You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. Its time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, its theMid-Eastern Athletic Conference. The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, or MEAC, was founded in 1970 as a Division II conference. Its members are in the southeastern and mid-atlantic United States, and are HBCUs. Its eight members are located in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. It has had members move in and out of the conference throughout its existence, but has not added any new school since Savannah State in 2011 that school went to Division II in 2017. The format for the tournament is different for mens and womens basketball, as Coppin State is not eligible for the mens tournament due to academic penalties. The womens team, however, qualifies that means the mens tournament will include seven teams, and the womens the full eight members. The conferences automatic bid, awarded to the MEAC tournament champion, will be the only way for one of these teams from either mens or womens basketball to participate in March Madness. Howard has won the mens auto bid in two of the last three seasons, with Norfolk State grabbing it in 2025, while Norfolk State has come away with the lone MEAC bid in each of the last three seasons for the womens side. MEAC Mens College Basketball Leaders: Howard is first in the conference at 10-3, which does not put it that far ahead of the teams directly behind it in the standings. However, as far as overall record goes, Howard is well in front: its 20-10 overall, with the next-best such record Norfolk States 15-15. Morgan State is in between the two in the MEAC standings, at 9-4. North Carolina Central is tied with Norfolk State at 8-5, then the rest of the conference is under .500. South Carolina State is 6-7, Maryland Eastern Shore and Coppin State both 5-8 and Delaware State is 1-12. Coppin State is not eligible for the mens MEAC tournament due to the aforementioned academic penalties, which means Delaware State will be the 7-seed and face whichever team ends up being the 2-seed once standings are finalized. Delaware State is, through March 4, the only team to have locked in a specific seed for the MEAC tournament. Howard is also the top team in the conference in the NCAA Evaluation Tool, coming in at 203. Its theonly team in the conference anywhere near that high in the standings, too, as the second-best is Norfolk State at 311. Every other team in the MEAC is one of the bottom-30 in Division I mens basketball: North Carolina Central is 338th, UMES 347th, Morgan State 352nd, South Carolina State 358th, Coppin State 362nd and Delaware State second-to-last in the country. Chances are good that it will be Howard State winning the automatic bid, given its the top team by NET and has the best player in the conference by Player Efficiency Rating, Bryce Harris. The fifth-year guard led the MEAC in both rebounds per game and scoring, is first in Defensive Rating and second in Offensive Rating. His numbers are not exceptional in any of these categories, but that says more about what the competition lacks than Harris himself. All that being said, Howarddid lose three conference games this season this is not a team that is or has been unstoppable in conference play. The Bison lost to South Carolina State at the start of MEAC play, then Maryland Eastern right after. Morgan State also defeated Howard in January. Since then, however, its won eight-straight conference games, with its only loss in that stretch a non-conference one against Yale, 87-81. There are plenty of questions left to be answered, and Howard hasnt actually locked up the top seed yet, since it plays Norfolk State in the regular-season finale with Morgan State just a game back. MEAC -Womens College Basketball Leaders: Things are a bit better on the womens side of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. There, Howard is once again in first, but sits 157th in NET and with a 12-1 record in conference play and 22-7 overall. Norfolk State is in second in both the conference and NET, at 11-2 and 207. UMES comes in at 252, then Coppin State is 291. Four teams in the top 300, and one nearly top-150, is a significant difference from the mens side where just one team is top-250 and no others are even top-300. None of the seeding has been set yet, as Norfolk State is a game back of Howard, and Maryland Eastern Shore is a game back of Norfolk State. Coppin State is 6-7, North Carolina Central and Delaware State both 4-9, Morgan State 3-10 and South Carolina State 2-11. Howards Zennia Thomas is the top player in the conference by PER (25.2), but the senior forward is also the MEACs leading scorer (15.3 points per game) and rebounder (7.8). Five of the top-20 players in the conference in PER are on Howards roster: Thomas, then senior forward Nile Miller (19.7) is third, junior guard Zoe Stewart is ninth (16.3), freshman guard Ariella Henigan 14th (14.1) and junior guard Destiny Bynum-Johnson (12.6) is 18th. Norfolk State comes close to that level of depth, with four of the top 20 players, so its not like the Bison are entirely running away with things here. Still, the reason they are on top, even if by a game, is explained by this depth. There are no byes in the tournament, but the top team does get a seeding advantage, as it will face the 8-seed in the first round. A slightly easier path to the championship is not the massive advantage of, say, Big Ten top seeds getting to skip multiple rounds in order to face a team thats played multiple games multiple days while they are well-rested, but a team like Howard with a single loss getting to take on, say, a team that is 2-12 isnt a bad prize. It it goes well, there will be rest to find in that matchup, too.

