[Young Drachma]

A diminished schedule left us firmly on the bubble at the time of the Major Conference tournament. We finished the regular season 22-7 and needed a few conference tourney wins to solidify what was a near bid to the tournament.

We lost in the conference quarters to Butler. The Major Conference tourney is way earlier than any other leagues and so, the fact that we won't play for several weeks before Selection Sunday could push us out. We'll be 23-8 for the committee, our RPI is 26 and SOS is 69. It should be a good enough resume to put us over the top, but...it's anyone's guess what'll happen.

We will be moving to the Missouri Valley Conference next year. While it's technically a step down (a 4 prestige from the Major's 5 now) the budgets are actually higher in that conference than the league we're in now and our budget went down when we switched conferences which I didn't see coming and that annoyed me. Plus, I just think it'd be better for the program to be in a league with regional rivals rather than a random assortment of programs. So it gives us all of the competitive advantages of the Major Conference with more money to spend. Seems like a win-win.

So much for staying, I know. Well, as it turns out after this season I just dissolved the Major Conference and sent all of the teams back to where they came from. It frees up an auto-bid, which is good and it enables those teams to go back to doing what they were doing before -- in theory -- and that's being successful in their respective leagues rather than beating up on each other.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
We were awarded the 10th seed in the West Region. So the streak continues in spite of ourselves. Can we go on an Iowa State-like run towards to the title? Probably not, but let's see what happens.

1st round: (7) Houston, W 70-64
2nd round: (2) UCLA, L 84-64

And with that, we're out. But not especially shocking given that the team wasn't really playing especially well. So we end the year at 24-9. The team loses just one senior, albeit an influential one in Emeka Iwu, but...there's a lot to be hopeful for.

In this year's Final Four, UCLA knocked off UNC (also a 2-seed) and in the other semi-final, Tennessee, the lone top seed to make the Final Four beat Purdue. In the title game, Tennessee claimed their 8th national championship over UCLA. It's worth noting -- I just found this out -- that the head coach of that UCLA team? Former Nebraska State assistant Emily Grande who was in her first year after three years at San Diego. So the coaching tree continues to grow, branch out and succeed at a high level.