The MIAA basketball championships needed less than eight hours to produce a shocking upset. Emporia State – ranked 22nd nationally, seeded second and home to the MIAA’s all-time leading scorer – lost 77-70 to No. 7 Truman State on Thursday night.

The Washburn women had to love what happened in Kansas City’s Ice Box – otherwise known as Municipal Auditorium – Thursday. They took care of business during the first game of the day with an easy win over Missouri Western and then watched as the biggest threats, in my mind, to their title run bowed out to lower seeds in the opening round.

Missouri Southern fell apart in the final minutes of regulation and then went cold in overtime against Northwest Missouri State, and Emporia State inexplicably lost to a team it had beaten twice by a combined 63 points during the regular season.

Afterward, Emporia’s Michelle Stueve said she wasn’t really surprised Truman won. If that’s the case, I think she was the only person in the ice box who felt that way because this loss was shocking.

Of course Emporia was my pick to win the MIAA regular-season title outright – a prediction I was forced amend to a conference tournament title after the Hornets’ loss to Washburn. This is why I don’t gamble, although my perpetual seat on the Emporia State bandwagon – getting lighter by the day – has to leave Hornets supporters cringing.

I promise I won’t pick Emporia to win its regional if it makes any of you feel better.

Emporia coach Brandon Schneider had the best quote on the game, saying “We looked like a team that had eaten a bunch of Twinkies and cookies for two days.”

In the Hornets’ defense, it’s easy to eat tons of junk food at the MIAA tournament. So don’t feel bad. The sports writers are struggling through the same malaise that comes with eating two lunches and two dinners that are some combination of pizza, subs and burgers. I could see our life expectancy dropping with each additional tray of food set out by the caterer Thursday.

As for the rest of Day 1, here are a few more noteworthy items.

--- Truman coach John Sloop wins the worst performance at a press conference award for Thursday. After his team’s remarkable upset, Sloop opening comments were, “I have no comment.” Then later when answering questions, out of the blue, Sloop made sure to tell those gathered in the bowels of the ice box that Truman is Missouri’s “only highly selective institution.” I think Washington University in St. Louis might have something to say about that. And for those of you keeping track at home, in the USNews 2008 college rankings Wash U is 12th, St. Louis 82nd, Mizzou 91st and Rolla 118th. Truman is not in the top 125.

--- Luckily for Sloop, Truman senior Katie Fowler also took part in the press conference and represented those Bulldogs well – even taking time to acknowledge that describing their season as “there is not tomorrow” was cliché. In a sports landscape so defined by tired clichés that they are almost second nature at this point, you have to give credit to those smart Truman kids for diversifying the press-conference vernacular.

--- The Northwest and Baptist men’s basketball teams were the most enthusiastic fans in the building for their respective women’s games. Too often, you see the men’s teams with their feet propped up on the bleachers, emotionlessly watching their counterparts play. Not Thursday. It was great to see the Green and Purple Bearcat men jumping out of their seats, screaming at referees and high-fiving each other.

--- The best press conference moment of the day came when Southern coach Maryann Mitts said all her kids wanted to do is prove David Boyce wrong following the Lions’ overtime loss to Northwest. Boyce, the Kansas City Star’s small college reporter, wrote in his weekly rankings that he thought the Lions were going to lose in the first round. They did, and even then, Mitts revisited the matter much to amusement of the press corps. Mitts was rapidly becoming my favorite opposing women’s coach to deal with prior to Thursday, and that salvo boosted her to the top spot. I hope Southern makes the regional because I’m not ready for that to be her final press conference of the season.

--- And lastly, the weirdest moment of the day came standing outside Kansas City’s Ice Box around 9 p.m. with the temperature hovering around freezing when I saw an ice cream truck repeatedly circling the convention center area. No one screamed.