The good news for the Drexel men (12-19, 5-13) is that, unlike last year, they won't be sitting on the edges of their seats waiting to see if they get an invitation to the Big Dance. The Dragons ended their regular season with a Senior Night win over James Madison before losing on the road at Hofstra. With the regular season over, it's CAA tournament time, and Drexel will open with a matchup against Delaware. The Dragons and Blue Hens split their regular season games. For the women (17-11, 12-5), it was a good week: they posted wins over Towson and George Mason. Two Drexel players also earned individual CAA honors, with Gabriela Marginean being named CAA Player of the Week, and Jasmina Rosseel getting the nod as CAA Rookie of the Week. The women will wrap up their regular season at Georgia State tomorrow night.
You can stick a fork in the La Salle women (12-17, 4-10). Following a loss to St. Joe's, the Explorers had to beat Duquesne on Friday night to earn a spot in the A-10 tournament. They didn't. The men (14-14, 8-6), on the other hand, are still chugging along as one of the surprise teams in the A-10. They had a five-game winning streak going after beating Fordham, but that came to an end against Rhode Island. Still, La Salle is in a position to not only make the A-10 tournament but even to have a first-round bye depending on what happens this week at UMass and home against Temple. (Tickets for all home games are available through the La Salle Ticket Office: 215-951-1999.)
They're still playing basketball, or some approximation thereof, over at Penn. The men (11-17, 6-5) split their games this week, beating Yale before getting shellacked by Brown. The women (5-21, 2-9) lost to Yale before getting a rare victory by beating Brown. Mercifully, the Quakers' seasons will end this week, with both the men and women facing Cornell and Columbia this Friday and Saturday respectively. (The men will be at home, the women on the road.) Then the season finales will be on Tuesday against Princeton, with the women at home and the men away. (Tickets for all home games are available online.)
The Penn State Lady Lions (13-17, 4-14) make us cringe. The losing streak is now at eleven games, following losses to #18 Ohio State and Indiana. That leaves Penn State as the #10 seed heading into the Big Ten tournament, where they'll face Michigan in the opening round tomorrow night. The men (14-14, 6-10) got a pair of wins against mediocre competition, namely Iowa and Michigan. But hey, wins are wins. The Lions end their regular season with two games against not-so-mediocre competition: at #10 Wisconsin tonight, then home against #18 Indiana on Sunday (tickets).
Not a good week for the St. Joe's men (17-10, 8-6), especially as it's positioning time for the conference tournament. The Hawks suffered two losses this week, to St. Louis and Temple. And it's not like they get a break now, because tomorrow they host #8 Xavier (sold out) and then they go on the road to Dayton. The women (16-13, 8-6) had a good bounce-back week to close out their regular season after a rough patch last week. They beat La Salle and then followed that up with a win over Rhode Island. Now it's A-10 tournament time, and the Hawks will open up against St. Louis. (Call the box office at 610-660-1712 for tickets.)
Life is good for the Temple women (19-11, 12-2), at least for the time being. They clinched the top seed in the A-10 tournament with their wins over St. Louis and UMass. (The Owls ended up tied with #13 George Washington, but because Temple beat GW in the regular season, they get the top spot.) They'll kick off the A-10 tournament on Saturday against the winner of Friday night's Richmond/Duquesne game. The men (16-12, 9-5) had a good week themselves, beating Charlotte and St. Joe's. There's still work to be done, though, as the Owls host Duquesne tonight (tickets) before ending their regular season at La Salle on Saturday.
Think Villanova's men (17-11, 7-9) have given up much? They looked absolutely abysmal in their only game this week, a blowout loss to #13 Louisville. They'll have to regroup and get a couple wins in their games this week against South Florida (sold out) and at Providence to build some momentum heading into the Big East tournament. The Wildcat women (15-14, 5-11), not to be outdone, lost a back-and-forth game to Marquette and then got blown off the court by Louisville, losing by 32(!!!) points. So the women will be the #12 seed in the Big East tournament and face Pittsburgh, who beat the Wildcats earlier this season, in the opening round on Saturday.
Image via Flickr user BrianScott.
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Post a comment (Comment Policy)