Washington Times · Mar 10, 2019
NCAA conference tournaments: Schedule and results for 2019's automatic bids
For many Division I basketball teams — the ones you don’t hear about until this time of year, the ones whose conferences rarely if ever send more than one team to the big dance — it’s the most important week of the season.
Winning your conference tournament means earning that precious automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Take last year’s University of Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers team. They were the second seed in the America East Tournament, but defeated No. 1 Vermont to advance to the national tournament — then defeated a much greater No. 1, Virginia, the next week.