Daily Briefing — March 8, 2022: STARR TURN — UT-Arlington, UConn win tournaments

What did come as a surprise was Kansas’ Brandon Scheinder winning Big 12 Coach of the Year. Don’t get me wrong — Scheinder did a great job getting the Jayhawks to an expected at-large NCAA tournament bid, with a fifth-place finish that stands as their first time finishing higher than second-worst since 2014. But as I said in my awards picks, Jennie Baranczyk is widely expected to contend for National Coach of the Year, after taking a Oklahoma roster than hadn’t finished above .500 in conference play in the past three years, barely changing it, and peaking in the top-15 in the AP poll.

Now, I’m not big on conspiracy theories (though I wrote a research paper on their causes and classifications once). But Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby essentially got pantsed by Oklahoma (and Texas) in front of the entire country last summer. Do I think the conference offices rigged the vote? Probably not. Do I think there’s significant odds of foul play, between Bowlsby and the possibility of those eight coaches voting against Oklahoma out of spite? Well…

W Roundup

Free agency

• Morgan Bertsch: Signed a training-camp deal with Dallas.
• Unique Thompson: Signed a training-camp deal with Dallas.

Visit our offseason trackers page to see all the other free agent moves and how they affect team’s caps, other front-office changes, and more — in neat, colorful fashion!

Watch List, Tuesday, March 8

(All times in Eastern)

Must-watch

South Dakota State v. South Dakota, 2 p.m., ESPNU — Summit League championship

Good games

None

Also watchable

None

Monday, March 7 recap

(All rankings below reflect tournament seeding)

Big East tournament, championship

#1 UConn beat #2 Villanova, 70-40, winning its eighth-straight conference tournament in one of the ugliest games of the tournament season. The Huskies won the middle half 32-16. Nine automatic qualifiers down!

AAC tournament

#6 Houston beat #11 Cincinnati, 67-45.

#7 Memphis beat #10 ECU, 59-48.

#8 Tulsa beat #9 Wichita State, 88-86 in overtime.

WCC tournament, semifinals

#1 BYU beat #4 Portland, 59-52.

#2 Gonzaga beat #3 San Francisco, 69-55.

Sun Belt, championship

#2 UT-Arlington beat #1 Troy, 76-61, winning the conference tournament for the first time in 15 years in their last year in the Sun Belt. Wing Starr Jacobs led with 28 points on 10-for-21 from the field and 8-for-11 from the line and 11 rebounds (five offensive) for a double-double, plus two assists and three steals against two turnovers. If you’re wondering more about how this JuCo transfer helped lead a significant conference upset this year, Justin Carter at Texas Basketball wrote a great breakdown before Sun Belt play started. Ten automatic qualifiers down!

Patriot League, quarterfinals

#8 Navy upset #1 Holy Cross, 50-49. TDB favorite Jennifer Coleman avenged an arguable-conference-Player-of-the-Year snub by simply eliminating the competition on this buzzer-beater:

JENNIFER COLEMAN FOR THE WIN AT THE BUZZER 🙌 @NavyWBB is moving on to the semifinals! pic.twitter.com/m7N7VwmcVK

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 8, 2022

She finished with 27 points on 10-for-27 from the field and 6-for-13 from three and 13 rebounds for a double-double, plus three assists and three steals against seven turnovers and four fouls in 39 minutes. Not bad!

NEC, quarterfinals

#7 Bryant upset #2 St. Francis, 65-63. The Terriers led by 10 with under six minutes to go, and were still ahead on the final play. Then they fouled the Bulldogs on a three-point attempt. Tough!