Lots of them, let’s go…
ACC
The ACC is in Brooklyn to appease a bad Syracuse team. The ACC has 3 teams in the KenPom top-30. Two of them are 28 and 30. The league is mediocre this year. However, they have a legit title contender in Duke.
Brian has 4 teams in at the moment. UNC is probably a lock now and I feel pretty good about Wake. VaTech is outside looking in.
Weirdly, this could very well be a bid-thief league. I don’t think we should be shocked if it happened, looking at Virginia or Miami or god forbid, Syracuse. I’ll stick with chalk and pick Duke.
Big West
The Big West tournament comes to us from Henderson, NV. Long Beach State is your regular season champ. It appears to be a league that had some covid issues. UC-Irvine and UCSB are 120 and 130in KenPom and both finished 8-5 in the league.
LBSU is 155th in KenPom and split with UCI and UCSB during the season. Cal-State Fullerton, Hawaii and UC-Davis are top-200 KenPom teams and all capable of winning this league.
There isn’t an overwhelming favorite here. Honestly, this is a league tourney that might be a lot of fun to follow. I’ll take Irvine.
Conference USA
Our departing league plays their tournament in Frisco, TX. The league is split into two divisions. North Texas won the west going 16-2 and is 49thin KenPom. UAB finished just behind them at 53.
Middle Tennessee won the East and are 101 in KenPom. Louisiana Tech is 103 and Western Kentucky is 112. Florida Atlantic is 125.
The league would probably prefer UNT or UAB come out since one or the other seems more likely to steal a win or two in the dance. I’ll pick UAB to be that team. Brian has UNT as an 11-seed but they’ll almost certainly need the auto-bid.
MAAC
The MAAC is playing their conference tourney in Atlantic City. The story all year has been Iona and Rick Pitino. The Gaels won the league and are 90th in KenPom. They will be a popular upset pick in a few weeks should they win the league.
St. Peter’s finished 2nd and is and 128th in KenPom. Monmouth and Marist are also top-200 KenPom teams.
Iona is the pick and they should win the tournament. Lots of pressure on them to do so, however.
WAC
The WAC is one of a few leagues traveling to Vegas to play its tournament. The top of this league is a bit weird as Seattle and Stephen F. Austin tied for the regular season title but Seattle is the 1-seed by virtue of their win over the Lumberjacks. New Mexico State is a 1/2 game back and at 87, the best of the teams in the league. A terrible loss at Chicago State cost them the league title.
Grand Canyon is 91st in KenPom but finished 4th. SFA and Seattle are 109 and 131 respectively in KenPom. Utah Valley and Abilene Christian are 114 and 137 respectively. It’s a bunched top half of the league and predicting a winner with any conviction isn’t going to happen here.
New Mexico State was the best team all year but a loss at Chicago State gives pause. The pick is SFA
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