Previewing Sunday's Conference Tournament Games
Going to be doing this daily since we’re now in March and it’s just a cleaner look. We’ll take a look at conference tournament games going on each day and put conference championship games in their own blog. This will have updated brackets, what’s going on, etc. I’ll be talking about the games all day @barstoolreags, so join me there and let’s get right into it.
Colonial Athletic Conference
Quarterfinals
The CAA truly gets underway today after the play-in games yesterday. We have a fairly open tournament with Charleston, Towson, Hofstra and Northeastern all having more than a 12% chance to win this thing according to KenPom. Charleston is the favorite though, especially with a guy like Joe Chealey. There are names to know all throughout this tournament though. Guys like Justin Wright-Foreman, Devontae Cacok and Vasa Pusica. I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised to see some upsets in this tournament though as KenPom has no quarterfinal spread larger than 8.
Horizon League
Quarterfinals
For the third year in a row the Horizon has gone absolutely off the rails in the quarterfinals. This year it was Northern Kentucky, the No. 1 seed and heavy favorite, losing to Cleveland State yesterday. Not to mention NKU was up 15 in that game. Today’s Oakland/IUPUI game will be one to watch. Oakland has one of the best scorers in the country in Kendrick Nunn and with NKU out of the field, this bracket could open up for Greg Kampe’s team. Oakland split with IUPUI this year, losing by seven most recently. However, Oakland is expected to win this game by eight points. Again, if they can just get by IUPUI, it wouldn’t shock anyone to see Oakland make a run to the finals.
MAAC Tournament
Semifinals
Well, this bracket looks like it went as planned huh? Here we are in the semis with a 9/4 and 6/7 matchup. Similar to what I said about the Horizon, the MAAC has ow broken perfectly for Iona and Tim Cluess. It’s worth noting that St. Peter’s and Quinnipiac are both on an extra day of rest based on how the MAAC Tournament is set up. Keep an eye on Rickey McGill and Deyshonne Much for Iona today. I’m going to think the two favorites win today as Iona and Fairfield are able to get to the title game.
Patriot League
Semifinals
We have the Patriot League getting to the semifinals tonight with heavy favorite Bucknell still around. That’s the thing with these conference tournaments. We often see so many heavy favorites losing early because it’s simply a one-game situation. All it takes is one bad shooting day and you’re done. These guys don’t have the luxury of bigger programs. Bucknell has a two-headed monster in Zach Thomas and Nana Foulland. This is another one where I expect the top-2 seeds to advance to the finals. They get to play at home and Colgate/Bucknell are both favored by about eight points.
Southern Conference
Semifinals
This is an absolutely awesome mid-major semifinals matchup. Wofford has one of the most electric scorers in the game in Fletcher Magee. ETSU has Desonta Bradford. Furman has Devin Sibley. UNC-Greensboro has Francis Alonso. I highly, highly recommend watching these games as they should be close and incredibly fun. Wofford won at UNC. UNC-Greensboro won at NC State. ETSU was up 20 at Xavier. Furman lost by five at Tennessee. These are all teams that can win a game in the NCAA Tournament. I think you see UNC-Greensobro advance, but I like Furman in the bottom half of the bracket.
Summit Tournament
Quarterfinals
Well we had a scare in the Summit last night as South Dakota State and Mike Daum barely squeaked by Western Illinois. Here are today with two more quarterfinals games. This is set up similar to the Horizon and MAAC in the sense that the top-2 seeds will have an extra day of rest for the semifinals. Despite the scare in the South Dakota State/Western Illinois game, I expect this to be chalk with all top-4 seeds in the semifinals. IPFW has a player to watch in Bryson Scott. The matchup between him and Paul Miller today is going to be worth watching.