NCAA Tournament Sun Belt

Gonzaga and Western Kentucky are two programs outside of the power conferences that have had a profound influence on the NCAA tournament and college basketball.

Appropriately, and as it turned out dramatically, the two schools finally met.

The Zags have become one of the marquee mid-major programs, thanks in large part to their tournament success. Western Kentucky has been the launching pad for many coaches, including Gene Keady, Clem Haskins, and last year, Darrin Horn.

Ultimately, this showdown went to Gonzaga in the final seconds, but not without a bit of controversy.

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We knew Western Kentucky was dangerous. We knew a 12 seed was destined to upset a five, just as at least one manages to do nearly every NCAA tournament. We knew Illinois was a worse team than all four No. 6 seeds, and we knew the Illini were also without their emotional leader and best defender (Chester Frazier).

So -- while it's still newsworthy, being an upset and all -- it was hardly shocking when Western Kentucky completed their triumph over the Fighting Illini in the wee hours of Friday morning.

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So you were not quite good enough to make the NIT. No extra exposure on ESPN. Instead you are given the chance to be in the College Basketball Invitational. Maybe you get to appear on HDNet. Maybe not. The important thing, is you get to keep playing, and hopefully the Gazelle Group will put you in one of their better exposed non-conference tournaments in any upcoming year.

Oh, and if you want to be the host team for the game, you have to toss in another $60,000. What a bargain.

Among the big story lines from Sunday's filling out of the NCAA basketball tournament field, discussions of conferences who are "overrated" and "underrated" dominated the discussion. Specifically, fans of so-called mid-major teams cried foul, and the masses proclaimed the selection committee was biased in favor of the Big Ten and Pac-10 conferences.