If you’re reading this, there’s a solid chance you’re filling out a bracket. My advice is to look for incentive. When you’re picking your upsets — and there are going to be upsets — look at the teams that have something to prove against the ones that probably are ready to get it over with so that the players can enter the transfer protocol in peace.

You may be right. I may be crazy. Or it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for.

This is no mathematical theory. KenPom doesn’t measure it. No team is going to tell the world it’s tired of playing.

Every dude who fancies himself a gym rat has a strong opinion. A team he thinks is complacent may win it all. But no one wins by picking all the higher seeds. Upsets are going to happen.

It occurred to me, watching Middle Tennessee and Chattanooga play three overtimes on Tuesday night, that Wofford making the NCAAs — and the Mocs, Furman and Samford all making the NIT — is about as good as the Southern Conference can do.

Chattanooga won, 109-103. So far, so good.

Blast from the past: Herb Sendek now coaches California Riverside.

I’ve high hopes for tonight’s NIT game in Denton, Texas, a city where I’ve mainly watched live music.

North Texas is the third largest public university in Texas and boasts about 47,000 students, 33,000 or so happen to be undergraduates. Like Auburn, its athletics teams differentiate between nickname and mascot. Since 1966, when NFL great Mean Joe Greene played there, its teams have been known as the Mean Green. The mascot, however, is an eagle named Scrappy.

The game tips off at 8 p.m. on ESPN+.

PJay Smith Jr. is on the National Association of Basketball Coaches All-South Atlantic District Second Team.

A first team All-Southern Conference choice and finalist for the Lou Henson Award as the mid-major player of the year, Smith has averaged 18 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.9 assists per game this season. The senior ranks fourth in the nation, averaging 3.44 three-point baskets per game and sixth with 110 three-pointers on the year. He needs four more triples to pass Alex Hunter’s school single-season record of 113.

The Lavergne, Tenn., native has topped 20 points in five of the last seven games as the Paladins have posted a 6-1 record in their last seven outings to carry a 25-9 record into Wednesday’s first round NIT game. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+ with Dave Neal and Mark Adams on the call. Fans can listen to the action on The Fan Upstate at 97.7 FM and 1330 AM in Greenville, 97.1 FM and 1490 AM in Spartanburg.

Will Morlan (-2) fired a final-round 70 to tie for 18th and lead the Furman men’s golf team Tuesday at the General James Hackler Championship, which was presented by Carolina Wealth Advisors and hosted by Coastal Carolina at The Dunes Golf & Beach Club.

Morlan, a senior from Alpharetta, Ga., played a virtually flawless round.  He teed off on No. 10 and birdied No. 16 before posting his lone bogey of the day on No. 18.  After turning at even par, he birdied No. 4 and No. 8 and parred the remaining holes on the front to conclude the tournament at 2-under.  

Junior Harris Barth (-1) also shot a 70 on Tuesday.  He notched a team-high five birdies, including consecutive birdies on No. 7 and No. 8 near the end of the round to tie for 21st.

Auburn’s Brendan Valdes (-12) smoked the field with a 65 on Tuesday to win the tournament by one stroke with a three-round total of 67-72-65=204. 

Valdes guided the Tigers (-33), who led the field with a 269 on Tuesday, to a 17-stroke team victory over Louisville (-16).  Duke (-14) finished third, while Wake Forest (-2) and Baylor (-2) tied for fourth.  The Paladins (+11) tied for 10th with Nevada, one stroke behind N.C. State (+10). 

The Paladins will compete at the Hootie at Bulls Bay in Awendaw on March 23-25.

Furman’s Sara Snyder is the Southern Conference women’s tennis player of the week.

A senior from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Snyder won the No. 1 singles match up against 89th-ranked Orly Ogilvy 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday, March 16, as the 50th-ranked Paladins defeated No. 34 Yale, 4-2.

No. 38 Furman (11-2, 2-0) will entertain Rice on Sunday at noon at Mickel Tennis Center. 

Senior Alise Knudson (+9) tied for 28th to lead the Furman women’s golf team in the final day of the Mountain View Collegiate, which was hosted by Kansas State and Missouri at The Preserve Golf Club in Tucson, Ariz.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Knudson teed off on No. 13 in the day’s shotgun start and birdied No. 17 to turn at even par.  She  added a birdie on No. 9 then birdied her final hole, No. 12, to finish the day with a 1-over 73.  

The Paladins (+44), who placed second in the field with a 291 on Tuesday, moved up two spots in the final round to finish 11th.

If I had two nickels to rub together right now, I’d have loaded the truck on Tuesday morning and set out for Denton, Texas.
Just as was the case for most of the season, I’ll tune in the Paladins on ESPN+ and be damn glad to get it.

For the second season in a row, Presbyterian is playing in the College Basketball Insider tournament in spite of its 14-18 record. That’s a record that may never be broken.
I feel as if the world has passed me, not to mention my abdomen, by. As much as it took a physical toll on me, I wouldn’t have missed Asheville for the Final Four. Chattanooga and Samford are also in the NIT field.

Most of my books are available at Amazon and other online bookseller sites. The most recent, The Latter Days, is a baseball novel, which you may enjoy in part because, well, the Paladins no longer play it. If you’d like to sample my fiction, Longer Songs is a collection of short stories derived from songs I’ve written.
Thanks for putting up with me.