Conference Tournaments Today!

Sun Belt

#1 Seed - South Alabama

My Pick - Arkansas State Red Wolves

Sun Belt

#1 Seed - Robert Morris

My Pick - Milwaukee Panthers

Sun Belt

#1 Seed - Bucknell

My Pick - Colgate Toothpaste

Duke Wins Again, and other Monday Things

Duke looked dominate again and Wake is on their last legs.  Wake tried to be physical with Duke and it worked for about 5 minutes and then things got out of control.

In the other game of note, Houston gave Kansas another loss and now the Jayhawks are looking at a 6-8 seed.  I don't feel too bad for them.  Hunter Dickenson is unlikeable.

UCLA won, North Texas did too.

Climbing, BS, Blizzards and Graft

Wednesday brings us the beginning of 4 conference tournaments. Let’s dive in.

Summit- From Sioux Falls, home of Mary Hart, the Summit League takes the court to entertain us Wednesday night. 

As a hardcore Summit League fan, I am sad to report Nebraska-Omaha won the league this year. 180th in KenPom is 4th best in the league behind South Dakota State (120), St. Thomas (124) and NDSU (125). UNO went 6-9 out of conference but rode a hot offense to the league title. Whatever they figured out at the start of league play has worked.

The other 3 are pretty close as you can tell. St. Thomas long term desire is to join the Big East. Goals, have them, kids. Anyway, the pick is South Dakota State because the Dakotas should always rep this league.

Big South-  The Big South is taking its show to Johnson City, TN, home of Del Harris, who is still alive. High Point cruised to the regular season title and is 88 in KenPom. Radford and Winthrop are the only other top-200 KenPom teams and they’re 156 and 174, so, eh.

High Point has 2 wins over AAC squads and should seriously claim that league title as well. On an 11-game winning streak, they have the 25th best offense in the nation but a god awful defense. They’re the pick and I’d love to see them scare the daylights out of a 3 or 4 seed SEC team but my confidence isn’t high on this one based on a leaky d.

NEC- The NEC wisely plays all games on campus sites. KenPom’s worst conference, the prayer here is, Central Connecticut wins this thing. They actually have the nations longest winning streak at 12 games. At 173 in KenPom, that’s 100 spots clear of the second best team.

Watch this team, Duke fans. Feels like a potential round 1 opponent.

Ohio Valley- These teams are invading Evansville starting Wednesday night. Evansville is known as “Crescent City” or “River City” and was originally named McGary’s Landing.

SE Missouri won the league and is 203 in KenPom. Only 4 other schools are top 300. SIUE, UT-Martin, Little Rock and Tennessee State. None have a positive NetRtg. 16-seed city is what Evansville is.

The pick is SE Missouri because they really are the best team. The best team doesn’t always win. It’s one of the many paradoxes of life, like, you can’t always get what you want but you might get what you need. Paint it black, SE Missouri.

