Colonial

As depressing as the Valley and others have been, the Colonial may be as depressing. Jim Delany, asshat. The tournament starts Saturday in North Charleston, SC.

The 1-seed and conference champ is Hofstra. They’re 80th in KenPom and have the 14th best offense using KP. They went 25-6 this year overall but didn’t do anything out of conference worthy of an at-large consideration and that’s too bad. Their best win was Cal State-Fullerton. Also, I love the offense but the defense is not good.

The 2-seed is Northeastern who split the regular season matchups with Hofstra. They’re 91st in KenPom. Them coming out of this league shouldn’t surprise anyone. They’re not as good offensively as Hofstra but they have the 5th best effective fg% nationally and a tighter defense.

The 3-seed is Charleston and only other top 200 KenPom team, 118th at the moment. Hofstra did sweep them and they split with Northeastern. They basically have home court for the tournament.

The Pick: Northeastern - At first blush, I was all over Hofstra but Northeastern’s balance tops the scales for me. FWIW, they also have a win over Alabama.