Raphielle Johnson's Blog

Luke Harangody was a First Team All-Big East selection and it was an honor that many questioned this week due primarily to his knee injury. The senior played just eleven minutes in Saturday's regular season finale at Marquette and the question of many was whether or not his return would hamper the surging Irish in their quest for an NCAA Tournament bid. Well, you got your answer. Harangody came off the bench to score 20 points and grab 10 rebounds, essentially being the difference-maker in Notre Dame's 68-54 win over Seton Hall.

It's been a couple of years since the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament had this much attention. Charlotte, Dayton and Rhode Island all hosted games and needed to move on to Atlantic City in order to maintain their hopes of getting into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large. But while the Rams took care of business by beating Saint Joseph's 87-76 and Dayton beating George Washington 70-60, the 49ers weren't as fortunate, falling to an opponent you have to beat if you're to make a solid case to the selection committee. 

Tuesday's action was supposed to focus primarily on bubble teams USF and Seton Hall. But at the end of the afternoon session all anyone could talk about is the nosedive that Jim Calhoun's Connecticut Huskies completed with a 73-51 beating at the hands of St. John's. And the issue wasn't the fact that they lost; they were out-worked, out-toughed; whatever aspect of the game you can find the Red Storm dominated it. You hate to get to the point where you question the heart of a team but that would be appropriate for what took place in the second game of the day.

"They [St.

Wednesday is the day where the final days before Selection Sunday begin to get ever more hectic. The Big 12 and Conference USA both begin play with four first round matchup, and while the teams set to represent the Big 12 in the NCAA Tournament appear to be set in stone the same can't be said for C-USA. On the "clock" Wednesday is none other than Tulsa, who be playing the tournament in their city even though the Bok Center is not their home floor. Rice is the opening round opponent, a team that they must be to simply retain hope of being a part of the discussion.

The 16-team brawl that is the Big East Tournament begins on Tuesday with teams nine through sixteen playing on the opening day. Similar to last season there are bubble teams playing with the hope of gaining the opportunity to bolster their resumes against stiffer competition later in the week. You've got the bubble angle for USF and Seton Hall, two teams who may be closer to working their way into the Tournament than anticipated a couple of weeks ago as the nation concentrated on Connecticut.

Speaking of the reeling Huskies, what will they bring to the table against St. John's?

All the talk leading up to the West Coast Conference final between Gonzaga and Saint Mary's focused on how much the Gaels would need this victory. Anywhere from "they're fine without it" to "they're in trouble with a loss" depending on which bracketologist you happened to be listening to at that particular moment. But at the end of the game at Orleans Arena there was a rather emphatic message from Randy Bennett's team: 

Save that bubble talk for someone else. 

For all the bubble teams not playing on Tuesday night there's really just one game they need to pay full attention to: the Horizon League final between host Butler and second-seeded Wright State. Point blank: if the Raiders find a way to knock off Gordon Hayward and company at Hinkle Fieldhouse one more bid goes off the board (if you're of the thinking that Saint Mary's wasn't a lock themselves before Monday night).

Northern Iowa became the fifth team to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, beating Wichita State 67-52 to win their second consecutive Missouri Valley Conference tournament title. Trailing by three at the half, Ben Jacobson's Panthers outscored the Shockers 39-21 in the second half, holding Wichita State to 23.1% shooting in the final twenty minutes. Kwadzo Ahelegbe led the way with 24 points while Jake Koch added 13 off the bench. Koch's performance highlighted a solid effort from the UNI reserves, who helped spark the decisive 23-3 run.

Cornell got things started on Friday night with their third consecutive NCAA Tournament berth and three more guaranteed themselves spots in the Field of 65 on Saturday. In the most anticipated of the three finals it was Murray State picking up their 30th win of the season, dethroning defending Ohio Valley champ Morehead State 62-51 in Nashville. Isaiah Canaan scored 16 points off the bench to lead the way for Billy Kennedy's team, who will represent the OVC in the Big Dance for the first time since 2006.

Before getting into Saturday's action it's only right to salute the first team guaranteed a spot in the Field of 65. Cornell clinched their third consecutive Ivy League title on Friday night, winning at Brown by the final score of 95-76. The Big Red knocked down twenty (yes, twenty) three-pointers in the win, which is the fifteenth of the season away from home (a school record). All five scorers reached double figures with Jon Jacques leading the way with 20 points. The Big Red also limited the Bears to 30% shooting from the field and 29 points in the second half.