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NORMAL — The Illinois State women’s basketball team will face Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Redbirds learned today when the 64-team bracket was announced on ESPN. | Photo Gallery | Oklahoma City Region bracket | Women’s tournament page
The Redbirds were seeded 13th in the Oklahoma City Region and will face the 21-8 Sooners in West Lafayette, Ind., on Sunday.
It is ISU’s second NCAA Tournament berth in the past four seasons and the program’s fifth overall.
The Sooners are led by superstar Courtney Paris, who has had 90 straight double-doubles in her career.
She averages 18.7 points, 15.1 rebounds and 3.5 blocks, is the NCAA’s leading rebounder and No. 4 shot blocker.
Robin Pingeton, in her fifth season as head coach at ISU, guided the Redbirds to their last NCAA berth in 2005 after being a No. 8 seed in the conference tournament.
The Redbirds (26-6) earned an automatic berth by winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on Sunday with a 70-62 victory over Drake in St. Charles, Mo.
Illinois State’s Kristi Cirone talks to coach Robin Pingeton on Sunday (March 16, 2008) during the second half of the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game at Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo. Illinois State defeated Drake 70-62. (Pantagraph/CARLOS T. MIRANDA)
Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris, right, goes to the basket while guarded by Texas A&M’s Takia Starks and La Toya Micheaux, back, during the second half of their basketball game Thursday, March 6, 2008, at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M defeated Oklahoma, 73-59. (AP Photo/Paul Zoeller)
" Congrats to the Birds! We’ll be in W. Lafayette Sunday night rooting for all of you. And yes, the Tournament Committee failed to show you enough respect. You lost 6 games by a total of 25 points. You may have lost, but were never beaten! "
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It’s not the NCAA tournament, or even the NIT. But for teams such as Virginia and Washington, it’s one more chance to keep playing.
The Cavaliers and Huskies were among the 16 teams picked for the first College Basketball Invitational, a postseason tournament that hopes to one day challenge the NIT for the best teams left out of the NCAA tournament - but for now is relegated to No. 3 status.
The CBI announced its field early Monday, about five hours after the NIT made its choices and long after the NCAA selection committee trumpeted its bracket, giving a total of 113 teams a reason to return to practice.
“Any time you have the opportunity in postseason to continue playing, as a coach that should excite you, as a player that should excite you and as a fan that should excite you,” said Virginia coach Dave Leitao.
The Cavaliers (15-15), whose RPI of 126 is the second worst in the field, will host Richmond in an opening round game Tuesday, with the winner playing either Old Dominion or Rider. Washington (16-16) will host Valparaiso on Wednesday, with the winner of that game playing either Nevada or Houston.
The other games include UTEP against Utah, with the winner playing either Tulsa or Miami of Ohio, and Bradley hosting Cincinnati. The winner of that game gets either Ohio or Brown.

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Can we fire CMG now? Really the entire state of UA men’s athletics is pretty bad - basketball not even in the NIT, BB going south, and FB at 7-5. If you throw in women’s BB, the majority of sports at UA needed revamping. Hopefully, women’s BB and FB are on the way back under new leadership. It would be interesting to do a comparison of all sports at SEC schools - bet UA is near the bottom overall. Does that say anything about Mal’s performance?
Mal should take immediate action and let CMG go. Just the fact we are discussing Mark’s future after 10 seasons tells you everything you need to know about Mark’s performance. For those of you that say it will be better next year, don’t forget that Richard, Gee, and Ron could all elect to go pro (either NBA or Europe)!
That’s a blanket statement, and if i were you, I wouldn’t be a betting man.
These are the NCAA rankings of the men’s programs at Alabama this year. Sounds like Mal isn’t doing too terrible.
M Cross Country-12th
M Swimming and Diving-25th
M Track and Field-25th
Furthermore, why in the world would Ron go pro if he was going to red shirt this season? That’s stupid. Secondly, where could Gee go? And last but not least, let us not forget that UA only had one Sr. this year (that actually played). That’s a pretty young team CMG is working with.

