Alumni: Kotsopoulos, Montgomery only CWOSSA Alums to Make NCAA Tourney

Vermont Senior guard May Kotsopoulos (WCI '06) will be ending her NCAA career in style by participating in this year's NCAA tournament.

The Catamounts broke #21 Hartford's twenty game win streak by holding off the Hawks 55-50 in the America East Conference championship on Friday night.

Vermont led 35-17 at halftime (with Kotsopoulos hitting a baseline buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the half) and held off a furious Hartford charge in the waning minutes.

Kotsopoulos played all 40 minutes, scoring 8 points, grabbing 4 rebounds and dishing out 1 assist. On the year, May was Vermont's leading scorer (17.3 PPG) while shooting almost 40% from three-point range and 80% from the free throw line. She also added 2.6 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.7 steals.

Meanwhile, Cleveland State qualified for the tourney out of the Horizon league which means that another former WCI Viking will be heading to the big dance. Kaila Montgomery (Jaan's sister) is a 6'1" freshman forward for the.....er, Vikings. She missed the entire 08-09 season as a redshirt due to a knee injury, but has seen action in 4 games this year (9 minutes, 0/1 FG, 1/2 FT, 2 Reb).

Thanks to a reader for pointing that out as I overlooked that earlier.

Interestingly enough, Cleveland State and Vermont have been seeded in the same part of the bracket and could meet in the second round ---- although it is a bit of a "long shot". Cleveland State is the #15 seed and would have to get past #2 seed Notre Dame in the first round. Vermont, meanwhile, is the #10 seed and plays #7 Wisconsin in their match up.

Good luck to both teams!

Men's NCAA

No CWOSSA alums will be participating in this year's NCAA tournament, which ends a two-year streak.

The best chances came from the teams of a couple of freshmen. However, both clubs made early and unexpected exits in their conference tournaments. Bryson Johnson's Bucknell Bison (2nd Patriot League RS, eliminated in conference quarterfinals) and Murphy Burnatowski's Maine Black Bears (3rd America East RS, eliminated in conference quarterfinals) were both the victims of upsets.

A couple of juniors will have one last crack at advancing to the big dance next year. Jon House and his Belmont club (the Bruins were a #15 seed that almost knocked off Duke 2 years ago) fell in the Atlantic Sun quarterfinals to Mercer 87-81. This will actually be the first year during his 3 years stateside that House won't be participating in the NCAA tourney.

Meanwhile, Imad Qahwash's Central Arkansas Bears finished with a 3-13 record in conference play (9-21 overall) and did not qualify for the Southland Conference tournament. The Bears are in the final year of a transition phase from NCAA Division II and were ineligible for postseason play this year anyways. They have since fired their head coach and inserted former NBAer Corliss Williamson as their new bench boss.

Zach Nagtzaam, whose career has ended at Ohio University after an injury last year, will be watching his Bobcats enter the NCAA tournament as a #14 seed (playing #3 Georgetown in the first round).