\"Penn-friendly\" conference championships

When Reggie Williams' 30-foot three at the buzzer was off the mark, I kicked the chair next to me and pouted for the next few minutes. No. 6 VMI lost an 84-81 decision to No. 1 Winthrop in the final of the Big South Tournament, and another chance to knock off a team slightly above Penn in the RPI went awry. Another few upsets last year and Penn might have been playing No. 3 Iowa instead of No. 2 Texas.

But Monday night, I was on the other side. After watching No. 1 seed in the Colonial Athletic Conference Virginia Commonwealth get to the championship game with a tough seven-point win over Drexel, I was really pulling for VCU to knock off No. 6 George Mason - a team that went 9-9 in the regular season, and whose RPI (120) is a good ways behind VCU (51). The Commodores went 16-2 in the CAA (13th toughest RPI conference) and 26-7 overall. But with a loss, they would not have much of a shot at the Tourney.

But even though George Mason would be one more team behind Penn in the tournament, I was happy to see the Patriots lose. For one, I really wanted to see Drexel in the Tournament, and George Mason winning would hurt the Dragons, because there aren't going to be 3 or 4 teams from the CAA.

I had also followed the Colonial some this season - heading to the DAC to see Drexel play VCU, watching bits of the conference tournament and then seeing the rematch Sunday night. For this reason, I took a sigh of relief when Eric Maynor plucked two different players to go coast-to-coast in about 10 seconds to take VCU's rightful spot in the Big Dance. I would have hated to see a team that fully deserved the Colonial title go down to a George Mason squad that went 0-6 against teams better than it - Drexel, Hofstra, Old Dominion (twice) and VCU (twice) - in the regular season.

So I guess it depends on what angle you take, but in the end, I don't think it's so bad that Winthrop (14-0 Big South) eked one out against VMI (5-9). The best sporting event in the world will be better for it, and so will the conferences that base their bids on a few high-stakes games.

Here's a win that would really help the Quakers' seed that's not even in a conference tournament: Penn beating Princeton.