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March 12, 2008 — The final day of Championship Week, Sunday, March 16, will include daylong, multimedia coverage of Selection Sunday, when the men’s basketball NCAA Tournament brackets are determined. Selection Sunday will be highlighted by three hours of ESPNU Bracketology Presented by Staples on ESPN: a one-hour edition at 5 p.m. ET and a two-hour show at 7 p.m. (simulcast on ESPNU).
Also, Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Knight, the winningest coach in Division I men’s college basketball with 902 victories, will be one of ESPN’s many studio analysts during Selection Sunday.
ESPN’s Selection Sunday programs will feature on-screen graphics similar to the network’s NFL Draft coverage. The on-screen information before the release of the brackets will include bubble teams, records, teams that already have earned an automatic bid and more. After the brackets have been announced, the on-screen information will include game matchups and what team America is picking to win each game via ESPN.com polling.
Additional highlights (details below):
* ESPNU (simulcast on ESPN2) will televise the second annual MasterCard NIT Selection Show at 9 p.m. followed by a 90-minute ESPNU Bracketology Presented by Staples at 9:30 p.m. (simulcast on ESPN2).
* SportsCenter at 6 p.m. will provide up-to-the-minute analysis of the selections and brackets immediately after they are announced, as well as coaches’ interviews;

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By MARK LONG – 1 hour ago
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — If Florida and Ohio State meet again this season, it will be in the NIT title game. The Gators and Buckeyes, finalists in last year’s national championship game, missed getting back into the NCAA tournament Sunday.
It marked the first time the two finalists from the previous year have not made the tournament since 1980 when Michigan State and Indiana State did not qualify. Magic Johnson led Michigan State to 75-64 victory over Larry Bird and Indiana State in the 1979 title game, then both stars turned pro.
“It shows you about how much things change,” Buckeyes coach Thad Matta said.
Two-time defending national champion Florida (21-11) lost eight of its final 11 games, including the last four, and was clearly out of the NCAA tournament picture before the brackets were announced.
The Gators had their streak of consecutive NCAA tournament berths snapped at nine, and became the first defending champ to miss the tournament since 1989 when Kansas was ineligible because of probation.
Ohio State (19-13) had a much better shot, having snapped a four-game losing streak with wins against Purdue and Michigan State to close out the regular season. But the Buckeyes lost their first game in the Big Ten tournament, falling 67-60 to the Spartans.

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• With Selection Sunday a week away, staff writer Dirk Chatelain updates his thoughts leading up to the NCAA basketball tournament:
Drake is in for an interesting - and potentially maddening - Selection Sunday, whether it wins or loses in the Missouri Valley tournament final today.
Draw a number between four and nine out a hat - you could be holding Drake’s seed for the NCAA tournament.
While we can safely project most of the teams in the field within one seed, the selection committee is notoriously unpredictable with mid-major profiles like Drake’s.
In 2007, Butler earned a No. 5 seed. Southern Illinois was a No. 4. But Nevada, projected by almost every bracket guru on the market as a 3-5 seed, was a No. 7. What’s the practical difference? Well, SIU went to the Sweet 16 without an upset. Butler beat No. 12 Old Dominion and No. 4 Maryland to do the same.
Nevada had to deal with No. 10 Creighton in the first round, then lost to a high-powered, second-seeded Memphis, in the second round.
Drake’s problem: its 2008 profile looks more like Nevada’s than Southern Illinois’.
An even better comparison might be SIU in 2005:
Southern Illinois 2005

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Providence, RI (Sports Network) - Providence College has fired men's head basketball coach Tim Welsh on the heels of the school's third losing season in the past four years.
The Friars were 15-16 this past season, Welsh's 10th at the helm. Providence earned just two NCAA Tournament appearances and won exactly one Big East Tournament game during his tenure.
“I appreciate all the hard work and dedication that Tim has put into this program over the last 10 years,” said athletic director Bob Driscoll. “He represented the college with dignity and class. However, I felt that it was in the best interest of the program and Providence College to make a change in leadership.”
Welsh was named the 13th head coach of the Providence program on April 2, 1998. He led the Friars to an overall mark of 160-143 with a 72-92 record in Big East regular-season play. The team was just 1-9 in Big East Tournament action, including a loss to West Virginia in the first round of this year's tourney.

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The ABC television show Lost is back on the air, and no sooner does the SEC Basketball tournament gets turned upside down.
For those of you who follow the show, you know that the island that the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 landed on is haunted, magical, cursed or blessed. Crazy things happen, including the first two and a half seasons of the show featuring flashbacks of the lives of the castaways and what life was like prior to the plane crash.
Somewhere toward the end of Season three, the show began showing us flash forwards of life for the castaways once they get off the island. As a viewer, you find yourself wondering, "Is that a flash back or forward?” You also don't know who survives or who dies on the island. You are constantly shocked and can't wait to tune in for the next episode.
This brings us to the SEC tournament. I'm not sure if the Georgia Dome is haunted, or magical, cursed or blessed, but something has gone terribly wrong in the SEC. Here's the rundown on today's conference championship game:
Back to back National Champs, and winners of the last three SEC tournaments, the Florida Gators got bounced in the first round and won't make the NCAA tournament (first team to miss the dance after winning the whole thing since the "Danny and the Miracles" Kansas team won it in 1987 and missed the tourney in 1988).

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