The 2017 NCAA Tournament field is now occupied by 11 teams who’ve earned automatic bids by way of conference championships. On Tuesday, four dance tickets were handed out. The most notable? Let’s go South Dakota State, which got 37 points and 12 rebounds from sophomore Mike Daum, a bruiser and a baller who we told you about heading into this season . Plus, this is the first year as a head coach for T.J. Otzelberger, who got his fourth-seeded Jackrabbits a 79-77 victory against third-seeded Omaha. The Summit League’s championship was the best of Tuesday night.
Daum should be on any list of “March Madness breakout stars,” which you’ll see and hear about soon enough. On the season, the NBA prospect is averaging 25 points and eight rebounds, and, yes, he is good enough to lift SDSU to an upset next week. But the Jackrabbits could well fall to the 16 line due to their 16 losses.
More auto-bid love came in the WCC, as Gonzaga completed its pre-tournament campaign as a 32-1 team, going 3-0 against Saint Mary’s this season and positioning themselves well for a No. 1 seed on Selection Sunday. Gonzaga won 74-56. In its three victories against the Gaels (who will likely be in either a 7/10 or an 8/9 game), GU won by an average of 17 points.
On the short list of coolest nicknames that will be in the field for this year’s NCAA Tournament: the Norse! Northern Kentucky, in its first year of eligibility, is going to the Big Dance. Fourth-seeded NKU beat 10th-seeded Milwaukee 59-53 to clinch the auto bid from the Horizon League. The program went Division I in 2012-13, and per NCAA rules, all schools that transfer up to D-I must play four full seasons of transition before being eligible in year No. 5.
So here’s NKU, slippers on, ready to shuffle in its first year of admissibility. That’s a cool story.
Elsewhere Tuesday night, the NEC designated its representative. Mount St. Mary’s won at home as the top seed in that league, beating No. 4 St. Francis (Pennsylvania) 71-61. While some mid-major leagues have oft-criticized ways of putting on their league brackets, the NEC does it right. The higher seed in that tournament always has the home-court advantage, and yet again, the top seed wins out, giving the NEC its best chance at pulling off a March Madness upset. The Mount was the best team in that conference this season, and now it gets to prove itself against one of the big boys next week.
All Automatic Bids
Summit League champion: The 18-16 Jackrabbits are dancing for the fourth time in their history, and the fourth time in six seasons. Look for South Dakota State to try to get the game into the 80s if it’s going to steal a victory in the Big Dance. This team is not defensive-minded.
West Coast Conference champion: Gonzaga has made 20 NCAA Tournament appearances, including 19 in a row. The Bulldogs have made the Elite Eight twice in their history, and will be expected to go at least that far this season. This team rates as the best one Mark Few has ever had, and Nigel Williams-Goss will, at worst, be a second-team All America selection. Gonzaga rates as the No. 1 team at KenPom.com
Horizon League champion: Northern Kentucky joins North Dakota State of 2009 as the only programs since the 1970s to transition to Division I and make the NCAAs in their first season of eligibility. The Norse went 24-10 this season. A 15-seed is the probable landing spot here. The last time a Horizon team won an NCAA tourney game: Butler, in 2011, when the Bulldogs made the national title game.
Northeast Conference champion: Mount St. Mary’s is in the dance for the fifth time in school history. The NEC has never had a team win a tournament game that wasn’t a 16-vs.-16 scenario. This year’s MSM team is probably going to be a 16 as well, but should dodge the First Four in Dayton. The Mount won a game as a 16 seed in 2008, over No. 16 Coppin State.
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion: Iona lost four of its final seven games in the regular season. But as the Gaels proved, it’s all about getting hot and peaking at the right time. They turned it on when it mattered most, winning by an average of nine points and closing it out against Siena.
Colonial Athletic Association champion: The Seahawks are the first back-to-back bid clinchers in the Colonial since Old Dominion did it in 2010 and 2011. Charleston tried to make a run late but ran out of time, as the 18-5 second-half run for UNC-Wilmington proved too much to overcome. C.J. Bryce led the way with 24 points and Seahawks fans stormed the court in celebration of the bid. “We’re not done yet,” Bryce told the crowd.
We’ll see about that.
Southern Conference champion: Under second-year coach Steve Forbes, ETSU ends its six-year tournament drought. Forbes went 61-6 as Northwest Florida’s coach, as Gary Parrish astutely pointed out. Now he’s 51-19 at ETSU after two seasons and is set to make his NCAA Tournament debut as a head coach. ETSU has a deep, veteran team that could just bust your bracket. You’ve been warned!
Atlantic Sun Conference champion: Florida Gulf Coast is going back to the NCAA Tournament for a second successive year after clinching the automatic bid on Sunday afternoon. The top-seeded Eagles scored a 77-61 victory in the A-Sun title game against No. 3 seed North Florida. FGCU, which built a reputation during a 2013 NCAA Tournament run with its high-flying dunks, slammed its way back into the Big Dance once again. The victory sends the Eagles to a third NCAA Tournament appearance since 2013, the year it fell short in the Sweet 16 to Florida.
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Missouri Valley Conference champion: Wichita State defeated Illinois State 71-51 in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament final, ending the debate about whether the Shockers deserved an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Big South Conference champion: Top seed Winthrop completed its tournament run with a resounding 76-59 victory No. 7 seed Campbell, which sends the Eagles into the field for the first time since 2010. It is the 10th time the program will hear its name called on Selection Sunday.
Ohio Valley Conference champion: Jacksonville State coach Ray Harper has had a high level of success everywhere he has coached, and he’s taking the Gamecocks to the Big Dance in his first season. It’s only the second 20-win season in program history, and it’s likely they end up as a 16 seed on Selection Sunday.
