SUBVERTING THE DOMINANT PARADIGM.

Mid-American teams continue to bust brackets in the women's tournament.  (That is, while we can still refer to the women's tournament.)

The local cable service decided we should see another early-round game involving Connecticut, this time playing the pseudo-preppies from Quinnipiac.  But they got to the game of local interest eventually.

Sue Semrau has built an impressive program at Florida State. In her 21st year leading the Seminoles, she has guided the program to 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, won the ACC Coach of the Year award four times and was named the National Coach of the Year in 2015 by three different organizations.

But Semrau knows something about mid-majors. From 1991-94 she was an assistant coach at Northern Illinois helping that program advance to three straight NCAA Tournaments. And while she's made her mark at a school in a Power 5 conference, she has an appreciation and a respect for the mid-majors who have pulled off upsets at this year's NCAA Tournament on both the women's and men's side.

“I think it's fantastic," Semrau said. "I coached at Northern Illinois a few years back and we had that kind of success in the tournament and you look at the men's side and it's been happening for a while. I think it's really good for the game, for women's basketball. There's a lot of really good teams and really good coaches out there and you've got to be prepared every single game in the NCAA Tournament."

That respect carries over to Florida State's matchup with the University at Buffalo in the second round of the tournament Monday night. There will be no overlooking the Bulls nor any extra pressure to perform as the higher seed playing on their home court.

Buffalo will be playing in the round of sixteen.

There was still time to cut to Columbus, Ohio, where Central Michigan met Ohio State.  Goodbye, Columbus.

[Central Michigan], which trailed in the first quarter, 15-5, made 14 of its 27 3-point attempts.

"We withstood that first punch," [head coach Sue] Guevara said. "We didn't melt, we just kept fighting and kept coming back. When we go the momentum, in that second quarter, you could see (Ohio State) got tired. Some of their players had their hands on their knees and we saw that and we said just keep running.

The Mid-American teams playing Big Ten teams in the Invitational Tournament did not fare so well.  Purdue had an opportunity to pay Ball State out in Muncie and took it.  Michigan State got the buzzer beater in East Lansing and excused Toledo.

Look for the strength of teams in the Mid-American to continue to improve.