Conference tournament recap: All hail Bill Carmody

Ben Goren used to write for us before he came to his senses. We miss Ben dearly. You should follow him. Anyway, he loves Bill Carmody and because of that, we also love Bill Carmody.

Coach, you are our dad (also Rick Byrd is our dad too. And Greg Kampe).

Dad was at it again on Tuesday, leading his Holy Cross Crusaders to another first-round Patriot League Tournament upset. Remember: it was just three years ago that he took the 9th-seeded Crusaders all the way to the NCAA Tournament.

WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF? We hope so.

Here’s everything that happened last night:

Patriot League First Round:

No. 10 Holy Cross 79, No. 7 Lafayette 74

Dad led his team to the only road win of the night for any team, and he did it as the lowest-seeded team in his conference’s tournament. The Crusaders rank 333 out of 353 Division I teams in adjusted tempo, but won this one in a 71-possession battle — tied for the most in a regulation game for Holy Cross this season. Three players — Caleb Green (17), Jacob Grandison (22), and Jehvye Floyd (24) — combined for 80 percent of the team’s scoring.

No. 8 Boston University 71, No. 9 Loyola Md. 63

You may not have heard, but Javante is...the real McCoy. [crowd boos and throws things] Sorry, sorry trying to remove. Javante McCoy did score 30 for the Terriers though, and he did it on 10-15 shooting with four threes. That was a career high for the sophomore as BU beat Loyola for the second time in 10 days. The Terriers led for almost the entire game and also got 15 points from Tyler Scanlon and 12 from Max Mahoney.

Up next: Quarterfinals (Thurs.)

All games at 7 p.m. ET on Patriot League Network

No. 8 Boston University at No. 1 Colgate
No. 10 Holy Cross at No. 2 Bucknell
No. 6 Army at No. 3 Lehigh
No. 5 Navy at No. 4 American

Horizon League Quarterfinals:

No. 1 Wright State 71, No. 8 IUPUI 56

The Horizon League Tournament can get real wacky, but Wright State did its job and held serve against IUPUI behind 18 points from Bill Wampler off the bench. The Raiders never trailed and even led by 31 late before the Jaguars closed on a 23-7 run to make things respectable. Jaylen Minnett scored 17 for IUPUI as the only Jaguar in double figures.

No. 4 Green Bay 82, No. 5 UIC 77

One might say that the Phoenix rose from the ashes of the Flames. A late 9-0 run from Green Bay stole the UIC upset bid and a three-point play from Sandy Cohen III put the Phoenix ahead for good with 2:49 left. With the win, Green Bay swept the season series against UIC 3-0, with all three wins coming by five points or fewer. Green Bay will face top-seed Wright State in the semifinals — a team it beat by three less than a week ago.

Up next: More quarterfinal games (Wed.)

All games at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN+

No. 6 Youngstown State at No. 3 Oakland
No. 7 Detroit at No. 2 Northern Kentucky

Big South First Round

No. 7 Presbyterian 106, No. 10 UNC Asheville 59

The historically bad season for UNC Asheville is finally over. The team that won just two games against Division I competition all year (both against USC Upstate) lost by 47 points to an Actually Not Awful Presbyterian team. Sources say that when you score 1.61 points per possession and hit 21 threes, you’re in good shape. That’s what the Blue Hose did behind JC Younger’s 8-14 performance from deep. He finished with 24 points. As his career continues, he will be known as JC Older.

No. 6 Charleston Southern 71, No. 11 USC Upstate 52

Speaking of bad teams being put out of their misery, USC Upstate won one (1) conference game all year, and it was against a Longwood team whose season also ended on Tuesday. The Buccaneers used a 14-2 run early in the second half to build some distance and never looked back, beating the Spartans for the third time in six weeks. Christian Keeling had 22 points and Travis McConico had 19 to lead Charleston Southern.

No. 8 Hampton 77 No. 9 Longwood 71

We were, admittedly, rooting for Longwood in this one because several of their fans follow us on Twitter and they seem to be good people. Unfortunately, the Lancers couldn’t get it done, as the Pirates advanced in their first-ever Big South Tournament. After a first half that featured seven ties and 11 lead changes, Longwood opened the second half on an 11-2 run and appeared to take control. Then, Hampton responded with a 15-0 run of its own. Longwood didn’t go away, but the Pirates made all 11 of their free throw attempts down the stretch to seal the win. Jermaine Marrow scored 28 points and went 16-16 from the stripe.

Up next: Quarterfinals (Thurs. at Campbell)

All times Eastern on ESPN3

No. 2 Radford vs. No. 7 Presbyterian, Noon
No. 3 Winthrop vs. No. 6 Charleston Southern, 2:30
No. 1 Campbell vs. No. 8 Hampton, 6
No. 4 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 5 High Point, 8:30