Let the madness commence!

CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - When the word March is mentioned, I know the first thing that comes to your mind. Because it's the first thing that comes to mine.

Madness.

It's that time of year when the focus on college basketball becomes a real threat to the American GNP. Productivity suffers as there are brackets to be filled out.

But while the NCAA March Madness will carry over into April, the National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament (NIWBT) will crown both men's and women's champions this weekend.

In Thursday's Quarter-Final play - which I watched online here - the match of the day was unquestionably between the #4 seeded host team, the University of Missouri and the #5 University of Alabama. The score at the half was an offensively challenged 16-12 in favor of the Tigers but Alabama, the 2012-13 national champions tied it up quickly after the second half whistle. With 1:03 to play, they were down one at 35-36.

Missouri finished third in last year's championship tournament, the school's best finish in the program's history. Coach Ron Lykins will lead the USA Paralympic men's team into the 2016 Rio games next year and there's a good chance that the Tiger's Carter Arey will be with him. Arey earned a silver medal with the national team at the IWBF World Championships last summer.

Missouri had several chances to put the game away in the final minutes but missed both open shots and free-throws but their defense kept the Crimson Tide at bay. Arey was fouled on a three-point attempt with 28 seconds left but had a LeBron James moment, missing the first two that gave Alabama a chance to win or tie at the end.

Survive and advance is the strategy that the late North Carolina State coach Jim Valvano made famous on the team's most improbable 1983 NCAA title run. It's also the one that put Missouri into Saturday's Semi-Final against the defending national champion University of Wisconsin-Whitewater as a swarming Mizz defense prevented Alabama from getting anything close to a good look at the basket before time expired.

The win was Missouri's 18th of the season against 9 losses while the UWW Warhawks are 29-5 overall, including 16 straight wins since a loss to Illinois on January 16. When they last met Missouri on February 13, Derick Bisnett's 25 points led to a 71-54 win. The defending national champion Whitewater won all four games against Tigers this season by an average of 15 points but none of those games were in Columbia where a strong home crowd, and they will have one, can make a difference.

The University of Texas-Arlington (UTA) men, 79-41 winners over Southwest Minnesota State University, will take on the University of Illinois, who easily defeated Edinboro University 70-39, in the other men's semi.

The NIWBT features four women's teams along with the eight on the men's side. The University of Alabama's women's team is the heavy favorite to succeed Whitewater as champions as they lost to the Warhawks in last year's final and kept their entire team together.

I wrote back in November that a fourth consecutive championship for the Warhawk women would be most unlikely as Whitewater lost three of the four Paralympic stars that collected those trophies. Americans Becca Murray and Desiree Miller, along with Germany's Mareike Adermann departed, leaving the weight of expectation on the shoulders of the Dutch treat Mariska Beijer. Going 6-15 into Saturday's Semi-Final against Alabama proves that.

The Crimson Tide is led by an international cadre of players including Canadians Cindy Ouellet and Maude Jacques, Aussie Cobi Crispin, Laurie Williams of Great Britain, and Lithuanian Karolina Lingyte. Both Mackenzie Soldan and Caitlin McDermott have USA national team experience.

The University of Illinois women will take on the University of Texas-Arlington in the second women’s Semi-Final.

The Lady Movin' Mavs are only in their second season but have added considerable talent, including USA national teamer Rose Hollerman, who competed for the USA at the 2012 London Paralympics. Fellow Mav Abbie Dunkin has recently joined Hollerman on the 2015 national team.

The championship and third place games will be played on Saturday. You can see the schedule here.

A better job has to be done on posting results and stats of the tournament but as I noted above, you can watch the games live or later here.

Let the madness commence!

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

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