Conference championship alert: WCC, MAAC, Colonial, SoCon

A quartet of very good mid-major conference championship games fills the college hoops slate tonight as we wait for the major conference tournaments to kick off later this week. Although people tend to lump the “mid-majors” together, they’re not all equal in quality, and the conferences whose titles will be won tonight are some of the best mid-major leagues in the nation. Three of them rank in the top 15 of Ken Pomeroy’s conference ratings. And all of them have produced (at a minimum) a first-round NCAA Tournament winner in the last 3 years. To wit:

• Gonzaga vs. St. Mary’s, West Coast Conference (ESPN, 9 pm) – This is the night’s premier matchup. The last time these two teams squared off, Patty Mills scorched the Zags in their building to give St. Mary’s a halftime lead. But that was also the game in which Mills suffered a broken hand that kept him out of the second half and the rest of the regular season. The Gaels will relish another shot at the perennial mid-major powerhouse, and the Buldogs will want to prove that they can beat their little conference brother, Mills or no Mills. Both teams should get into the Tournament regardless of the outcome, but this will be fiercely contested all the same.



• Siena vs. Niagara, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (9 pm, ESPN2) – The MAAC 1 and 2 seeds will face off in a rubber match, after splitting their regular season games (in which the home teams won by double digits). Siena, who upset Vanderbilt in the first round of last year’s Tournament, was equally efficient on offense in both regular season matchups. But the difference in the two games was Niagara's improving its offensive efficiency from 0.87 points per possession on the road to a whopping 1.30 at home. Siena is in the at-large conversation, but the very circumstances in which they would need an at-large bid – a loss to Niagara tonight – are likely the circumstances in which they wouldn’t get one.



• VCU vs. George Mason, Colonial Athletic Association (ESPN2, 7 pm) – George Mason should need no introduction, after taking the college hoops world by storm with a miracle run to the Final Four in ’06. They’ll look to return to the Tourney with a win over in-state rival and top seed VCU, who won the only regular reason game between the two. The conference isn’t as strong as it was in ’06, when it sent two teams (and should’ve sent three) to the Tournament, but it’s still very solid top to bottom. It’s a credit to these two top seeds that they survived to the championship game.



• Chattanooga vs. College of Charleston, Southern Conference (ESPN, 7 pm) – COC knocked off Stephen Curry’s Davidson team last night for the second time this season. That likely sent the All-American to the NIT, but Davidson’s loss is the rest of the conference’s gain. Led by senior Stephn McDowell, COC is the favorite. They’ll try to repeat their regular season win over Chattanooga on the strength of an efficient offense that is ranked 23rd in the country in effective FG%.