Game #178: RTC is in Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament for the second consecutive year. This week’s coverage from Sprint Center begins with an opening round matchup between bubbling Colorado and Iowa State.

The season comes down to this week for Tad Boyle’s Colorado Buffaloes. With a non-con schedule bereft of quality wins, Colorado’s been in a game of catch-up since conference play tipped off. Some big victories (Texas, Missouri and a sweep of Kansas State) made the statement that they can get it done, but losses to Iowa State and Baylor could leave the Buffalo faithful sweating it out on Sunday unless their team can make some noise this week. Guard Alec Burks, playing in front of a hometown crowd, has plenty of motivation to carry the Buffs to the Big Dance in its final season as a Big 12 member.  Iowa State, meanwhile, stumbled through conference play after starting 13-2 in Fred Hoiberg’s first go-round at the helm, but closed out the regular season on a high note. The Cyclones won two of its last three, including a 95-90 win over Colorado in the final week of the season, and are anxious to duplicate their success. Grab a beverage, some snacks, and pull up a seat for RTC Live!

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Games #176-177.  RTC Live is back at MSG for a couple of 2d Round matchups that are NCAA Tournament worthy.

12 pm.  UConn-Georgetown.  Georgetown is in an awkward situation. With Chris Wright out with an injury — he’s expected to be back for the NCAA Tournament but its still unclear if that will happen — the Hoyas are looking to prove not just to the committee, but to themselves that they can play without their point guard. In two and a half games without him, Georgetown’s offense has been anemic, as Wright is apparently their sole source of offensive creativity. As far as UConn is concerned, every game is the same thing — when the Huskies get big games out of some of their non-Kembas, they can play with or beat anyone in the country.

9 pm.  West Virginia-Marquette.  Let’s put aside the fact that Marquette can all but lock up a trip to the NCAA Tournament with a win, because worrying about the bubble in this atmosphere can ruin it. The Mountaineers and the Golden Eagles play as hard as any two teams in the country. As Buzz Williams said last night, West Virginia wants to turn this game into a “rock fight”, but Marquette is more than capable of handling themselves in a physical battle (have you seen Jae Crowder’s shoulders? He’s built like a wrestler). WVU is not a team that blows people out, and Marquette is notorious for their late-game dramatics. This could be a lot of fun.

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Game #175.  Ancient Ivy League rivals meet in the Palestra to determine if there will be a playoff on Saturday for the title.

Rivals Penn and Princeton have both won 25 Ivy League titles, so it’s almost fitting that only Penn stands in the way from Princeton capturing No. 26. With a win tonight at the historic Palestra, the Tigers would earn a share of the Ivy crown and a spot in a one-game Ivy playoff vs. co-champ Harvard to determine the league’s auto bid. For Penn, winning its final game of the 2010-11 season would secure a .500 overall record and a tie for third place in the league — but more important it would send its biggest rival to the NIT while giving Harvard its first NCAA berth since 1946. In other words, for one night, the only people rooting for Penn harder than Quakers fans will be Harvard supporters.

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Games #173 & 174.  A couple of interesting first round games for your Tuesday pleasure live from Madison Square Garden.

12 pm.  UConn vs. DePaul: Hard to believe that a team that spent much of the season in the top ten can fall all the way to ninth in their conference tournament, but they have. The Big East is that deep. UConn is going to have a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament than they are in the Big East Tourney. The issue that has been plaguing the Huskies is that they cannot beat a sloughing defense. Kemba Walker struggles when he doesn’t have the space to penetrate, and on the nights when UConn doesn’t have one of their role players become a secondary scorer, defenses are able to pack in their defense and force the UConn point guard into tough shots. DePaul will be without their best player, freshman Cleveland Melvin, who also happens to be a former UConn commit, so UConn should be able to roll through this first round matchup.

9 pm.  Marquette vs. Providence: Marquette is the only team in the Big East still on the bubble, putting them in an interesting situation. As of today, they are probably on the right side of the bubble, albeit barely. A loss to Providence in the first round would probably push them onto the wrong side. In all actuality, if the Golden Eagles want to feel safe, they probably need to win two games in the Big East Tournament. It also needs to be noted that Providence has the Big East’s best scorer in Marshon Brooks. Brooks, however, is a one man show. When he gets it going, he can put up some sensational numbers, like the 43 he had against Georgetown and the 52 he had against Notre Dame. But when his teammates struggle, defenses can collapse on Brooks.

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Game #172.  The WCC title still goes through Gonzaga, as St. Mary’s and the Zags match up again in the Championship Game for the third season in a row.

