One of things I like to track are the new teams that enter our pool.  Since we started (64 teams) in 1995, every year has had at least one new team we haven’t seen before (and every year at least one team that had never qualified for the tourney before).  This year, another handful of teams were poised to make the tournament either for the first time or the first time since before 1995.  Of the five charter members who have not made the tourney (The Citadel, Army, and Northwestern being the others), two were in great position and both failed (at home) with #1 CAA seed William & Mary losing in the title game for the fourth time in 8 years and #1 NEC seed St. Francis (NY) choking (down by 3 with free throws, missed the first 2 and then intentionally missed the 3rd but forgot to hit the rim resulting in a turnover).  #10 SoCon seed Furman (last appeared in ’80) nearly pulled off the upset in the title match.

So in order to get a new team, we needed two teams to face each other in the final!  And we got two, guaranteeing two new teams as North Florida beat USC Upstate (also trying to make the tourney for the 1st time) in the A-Sun final and Northeastern (1st since ’91) beating said St. Francis.  In a rejiggered WAC where 6 of the 8 teams haven’t made the tourney and Seattle having not made it since ’69, it looks like the lone veteran New Mexico, the #1 seed, is likely to win the WAC tourney.  Those still fighting for the first bid are Stony Brook, UC Davis, UC Irvine, Buffalo, Sac State, CS-Bakersfield, Buffalo, and UMKC with Seattle (’69), SMU (’93), Louisiana Tech (’91), Yale (’62), Toledo (’80), and Georgia Southern (’92) still alive to return for the first time in at least 21 years.