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GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) Tennessee has never failed to qualify for the women's NCAA Tournament.Whether the Lady Vols make a 43rd consecutive appearance remains to be seen.The program that coach Pat Summitt built into a national powerhouse has fallen on tough times, culminating in Thursday night's 76-64 loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Tournament Tennessee's seventh straight defeat.The Lady Vols (16-13) have lost 10 of their last 12 games under second-year coach Kim Caldwell not exactly the type of closing momentum the NCAA Tournament selection committee typically looks for when choosing the field of 68.Tennessee will have to rely on its strength of schedule which included 15 quad-1 games and early-season accomplishments to get in. The Lady Vols entered at No. 22 in the NET rankings and have wins over Stanford, Alabama and Kentucky.Caldwell thinks her team deserves to make it.I think we have played the hardest schedule in the country and the majority of that came in February, Caldwell said. But we have significant wins. We hope to get in and try to continue to be a different team.If Tennessee does make it to March Madness, it would be more than a month since its last win.The frustration for Tennessee began to boil over in the second half.Leading scorer Talaysia Cooper was replaced with 6:37 left in the third quarter and did not return in what Caldwell called a coach's decision. She finished with four points on 1-of-4 shooting.After the game, Cooper left the locker room with an assistant coach.It was a coach's decision and we just wanted to give her some air, Caldwell said. Emotions can get running and we wanted to get her outside with a staff member so she could breathe.Freshman guard Deniya Prawl did not make the trip to Greenville because she was in the concussion protocol.The Lady Vols were never all that competitive against Alabama, a team they beat 70-59 on Jan. 18. They never led, fell behind 25-18 in the first quarter and trailed by 17 in the fourth before showing some life in the closing minutes by cutting the lead to 10.People werent ready," guard Nya Robertson said. When were not ready it shows. We have to be the first one to punch.The Lady Vols have lost their last six games by at least eight points and Caldwell said her team will spend extra time at practice working on on-ball and weakside defense. Two days earlier, guard Kaiya Wynn revealed she was leaving the program ahead of the SEC Tournament after she didn't play on senior night in her final home game.Wynn, who saw limited action in her return from injury this season, played in 103 games for the Lady Vols from 2021-26.This decision was not made lightly or instantly, Wynn wrote on social media. For the past five years I have given my all for Tennessee and have not regretted doing so once. ... As someone who has never started a career game, l was hoping to start in my last appearance in Thompson-Boling (Arena). That obviously did not happen, and to be asked to check into the game with 15 seconds left while losing was not how I wanted to spend my final moments in my arena after five years. Although that was not the sole reason, it was the breaking point for me."___Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP womens college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

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Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg was back in the starting lineup for Dallas against the Orlando Magic on Thursday night after missing eight games with a foot injury. He had a mixed return to action.The No. 1 pick in last year's NBA draft was sidelined with a left mid-foot sprain and had last played at Phoenix on Feb. 10. But, the Mavericks didn't hesitate to go directly to their rookie star in crunch time.Dallas put the ball in Flaggs hands at the end of a game and the 19-year-old came through with a big three-point play with 37.3 seconds left that gave the Mavericks a four-point lead. But, it wasnt quite enough this time. Flagg missed a mid-range jump shot in the final seconds and the Mavericks lost 115-114 to Orlando. It was their 15th loss in 17 games. But, nobody was disappointed.Obviously weve been in a lot of those situations throughout the season, (and we) havent won a ton of them, but its about learning experiences for us right now, Flagg