The Little Dances: Championship Week Day 7 Preview

The NCAA Tournament doesn’t get going until March 19, but for the real college hoops fans, the days leading up to Selection Sunday is when the madness really begins. Over the next two weeks teams will fight for the postseason lives. Bubbles will burst and tickets will be punched, and Cinderellas will be born. This is the real March Madness.

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Here’s what to watch for on Monday.

Game of the Night: Gonzaga vs. Saint Mary’s
The Gonzaga Bulldogs are the No. 1 team in the nation, but the Gaels are the reigning WCC Tournament Champions. Gonzaga holds two victories over the Saint Mary’s this season, but they still have to bury the memory of their overtime loss to the Gaels in last season’s title game. The Gaels have lost just twice since Christmas, both defeats coming at the hands of their bitter rivals. This is undoubtedly the best west coast rivalry of the past half-decade, and it only gets better when the two teams face-off for the tournament championship.

- Watch this too: Charleston vs. Davidson
The two most prestigious basketball programs in the SoCon lock horns in the postseason tournament championship tonight. These two teams have not faced off in the SoCon championship game since Steph Curry’s freshman campaign in 2007. Davidson is riding a 16-game win streak and has not lost since the second week of January. Charleston will have a tough task in defending Davidson’s dominant frontcourt made up of preseason Player of the Year De’Mon Brooks and recently named 2013 Player of the Year Jake Cohen. Cougars’ big-man Adjehi Baru will need to have a career-night in order to give Charleston a chance at punching their ticket to the Big Dance.

Player to Watch: Nate Wolters, South Dakota State
Well duh. The Jackrabbits’ senior sharpshooter was the only play in the country to score 50+ points in single game this season, when he scored 53 points against the very same IPFW team he faces tonight. In fact, in the two regular season meetings against the Mastadons, Wolters scored a combined 82 points on 27-for-46 shooting. Wolters is in the midst of a “mild cold streak”, having only made more than seven field goals in two of his last six games. But Nate Wolters’ bad days are better than most people’s good days.

Miscellaneous Madness:
Only three times since 2006 has the top seed in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament made it to the championship game. In fact, in the past three years, no seed higher than a No.4-seed has advanced to the tournament championship game. Tee trend continues in 2013, as No. 4-seed Florida International, fresh off their upset over top seed Middle Tennessee, face No. 6-seed Western Kentucky, the defending tournament champions. Last season, the Hilltoppers fired their coach mid-season only to run the tables in the postseason as a No. 8-seed and earn a trip to the Big Dance despite carrying a losing record.

Saturday Schedule:

Colonial Athletic Association Finals
7 p.m. – James Madison (3) vs. Northeastern (1) – NBCSN

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Finals
9 p.m. – Manhattan (6) vs. Iona (4) ESPN2

Mid-American Conference First Round
7 p.m. – Miami-OH (11) vs. Bowling Green State (6)
7 p.m. – Northern Illinois (10) vs. Eastern Michigan (7)
7 p.m. – Central Michigan (9) vs. Buffalo (8)

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference First Round
6:30 p.m. – Maryland-Eastern Shore (13) vs. Savannah State (4)
9 p.m. – South Carolina State (12) vs. Morgan State (5)

Southern Conference Finals
7 p.m. – Charleston (3) vs. Davidson (1) ESPN2

Summit League Semifinals
7 p.m. – IPFW (5) vs. South Dakota State (1)
9:30 p.m. – North Dakota State (3) vs. Western Illinois (2)

Sun Belt Conference Finals
7 p.m. – Western Kentucky (6) vs. Florida International (4) ESPN

West Coast Conference Finals
9 p.m. – Saint Mary’s (2) vs. Gonzaga (1) ESPN

You can find Troy Machir on Twitter at @TroyMachir