Wow. Just watched play-by-play as Utah Valley blew a 17-point lead in the last 6:42 left (missing at one point 4 straight free throws and getting 0 FGs in that span) to miss their chance to make the WAC final and a chance for their first berth. Up by 3, they lost fouling on a 3-point that was made with 4 seconds left as Southern Utah completed the 4-point play. Overall, they had a 23-point second half lead. There’s a reason why these young teams can’t win the big one.

But since we started the pool in 1995, we have six teams playing in a conference final Saturday that could join our pool (though Marist’s 13-19 record will definitely relegate them to the First Four if they win), two of them hoping to be first-time entrants. Could any of these join Kennesaw St and Furman in our pool for the first time?

• 8 am PST America East – UMass Lowell will try to make their first appearance but are 5.5 point underdogs to Vermont
• 10 am MEA – Howard will try to make their first tourney since 1992 and have a better conference record than Norfolk St but are still 2 point underdogs
• 12:30 pm Atlantic 10 – Fordham will also try to make their first tourney since 1992 and although they have identical 12-6 conference record with Dayton, they are 6.5 point underdogs
• 2:30 pm SWAC – Grambling (15-3 in conference) will try to make their first tourney since 1978 and against 13-20 Texas Southern, they are a 6.5 point favorite
• 4:30 pm MAC- Toledo will try to make their first tourney since 1980 and are actually slight 1-point favorite over Kent State
• 4:30 pm MAAC – Marist will try for their first tourney since 1987 but against MAAC regulars season champ Iona (26-7), there isn’t even a line on ESPN