said. Weve got to learn, weve got to get better. Were going to be in a ton of these situations moving forward into next year. Im pretty comfortable at this point.Flagg scored 18 points on 7-for-22 shooting in 26 minutes and finished with five rebounds, six assists and four blocks, including three in the fourth quarter after he had taken a couple of hard fouls.He had some incredible blocks there, Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. I think he got a little upset when he got hit after the whistle. But I thought his energy picked up on the defensive end and he got us going.The 6-foot-9 Flagg was on a record-setting roll when he got injured, having put up consecutive games of 49, 34, 36 and 32 points. He is the youngest NBA player to score 45 points, and he joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kelly Tripucka as the only rookies to post 49-point games with 65% shooting.Coop is going to be a superstar in this league, said Klay Thompson, who scored 24 points for the Mavericks. Its been a pleasure to be his teammate and Ill be excited to tell future generations that I got to play with him in his rookie season.The final 20 games of Flaggs rookie season, starting Friday night in Boston, will be chalked up to a learning experience. He has missed a total of 12 of the Mavericks 62 games.Obviously the hardest part is not playing. I love to compete, I love to play basketball so having that taken away from me for a while is tough, he said. But its a good way for me to learn and get perspective, watch from a different angle. I think I learned a lot in the last couple of weeks, but I was definitely ready to get back out there and compete.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg was back in the starting lineup for Dallas against the Orlando Magic on Thursday night after missing eight games with a foot injury. He had a mixed return to action.The No. 1 pick in last year's NBA draft was sidelined with a left mid-foot sprain and had last played at Phoenix on Feb. 10. But, the Mavericks didn't hesitate to go directly to their rookie star in crunch time.Dallas put the ball in Flaggs hands at the end of a game and the 19-year-old came through with a big three-point play with 37.3 seconds left that gave the Mavericks a four-point lead. But, it wasnt quite enough this time. Flagg missed a mid-range jump shot in the final seconds and the Mavericks lost 115-114 to Orlando. It was their 15th loss in 17 games. But, nobody was disappointed.Obviously weve been in a lot of those situations throughout the season, (and we) havent won a ton of them, but its about learning experiences for us right now, Flagg said. Weve got to learn, weve got to get better. Were going to be in a ton of these situations moving forward into next year. Im pretty comfortable at this point.Flagg scored 18 points on 7-for-22 shooting in 26 minutes and finished with five rebounds, six assists and four blocks, including three in the fourth quarter after he had taken a couple of hard fouls.He had some incredible blocks there, Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. I think he got a little upset when he got hit after the whistle. But I thought his energy picked up on the defensive end and he got us going.The 6-foot-9 Flagg was on a record-setting roll when he got injured, having put up consecutive games of 49, 34, 36 and 32 points. He is the youngest NBA player to score 45 points, and he joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kelly Tripucka as the only rookies to post 49-point games with 65% shooting.Coop is going to be a superstar in this league, said Klay Thompson, who scored 24 points for the Mavericks. Its been a pleasure to be his teammate and Ill be excited to tell future generations that I got to play with him in his rookie season.The final 20 games of Flaggs rookie season, starting Friday night in Boston, will be chalked up to a learning experience. He has missed a total of 12 of the Mavericks 62 games.Obviously the hardest part is not playing. I love to compete, I love to play basketball so having that taken away from me for a while is tough, he said. But its a good way for me to learn and get perspective, watch from a different angle. I think I learned a lot in the last couple of weeks, but I was definitely ready to get back out there and compete.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

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