeating Virginia. Meanwhile, you saw bubble teams Miami-FL, Tennessee and St. Joseph's go into shaky ground (in the case of St. Joes, they are probably out) with losses.

The bigger story was the number of high seeds losing, opening up potential bubble thieves. Temple lost to UMass, setting up a matchup with St. Bonaventure; neither of whom will make it unless they win the A-10 tourney. That makes the winner of Saint Louis-Xavier a team the bubble world will be strongly pulling for. America's favorite conference, the Pac-12, saw California go down to Colorado, which now essentially guaranteeing a second bid for either the Buffaloes or Arizona. Finally, in Conference USA, their real title game features Memphis against Marshall, a game in Memphis which the Tigers must win for all bubble teams. Will any of these teams lose? A better question; will Nevada still be in line for an at-large bid after losing today? And lastly, is Long Beach St in the tourney as of right now, win or lose tomorrow? These are questions to be answered Saturday and you will see me put together a bracket for the first time.