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This is the final NCAA Tournament Bracketology projection prior to the selection committee's decisions. As always, the field below is not who I think deserves to be in, but simply a prediction of what the committee would do as things stand.

 

Few people thought it could be done: winning five games in five days had never happened in the history of conference tournaments, and no team in the history of the expanded Big East Championship had gone from playing on Tuesday to the tile game. That all changed when Preston Knowles' attempt to tie the game at the buzzer hit the back iron, giving Connecticut the 69-66 win and their seventh Big East Championship title (first since 2004). MVP Kemba Walker scored 19 points, making the game-winning play on an assist after scoring a tournament-record 130 points through five games.

The day before Selection Sunday is finally here, which means that a number of conferences will determine their winners throughout the course of the day. Thirteen automatic bids are up for grabs and a 14th, the battle between South Dakota and North Dakota in the Great West, will be for an automatic bid in the College Insider Tournament. The Big 12 and Big East title games may receive a great deal of attention (and rightfully so), but the first meeting between teams with 30 victories will take place in the Mountain West final.

It's almost become an annual occurrence in college basketball: Seth Greenberg's Virginia Tech Hokies in their customary spot on the bubble. And they looked to be headed in that direction tonight against Florida State in the final quarterfinal of the night in Greensboro, trailing 27-19 at the half and shooting a brutal 17.9% from the field. The Seminoles outscored Virginia Tech 16-6 in the paint and 14-7 in bench points in the first half, and guards Malcolm Delaney and Erick Green combined to shoot 1-for-15.

The NCAA Tournament field is now up to seven confirmed members thanks to Monday's results. The two games with the bigger impact on who fills out the field from an at-large standpoint were the CAA and West Coast title games. Out in Las Vegas, Gonzaga regained the crown by beating Saint Mary's behind a balanced effort that saw four players score in double figures. Steven Gray, who had to leave the game in the first half to receive stitches for a cut above his left eye, scored 15 and Robert Sacre added 12 points and eight rebounds (knocking down some crucial free throws late as well).

After Indiana State became the fourth team to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 60-56 win over Missouri State in the MVC final, the pace begins to pick up with four more bids on the line tonight. The two biggest games with regards to the field of 68 are likely the CAA and WCC finals, with the possibility of a bid "thief" lurking in the former and a little confusion in terms of whether or not the two finalists have done enough to merit at-large bids in the latter.

With three NCAA Tournament tickets assured of being punched (that number becomes four if Princeton wins at Harvard in a crucial Ivy League tilt), it makes sense to touch on each of those games as opposed to the usual daily preview. The title game in the Atlantic Sun provides a matchup of the prohibitive favorite taking on the underdog, a storyline that usually doesn't come into play for another two weeks.

There was the question about how BYU would get along without the suspended Brandon Davies, who was their third-leading scorer and leading rebounder before his dismissal. But while the early returns certainly don't look good, keep in mind the fact that New Mexico beat BYU in their first meeting with Davies on the floor. But they weren't beaten on the boards in that contest as they were tonight, as the Lobos out-rebounded BYU 45-29 on their way to an impressive 82-64 win at the Marriott Center.