SwampSwami Returns from Spring Break

Yes, I’m old enough to remember when the term “spring break” was primarily for college students.

Apparently, spring break now extends to giving the entire week off to high school, middle school and even the elementary school kids, too.

My long-suffering sports wife works a schedule based on our local school calendar.  Last week, we visited one of our sons (and two of our grandsons) prior to heading to Gulf Shores, Alabama for a few more days of vacationing.

We had loads of fun but not enough time to keep up with sports.

Never fear!  We will catch-up right now.

March Madness – Men

The University of Miami (Ohio) Redhawks were the lone unbeaten men’s team in the nation coming into last week’s Mid-American Conference tournament. 

The 20th ranked Redhawks took their perfect 31-0 record into last week’s opening round game against the University of Massachusetts (17-16).  Miami was only the fifth men’s college hoops team in the past 25 years to post a perfect regular season record.

Until Thursday.

U Mass took the lead with 30 seconds left to hand the Redhawks an 87-83 loss.

Would you believe that some of TV’s talking heads actually felt that 31-1 Miami should be left out of the 68-team NCAA Men’s tournament field?

Some of those same people suggested that a 17-16 Auburn Tigers team (just 7-11 in SEC play) should have received Miami’s spot in the tournament field.

Perhaps this is why we call it madness

For those who favor March Madness invitations going to sub-500 big conference schools like Auburn, please name the last time any team with less than 20 regular season wins made it into the Final Four.  I’ll wait while you ask your favorite search engine.

Answer:  Zero.

I understand that Auburn played a really tough slate of non-conference games.  The Tigers lost to top-ten teams such as Houston, Michigan, and Purdue in the opening months.  However, Auburn also lost eight of ten SEC games played during the final weeks of the regular season.

If Auburn cannot beat teams in the SEC, why should they deserve to play for the national championship?

However, what have the Miami Redhawks done to deserve a bid?

Good question!  Miami (Ohio) plays in the Mid-American Conference.  That conference has never produced a men’s basketball team which has reached the Final Four.

Miami posted a solid 25-9 record last year.  Prior to 2025, the Redhawks had not won 20 games in a season since March, 1999.  The school is not (yet) a basketball juggernaut.

This year’s team raced to a 31-0 start featuring six games which Miami won by three points or less.  Yes, they have been lucky at times, but they were also very good.

The Runnin’ Redhawks have scored 100 or more points in eight games this season.

The NCAA “rewarded” 31-1 Miami of Ohio with a play-in game on Wednesday night against 20-13 SMU.  Tipoff will be at 8:15 PM CDT on TruTV. 

The winner advances to play #6 seed Tennessee (22-11) on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Auburn is playing in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) beginning tonight at 9PM CDT vs. South Alabama (20-11).

McNeese State’s home court advantage led to a rout over #1 seed SFA

Four years ago, the city of Lake Charles became the home city for the Southland Conference men’s basketball tournament.  The games are played on the campus of McNeese State University.

The host city’s Cowboys were already coming off back-to-back NCAA March Madness seasons.

Unlike previous years, though, the 2026 top seed in the Southland Conference tournament was Stephen F. Austin.  The Lumberjacks posted a nifty 20-2 conference record to edge McNeese by one game for the men’s #1 seed in the tournament.

These two teams (both 28-5 for the season) met in last week’s conference finale.  The hometown McNeese fans packed the gymnasium to standing-room only capacity and cheered their team to a resounding 76-59 win over #1 seed SFA.  The Lumberjacks fell behind by 20 points early in the second half and never recovered.

McNeese will enter its third straight NCAA men’s March Madness tournament as a #12 seed against #5 Vanderbilt of the SEC.  That game will tip-off Thursday at 2:15 PM on TruTV.

Stephen F. Austin accepted a bid into the NIT tournament and travels to face Tulsa in the opening round tonight (Tuesday) at 8 PM.

March Madness – Women

Historically, there has been a wide gap in women’s college basketball between the “haves” and the “not yet’s”.

This year has been no different.

