AAC- From Ft. Worth, comes the AAC Tourney. Memphis actually won the league this year and should be pretty darn safe. They’re only 48 in KenPom, so, cool your jets.
North Texas finished 2nd and is 68. The next best is FAU at 109. This is a 1-bid league if Memphis wins. Memphis two losses were to Temple and Wichita State and those teams won’t be confused with past versions.
Memphis is a big favorite but they always screw things up, so I’ll say they lose stupidly and UAB (117 KenPom) steals a bid
Big West- The Big West travels to Henderson, NV, presumably cuz all the hotels in Vegas were already booked by other leagues. A former college roommate might live there. Anyway, this league was fun as usual. UCSD won the thing and is 39 in KenPom! Smells like a possible West Bracket Sweet 16 team.
Not to be outdone, UC-Irvine is 65 in KenPom and was only a game back of UCSD. The Anteaters won at San Diego but got poleaxed at home by them. There’s no at-large chances here which is kind of a shame but if either wins this things, I wouldn’t want to be on the 4 or 5 line. If someone else wins, league be mad.
I’ll take UCSD and pencil them into the Sweet 16.
MEAC- They are playing once again, in beautiful Norfolk. That’s where you can visit the USS Wisconsin, the slowest ship in the fleet. Norfolk State and South Carolina State both went 11-3 in league and are 176 and 191 in KenPom respectively. The rest of the league is BAD.
The pick is Norfolk State. They’re not as weak as previous MEAC teams, so, I’m just saying, they could be a pest as a 16-seed for someone longer than that team might like. Could be.
Mountain West- Speaking of Vegas, the Mountain West is playing here as well. Brother, this league is rootin’ tootin’ kind of a mess but in a good way. They have 7 top-100 KenPom teams. New Mexico won the regular season title and is 41 in KenPom, the best of the lot.
Bubble teams? All of them, really. Brian has 3 in. New Mexico, Boise State and Utah State. SDSU and Colorado State are outside looking in. I think SDSU should be in but it’s a quibble. Boise and Utah need to win a game or two to feel safe, SDSU and CSU need to win a few to make a case.
This is a fascinating tournament because I don’t think much separates these teams. I’m going to pick San Diego State just to see how things unravel (probably knock out a league foe).
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