Monday Bracketology

1. Auburn  vs  16. Bucknell/Southeast Missouri St.

1. Duke  vs  16. Nebraska Omaha/Southern

1. Houston  vs  16. Bryant

1. Tennessee  vs  16. Quinnipiac

2. Alabama  vs  15. Robert Morris

2. Florida  vs  15. Central Connecticut

2. Michigan St.  vs  15. Northern Colorado

2. St. John's  vs  15. Norfolk St.

3. Iowa St.  vs  14. Utah Valley

3. Texas Tech  vs  14. Chattanooga

3. Purdue  vs  14. Towson

3. Wisconsin  vs  14. Akron

4. Texas A&M  vs  13. Arkansas St.

4. Marquette  vs  13. Liberty

4. Michigan  vs  13. Lipscomb

4. Kentucky  vs  13. High Point

5. Clemson  vs  12. Yale

5. Maryland  vs  12. McNeese St.

5. Oregon  vs  12. UC San Diego

5. Arizona  vs  12. Drake

6. Missouri  vs  11. Arkansas

6. Mississippi St.  vs  11. Boise St./Georgia

6. Louisville  vs  11. Xavier/West Virginia

6. Kansas  vs  11. VCU

7. Memphis  vs  10. Oklahoma

7. Saint Mary's  vs  10. Indiana

7. Mississippi  vs  10. Baylor

7. UCLA  vs  10. Utah St.

8. BYU  vs  9. Creighton

8. Illinois  vs  9. San Diego St.

8. Connecticut  vs  9. Gonzaga

8. New Mexico  vs  9. Vanderbilt

First Four Out - North Carolina

First Four Out - Nebraska

First Four Out - Texas

First Four Out - Cincinnati

Next Four Out - SMU

Next Four Out - Ohio St.

Next Four Out - Pittsburgh

Next Four Out - Villanova

Also Considered - San Francisco

Also Considered - Wake Forest

Conference Tournaments

Well, I missed the start of the Atlantic Sun by 1 day so I already know who won the 7 vs 10 matchup...

#1 Seed - Lipscomb

My Pick - North Alabama Lions

Belts, Linear Space & Ethan Allen

Starting Tuesday, our delightful friends in the Sun Belt, Horizon & Patriot League begin their conference championship.

Sun Belt - The Fun Belt is coming to you, live from Pensacola, where rolling a barrel down the street can cost you a fine. Look it up.

The league title was shared by Arkansas State (87th in KenPom), Troy (109th), South Alabama (115th) and James Madison (154th). Love them Dukes. Marshall finished a game back and does own a win over Arkansas State. If the top-seeds hold serve (tennis or volleyball term), this could be a lowkey fun tournament.

I think any of the top 3 can be a handful in an opening round game for someone, so it behooves the league one of those teams wins. I drove through Arkansas in October and it was quite pleasant, so I’ll say Arky State comes out of this league.

Horizon- The Whore Zone opens on campus and finishes in beautiful Indianapolis and will certainly have the most compelling basketball tournament of any of the conferences having their tourneys here.

Robert Morris, named after the financier of the Revolutionary War.  He ended up in a debtors prison, so that explains a lot about American financial history. Anyway, the Governors are 152 in KenPom. Milwaukee is actually better at 136 but Bob swept the Panthers this season. And let’s face it, nobody roots for the artist formerly known as UWM.

Cleveland State and PFW are 165 and 164 in KenPom respectively. Bob has won 7 in a row and 13 of 14. They are on fire. That said, they have some weird in-league losses and that makes me hesitant to pick them. I’ll pick Cleveland State to steal a bid even though Cleveland isn’t a state unless you consider it a state of mind.

Patriot- The Patriot plays all its games at campus sites. This is a pretty terrible league. Bucknell and American split the league title, but the Bisons own a 22-point win over the Eagles after losing to them by 10 earlier in the season. This isn’t your mom’s Bucknell team of yore, though. They’re not very good.

Bucknell is 217 in KenPom, American 251. The only other schools with winning records overall are Boston and Army. Colgate could probably win this league but they’d still have a losing record.

Basically, this league is trash. Eagles eat a lot of trash, so American is the pick.

Fun In The Atlantic Sun

Rumor has it, March has begun. Whee. That means conference tournaments are starting. First up, our friends in the Atlantic Sun. They begin tomorrow, with all games on campus.

Lipscomb and North Alabama shared the regular season title, splitting their two matchups. Lipscomb is 84 in KenPom, North Alabama is 113.

Florida Gulf Coast is 163, Eastern Kentucky is 176 and Jacksonville is 183. Basically, league really wants the top 2 to be the winner. Eastern Kentucky swept Lipscomb. Rude. I prefer Lipscomb wins but what I prefer matters not. The randomness of the cosmos cares not for the whimsical desires of the individual but instead often crushes one’s whimsy like a boot to an ant.

The pick: North Alabama