The #1 overall seed U-Conn Huskies are the only remaining unbeaten women’s team entering this year’s March Madness women’s tourney.

Connecticut (now 34-0) is a whopping 54-point favorite over #16 regional seed UT-San Antonio (18-15) in Round 1.

Out west, #2 overall seed UCLA (31-1) is a 52-point favorite in their opening round game against #16 seed California Baptist (23-10).

The other two top seeded women’s teams are a pair of 31-3 SEC teams – South Carolina and Texas.  Both will be prohibitive favorites in their first round games, too.

This wide gap between the top 16 teams and the rest of the women’s field is why the NCAA has continued to play the opening two rounds of their tournament in the home market of the top 16 teams.

What just happened to Louisiana Tech’s Lady Techsters?

Louisiana Tech’s women’s basketball program was one of the early giants of the sport. 

They won national titles in 1981, 1982, and 1988.  The Lady Techsters remained a regular NCAA March Madness participant through the year 2006.

Since then, Louisiana Tech’s women’s team has been in decline.  The team had not made the NCAA tournament field in 20 years.

This season’s Louisiana Tech women’s team was steamrolling opponents during their 19-game winning streak.  The team was 26-5 and #1 seed in Conference USA entering Saturday afternoon’s title game in Huntsville, Alabama.

Their opponent (21-12 and #6 seed Missouri State) has been playing in its very first Conference USA season.

The winner would receive an automatic bid into the NCAA March Madness women’s field.

The tournament finale was unable to produce one player on either team who shot better than 50% from the field.  Tech clanked 15 of 66 shots into the basket (23%).  Missouri State wasn’t much better with 17-52 from the field (33%).

Final score – Missouri State 43, Louisiana Tech 38

This game stunk for the entire 40 minutes.  (I know, because I watched all of it!)

The Lady Bears of Missouri State (a deserving winner of this game) advanced into this week’s NCAA tournament as a #16 seed.  Louisiana Tech accepted a bid into the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT).  They will travel to Houston and play 28-5 Rice on Thursday.

LSU women’s Coach Kim Mulkey told her assistant coach to hit the road

Last week, LSU women’s assistant basketball coach Gary Redus was hired by Rutgers University of the Big Ten Conference.

He offered to stick around Baton Rouge to help his boss, Kim Mulkey, prepare the #2 seed LSU Tigers in this week’s NCAA March Madness opening game(s) in Louisiana’s capitol city.

Instead, Mulkey told him, “Get out of here!”

Politely, that is.  She added, “You can’t be married to two wives!”

The LSU women’s coach advised her ex-assistant coach that Redus needed to spend the next few weeks getting to know his players at Rutgers in New Jersey.

There is a good chance that another LSU basketball assistant (Daphne Mitchell) may also be joining Gary Redus’ new staff at Rutgers.

What is happening to the defending champion LSU baseball team?

LSU’s defending national college baseball champions have been playing like a group of neighborhood kids in a pick-up game at times.  The team is struggling to find an identity.

LSU lost two of three SEC games to Vanderbilt over the weekend in Nashville to drop to 14-7 on the season.  That’s nearly half of the number of losses which LSU’s 2025 championship team posted in a 56-15 season.

The pitching for this 2026 Tigers team ranks as worst in the 16-team SEC.  They allow 5.24 earned runs per game.  LSU pitchers have served-up a league-high 18 home runs through 21 games.

The Bayou Bengals are dead last in the SEC in fielding, too.  LSU has committed 25 errors in 21 games and have turned a league-low of five double plays.

Yikes!

Coach Jay Johnson is trying to remain positive and patient as his team contains a number of transfer players.

LSU needs to complete its 2026 baseball chemistry experiments quickly.  The Tigers play intrastate rival Grambling State University on Tuesday night in Baton Rouge prior to hosting an important SEC weekend series against #7 University of Oklahoma.

LSU’s baseball season will only get tougher after tonight’s game with the G-Men.

*Come back tomorrow, and I’ll pick the Men’s and Women’s March Madness winners!

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