The A-Ten champion will be either the third or the fifth seed in the conference tourney: St. Joe's shocked nationally ranked GW, and Xavier knocked off Temple, yesterday.

The Colonials, who crushed St. Joe's two weeks ago, couldn't believe it. GW collapsed under St. Joe's late pressure, giving the underdogs a two-point win.

GW coach McKeown blamed himself. ""I didn't do a very good job of coming out of time-outs and putting us in different places. St. Joe's made plays, too." His team shot 29% after the break.

Xavier, playing at home in Cinncinnati, won by one point after Joei Clyburn sank a free throw. Both teams shot poorly; Temple controlled the boards.

XU coach Kevin McGuff chewed out his Musketeers after Saturday's lackluster, one-point quarterfinal win. Clyburn: "Saturday's game was a wake-up call. We just played hard today for a full 40 minutes."

Temple's Kamesha Hairston: "It hurts a lot. I kind of measured this season on whether we could win a title or not, whether I could carry my team."

St. Joe's needs to win this afternoon (on television: ESPN2, 5pm Eastern) to make the NCAAs. GW is in. So, I think, is Temple, whose wins over Georgia Tech and NC State look really good now.

Xavier, at the moment, look bubblicious. On the one hand, they beat NC State too; on the other, they lost to Ball State (in Cinncinnati) and to Charlotte, they lost their only match against GW, and beating Temple just gives them a split on the year. Worst of all, an at-large bid for XU would give the A-Ten four teams in toto, more than the Big Ten is liable to get. So the Musketeers likely need a win too.