College Basketball Championship Week: Northern Iowa, Florida Gulf Coast, UNC-Asheville join the party

Yesterday's Men's Results

Northern Iowa built a 17-point lead with 3:00 to go in the first half of the Missouri Valley championship game, and it seemed like the rout was on. But D.J. Balentine, who'd pretty much carried Evansville to the CIT championship last year on his own back, suddenly woke up. Balentine's layup with 2:02 to go gave Evansville the lead for the first time since making the first basket of the afternoon. The Panthers retook the lead, and Balentine tied it up again with another layup at :25.

And then, with everyone at home hoping for overtime, the ghost of Ali Farokhmanesh suddenly appeared in Saint Louis. Wes Washpun lofted a jumper at the buzzer. When it found net, Evansville's thrilling comeback had been for naught and Northern Iowa had repeated as Valley champs.

In the Atlantic Sun, Florida Gulf Coast trailed by five at the half and slowly closed the gap, eventually forcing overtime. That was bad news for Stetson, playing their final game of the season regardless of the result due to APR penalties; their best player, Brian Pegg, had fouled out. And despite that, it still took a Zach Johnson block to keep Stetson from scoring the potential game-winner with nine seconds to go. End result: Dunk City's back in the dance, and North Florida's dreams of returning on a technicality were dashed.

Meanwhile, UNC-Asheville, the four seed had little trouble forging an upset over second-seeded Winthrop in the Big South final. In the Summit, a pair of small upsets alters the complexion of the semifinals, but not that much. In the Horizon, Detroit was undone by going 0-11 from three-point land, falling to Wright State by 10. And in the MAAC, we get what we wanted, more on which in a moment. Yesterday's results, with recaps from our sister SB Nation sites in green text.

Yesterday's Women's Results

Your intrepid aggregator happened to be trenching into a 22-ounce ribeye, with only one television in his direct view, and it was tuned to ESPNU for the American semifinals for some reason. What did he see? UConn beating Tulane 28-5 after one quarter. And then 50-14 at the half. And then 72-22 after three quarters. After that, Geno Auriemma does what he's accused of never doing, and called off the Huskies; that let Tulane win the fourth quarter. Of course, facing a 50-point deficit, the Green Wave only succeeded in shaving it to... 47.

Can we all agree that UConn is playing an entirely different game than the rest of the country?

Oregon State built a 31-point lead over UCLA, then hung on for dear life to win their first Pac-12 title ever. In the process, Ruth Hamblin -- who also scored a game-high 23 points -- recorded three blocked shots, giving her the career Pac-12 record at 405.

Besides the Beavers, Notre Dame, George Washington, Maryland, South Carolina, and Chattanooga all joined Belmont in the NCAA field.

Seventh-seeded Creighton had beaten the two-seed Villanova twice in the regular season. The Bluejays obviously have Nova's number, as they made it a clean sweep yesterday. That, and more, follow in the full results:

Today's Men's Schedule

Three finals are on tap today, all being 1 vs 2 matches, as the Colonial and SoCon settle matters. But the big one tonight is in the MAAC, where we get round three of the heated Monmouth-Iona series. The game itself might go any direction, but it's safe to assume that one way or another this one will be worth watching.

The MAC and MEAC get underway tonight, on your actual television thingy there's Horizon and WCC action, and the America East and Summit proceed apace. Full schedule:

Today's Women's Schedule

With most of the big conferences cleared out of the way, the women's schedule starts looking a lot like last week's men's schedule. But there is still some huge action to be dealt with tonight as the American and Big 12 wrap things up (as does the MAAC). The Big Sky, MAC, MEAC, and Mountain West all get underway as well.