It's hard to tell nationally who's safe at any given moment during a busy Championship Saturday, but if you win, there's no question.
If you lose, such as John Carroll did Friday night, even as the No. 1 team in the regional rankings, there's no guarantees. And while William Paterson and St. Mary's (Md.) held on in their conference championship games, St. John Fisher did not. The Cardinals, the top team in the last NCAA East Region rankings, fell to cross-street rival Nazareth as Corey McAdam sunk two free throws with seven seconds left to lift his team over its rival 65-64 and into the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years.
Other teams will be forced to the bubble, as was MIT early Saturday with a loss to Clark in the NEWMAC semifinals. Saturday's men's scoreboard with box scores and game recaps. And who's in the tournament so far? We have the list.
Selection show: Watch the NCAA's selection show, Monday, 10 a.m. ET
&&f-boxl&&St. Mary's kept its portion of the bubble safe, outlasting Wesley 80-76 in the Capital Athletic Conference title game behind 26 points and 12 rebounds from Sam Burum. William Paterson pulled away in the second half and won the automatic bid, defeating Richard Stockton 70-58 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference final. Richard Stockton will be waiting for Monday's bracket announcement, which you will be able to find here at D3hoops.com. Whitworth won its 24th consecutive game, wrapping up the Northwest Conference title 97-75.
The third time was the charm for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, which beat archrival Pomona-Pitzer just once in three meetings, but did it at the right time, winning 57-53 in the SCIAC title game. Hope defeated Calvin 78-74 to win the MIAA championship, while Wooster defeated Wittenberg 88-77 to win the NCAC, clinching its 15th bid in the past 16 seasons.
Carleton finished its run through the MIAC tournament with a 78-71 overtime win at Gustavus Adolphus, securing its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2006. St. Norbert picked up its bid to the NCAA Tournament behind 33 points from Dave Wipperfurth in an 85-74 win against Carroll in the Midwest Conference final. Darnell Braswell scored 27 points to lead DeSales past Misericordia 69-61 and back to the NCAA Tournament. Christopher Newport defeated North Carolina Wesleyan 67-63 to win the USA South Athletic Conference title on its own floor, despite finishing the regular season just 12-12, 7-5 in conference. Plattsburgh State qualified for the tournament for the second time in three years, beating Oneonta State 67-60 to win the SUNYAC tournament.
Two Cinderellas came up one win short of the Big Dance. Wilmington ousted Heidelberg, the five seed in the OAC tournament, 82-69 while Aurora stopped Dominican, the eight seed in the Northern Athletics Conference tournament, 70-64.
Several conferences played semifinals on Saturday. In the ODAC, No. 4 Guilford got past No. 11 Virginia Wesleyan 78-62, while No. 18 Randolph-Macon did a lot to boost a potential at-large bid by knocking off top seed and seventh-ranked Eastern Mennointe 82-80.