Midway through the West Coast Conference regular season, it appeared that St. Mary’s had taken the mantle from stalwart Gonzaga as the “it” team in the league.  The Zags were reeling after a home loss to the Gaels, the first such loss in a decade and a half which followed up road Ls at San Francisco and Santa Clara.  Randy Bennett’s team, on the other hand, was sitting pretty at 6-0 and seemed on a course with destiny to win its first outright WCC title in a long while.  Didn’t happen that way.  After that game in Spokane, Mark Few’s Bulldogs got it together and ran off nine conference wins in a row; the Gaels, perhaps feeling the pressure of playing from ahead, stumbled in losses at Portland, at San Diego and at home against the hated Zags.  Needless to say, unlike last season, both schools are perched precariously on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament — there is a high likelihood that tonight’s loser will not get invited to the Big Dance next weekend.  There’s a decent likelihood that both will be.  It’s difficult to say, but both squads will bring everything they have to make sure that they’re not the team sweating through the next six days waiting to hear from about their future from a bunch of Indianapolis fat cats.  Join us tonight for what promises to be a battle extraordinaire from two teams that really don’t like each other very much.

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Game #171. Another team will punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament tonight as the MAAC Championship will be decided between the talented Iona Gaels and upstart St. Peter’s Peacocks.

Many expected Iona to advance to championship game on Monday evening, but their road to the NCAA Tournament figured to run through a different team. The Gaels boast two of the better players in the MAAC this year with Scott Machado running the point and junior college transfer Michael Glover throwing bodies around in the paint. As for their opposition in tonight’s game, it is not the Fairfield Stags nor is it the Rider Broncs. Believe it or not, the Peacocks from St. Peter’s have gotten hot at just the right time and have put themselves in a position to go dancing for the first time since 1995. St. Peter’s shocked Fairfield in the semifinals as they got out to a 40-15 halftime advantage and, while the Stags would make a great run in the second half, St. Peter’s used a tough zone defense to stymie the run. While Iona will unquestionably be the favorite in tonight’s game, head coach Jeff Dune has St. Peter’s believing they can win the MAAC title. Belief, more than anything in March, is what makes a team so dangerous. Join RTC Live this evening from Bridgeport, CT, as St. Peter’s looks to upset Iona for the right to represent the MAAC in the NCAA Tournament.

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Game #170.  Let’s hand out a bid, shall we?  It should be a mammoth battle tonight in the CAA, as two very good teams square off in Richmond.

Most everyone expected George Mason, the Colonial Athletic Association’s regular season champ, to be playing for a spot in the NCAA field when the league’s postseason tournament began. But that’s why they play the games. With a home advantage at the Richmond Coliseum, Virginia Commonwealth stole GMU’s thunder behind a hail of three-point buckets and a shifting defense the Patriots just couldn’t solve.  The No. 2 seed in the tourney, Old Dominion, showed why it went 14-4 in the conference by punishing Hofstra in the other semifinal behind 21 points from center Frank Hassell.  Now the upstarts and the last heavyweight left will battle for the CAA’s automatic berth in the Field of 68 on Monday night in the CAA Championship. The two split in the regular season, with each winning on the road. That bodes well for Old Dominion. But don’t look past the suddenly confident VCU Rams, who enjoy a raucous home-court advantage and All-Conference talent to boot.  Join us tonight, live, from Richmond Coliseum at 7 p.m. ET.

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Games #168 & 169.  It’s West Coast Conference basketball from the Orleana Arena as four teams have designs on playing Monday night.

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Game #167.  Another NCAA bid will be handed out in St. Louis this afternoon as the MVC Finals tip off.

Three of the four games in the quarterfinal round of Arch Madness went down to the buzzer, but there were no real upsets — the only lower seed to win was Creighton in the 4/5 game, but they beat a team they had tied with for fourth place in Northern Iowa. Saturday, that changed when Indiana State, who finished in third place but had been picked sixth or seventh by many preseason prognosticators, pulled off a stunning upset of Wichita State. The Sycamores now find themselves one win away from an NCAA Tournament berth. Standing between them and the fulfillment of that dream is regular season champ Missouri State and MVC Player of the Year Kyle Weems. It should be an exciting Arch Madness Championship; join RTC for a live blog from press row starting at 12:45 Central.

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Games #165 & 166.  There’s a lot on the line in Richmond today as the CAA semifinals tip off.

The top four seeds are still standing as Sunday’s semifinal round of the Colonial Athletic Association postseason tournament gets under way. Thanks for joining us. This has been arguably the nation’s best non-BCS conferences all season long, and the postseason tourney hasn’t disappointed. George Mason showed the dominance it displayed all season long on its way to a 16-2 conference mark in routing Georgia State in the second half of their quarterfinal matchup, while Virginia Commonwealth needed a last second layup from senior forward Jamie Skeen to edge Drexel and move on to meet the Patriots in the semis. Meanwhile, Old Dominion rode Frank Hassell’s 24 points and a big run in the second frame past Delaware and will face league Player of the Year Charles Jenkins and the Hofstra Pride, who crushed would-be upstarts William & Mary in Saturday’s nightcap, in the day’s lastgame. While George Mason and Old Dominion still harbor NCAA at-large dreams, for VCU and Hofstra, it’s likely win to get in. Expect no let up, as each team tries to secure a chance to play for the league’s automatic bid. Four teams that all have designs on not just playing in the NCAA tournament, but being a legitimate threat to reach the second weekend. Four teams that pushed to the top of the conference standings all season long. Four teams with talent, experience, coaching and tremendous heart. Welcome to one of America’s hidden gems: the Colonial Athletic Association.

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