Patriot, Big South, NEC, OVC

Patriot League

Forgot this one yesterday. They start tonight and all games are played on campus sites.

Colgate is the prohibitive favorite and the pick. 142 in KenPom, their next closest competitor is Lehigh at 270 and they finished 12-17. Colgate has a top-100 win at Vermont. With an AdjEM of +2.20, they’re the clear class of the league and a team that could scare someone in a few weeks. Too bad the rest of the league drags them down.

Big South

The Big South tips-off tomorrow with games being played at High Point University. High Point is the regular season champ and 112 in KenPom.

UNC-Asheville (153), Winthrop (163), Gardner-Webb (175) and Longwood (193) are your other top-200 KenPom teams. Of the 4, only UNC-Asheville has a positive AdjEM.

It should come down to High Point and UNC-Asheville or Winthrop. Asheville does have a win over them but High Point has home court and are the pick.

NEC

KenPom’s worst league tips-off tomorrow with all games played on campus. Merrimack and Central Connecticut shared the regular season title, splitting the regular season matchups.

Merrimack is 198 in KenPom while Central Connecticut is 254. I guess I’ll take Merrimack as their AdjEM of -2.97 is better than Central Connecticut’s -6.52. Only Sacred Heart at KenPom 292 is top-300. Play-in 16 seed.

OVC

The OVC tips-off tomorrow night from Evansville. Morehead State was your regular season co-champ and is 123 in KenPom with and AdjEM of +4.64. Little Rock tied for the title and is 192 in KenPom with a -2.55 AdjEm.

UT-Martin also tied for the title and is 220 in KenPom. They are currently on a 7-game win streak.

The league offices want Morehead State who would be a potential pest for a 2-seed, maybe a 3-seed. They’ll be my pick. There is a trend to my picks.