Upstarts punch tickets to Big Dance
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
Twos were wild Saturday as three second-seeded teams took home championships in men's and women's SWAC and MEAC tournaments and earned automatic berths to this week's NCAA Div. I Tournaments.
The Jackson State women and Mississippi Valley State
men in the SWAC and the Coppin State
women in the MEAC all wound their way to their titles from
No. 2 seedings (See FINALS RECAPS).
Twos were even wilder for Coppin State.
The Coppin State men prevailed in the MEAC tournament from a seventh-seeding giving the Eagles two teams going to NCAA Tournaments. Perhaps even more ironic is that both men's and women's team won their titles by two points, on shots in the final seconds by senior guards who both wear #22 the Lady Eagles' Rashida Suber and the Eagles' Tywain McKee.
The men's win returns the Eagles and 21-year head coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell to the Big Dance for the fourth time overall (1990, '93, '97) and the first time in over a decade. It was in '97 that the 15th-seeded Eagles pulled off one of the biggest upsets in tournament history knocking off second-seeded and sixth-ranked South Carolina 78-65 in the East Regional. Then, with a chance to be the first black college team to reach the Sweet 16, Mitchell's Eagles lost a 82-81 heartbreaker to Texas.
This year, the Eagles are in the tournament's play-in game in Dayton, Ohio Tuesday (8 p.m., ESPN) against a somewhat familiar opponent in in-state neighbor Mount Saint Mary's, winner of the Northeast Conference tournament.
The Mount is coached by former Howard
standout Milan Brown, who in his fifth season. Brown,
who had his jersey retired at Howard in 2005, was a standout point guard
on the 1992 Bison team that was the last to win the MEAC Tournament and
a berth in the NCAAs. As a player, Brown competed all four of his
years against teams coached by Mitchell. Brown replaced legendary coach
Jim Phelan who had led The Mount for 49 years and had taken them to
the NCAA Tournament on two occasions (1995 and '99).
Both coaches bring their teams in on hot streaks. The Mount (18-14) has won eight of its last nine games and knocked off NEC top seed Robert Morris in the semifinals of the conference tournament before defeating Sacred Heart (68-55) for the NEC title. Coppin State (16-20) has won 12 of its last 13 games after beginning the season winning just four of its first 23. They are the first team with 20 losses to make the NCAA Tournament.
The winner will be seeded 16th in the East Regional and will face ACC champion and region top-seed North Carolina (32-2) Friday (7:10 p.m.) in Raleigh.
Head coach Derek Brown returns his Coppin State women (22-11) to the NCAAs for the third time in four years and will be making his fourth straight postseason appearance. After first round NCAA losses in 2005 and '06, his Lady Eagles got a win in the first round of last season's WNIT Tournament over St. Joseph's before falling to South Florida in the second round.
They are seeded 16th this season in the women's Spokane Regional and will also face an in-state neighbor in top-seed Maryland (30-3) Sunday (2:30 p.m.) on the Lady Terrapins campus in College Park, Md.
Mississippi Valley State (17-15) received a 16th seed in the West Regional and has to travel to Anaheim, Ca., to face the region's top seed, UCLA (31-3). The Bruins/Delta Devils matchup is set for Thursday at 9:55 p.m. ET.
This will be the first tournament appearance for MVSU head coach James Green, in his third season guiding the Delta Devils, who made three appearances under former head coach Lafayette Stribling
Jackson State head coach Denise Taylor is taking her Lady Tigers to the Big Dance for the first time in her seven years at the helm. JSU (18-13) is seeded 15th in the New Orleans Regional and will face second-seed LSU (27-5) on its home floor in Baton Rouge (10 p.m.).
Under Taylor, JSU has made three WNIT appearances. The last time JSU played in the NCAA Tournament was in 1995 when Andrew Pennington's Lady Tigers won the SWAC tournament.
Howard has another connection in this year's NCAA Tournament in Georgia head coach Dennis Felton and assistant Mike Jones, who both played at Howard under former coach A.B. Williamson. Their SEC champion Bulldogs (17-16) will face Atlantic 10 champion Xavier (27-6) Thursday in the South Regionals at the Verizon Center (12:20 p.m.) in Washington, D.C. Xavier is seeded third while Georgia is seeded 14th.
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