In the final press conference of the day, Washburn’s Andrew Meile pretty much summed up the tournament to date following the sixth-seeded Ichabods’ victory over third-seeded Central Missouri.

“Every team in this tournament has a chance to win it,” Meile said. “They’re wearing the white jerseys, but there are no favorites down here.”

During the first day of men’s competition, only one team in the white jerseys walked away a winner -- Northwest Missouri State. Top-seeded Southwest Baptist became only the second No. 1 to lose to a No. 8 in the history of the tournament when the Bearcats lost to Emporia State. Fort Hays State ended Missouri Southern’s improbable season, and then Washburn shot the defending champion Mules out of the tournament.

Parity defined a regular season in which no true frontrunner really ever emerged, and those same themes resurfaced in Kansas City’s Ice Box on Friday. And now it’s Northwest’s title to lose.

Here are additional thoughts for an abbreviated tournament blog -- the result of Western naming its new AD on Friday, costing me the chance to watch the first three games of the day.

--- The final seconds of a game already decided can be anti-climatic, but Washburn’s Mario Scott found a way to make dribbling the ball at half court entertaining Friday. In the last 15 seconds, Scott demonstrated the multi-tasking, ambidextrous player that he is, dribbling the game out with one hand and waving goodbye to the Central Missouri fans with the other. Coach Bob Chipman wasn’t pleased. The same could be said for some Central Missouri fans, who responded with their own hand gesture for Scott. But I thought it was great. Nothing like a little bad blood and some old-fashioned revenge to infuse a little extra intrigue into a game -- even one that’s already decided.