Well, folks, here we go. The BSB Conference Tournament Challenge is about to get under way in its first year as part of BSB, but it has a tradition dating back to the mid-90’s, when Bry, Doogan, and J decided that the NCAA Tournament was not enough “madness” in any given March. So, they decided to pick the major conference tournaments, also. It then expanded to all the conference tournaments, on a weighted scale. It then expanded to four players in 2006 when Stri joined, then five players when Ina joined in 2007. Waters and Alexi made it seven players in 2008, and this year we are pleased to announce that the arrival of Lynch gives us a solid eight contestants. No, we do not claim to “know what we’re talking about,” especially in some of the minor conferences. I think I can confidently say that no one in this competition has watched a game from the Big South or the Atlantic Sun all year, but it is a good time, and only being worth 1/5 of the points in the major conferences, these little tournaments are good warm-ups and some completely unwarranted bragging rights (who doesn’t need more things to brag about?). We are moving the daily “previews” and “recaps” that used to be emails over to BSB this year, so follow along, if you wish, there will be a recap and a preview posted daily for the next two weeks (yes, my employer knows and has completely signed off on this idea).
So, without any further ado (there’s already been too much “ado” already), here is the BSB Conference Tournament Challenge: Day 1 Preview
BIG SOUTH QUARTERFINALS:
The interest level going in to the Big South season this year took a couple major hits early in this season. The 4-time defending champion Winthrop Eagles, who were picked to win again this year, lost 18 of their first 24 games. And, the fascination that is Kenny George, the 7’7″ behemoth at UNC-Asheville missed the entire season because of knee surgery. Regardless, it should be a good tournament, with regular season champ, Radford being chased by the highest-scoring team in the country, #2 VMI, and a solid Liberty team at #3. Winthrop won five straight to close the regular season, taking the #5 seed and will face the George-less UNC-Asheville. Tonight are all four quarterfinal games on the campuses of the higher seeds.
- #7 Coastal Carolina (5-13) at #2 VMI (13-5). VMI is averaging over 94 points per game, playing a Phoenix Suns style offense. It’s fun, but will it work in the postseason. This is probably the game with the most Challenge implications tonight, as three of us (Doogan, Stri, and Lynch) picked the big upset by Coastal Carolina, while two of us (J and Waters) have VMI winning the whole thing. Personally, it would be great to see VMI in the Big Dance.
- #5 Winthrop (9-9) at #4 UNC-Asheville (10-8). Though UNC-Asheville is favored and at home, only Ina and Waters picked them to beat the 4-time defending Big South champs in this game. Waters actually has Asheville going to the finals. Lynch needs Winthrop to win this game, as he has them winning this whole tournament.
- #8 High Point (4-14) at #1 Radford (15-3). Everyone picked the top-seeded Highlanders to move on. Surprisingly, though, only Bry and Stri picked them to win the whole tournament, even though they will be playing it on their home floor all the way through, so the other six are probably rooting for the BIG upset tonight.
- #3 Liberty (12-6) at #6 Gardner-Webb (9-9). Lynch is the only one that thinks Gardner-Webb can go into Liberty and win this game. If it happens, there are some nice upset points for him. Ina, Doogan, and Alexi may be watching this game closely, as well, as they have Liberty winning this tournament.
OHIO VALLEY QUARTERFINALS:
It should be an incredibly interesting Ohio Valley tournament this year. The top four seeds all won at least 12 conference games and the hottest team is #6 seed Tennessee St., which has won six straight entering the tournament that starts tonight with the quarterfinals. The quarters, tonight, are being played at the campus sites of the higher seeds. The four winners tonight will go to Nashville this weekend for the semis and finals.
- #6 Tennessee St. (9-9) at #3 Murray St. (13-5). An interesting game here, as the hottest team in the conference, Tennessee St., was only picked for the upset by one person–Lynch. This game has major CTC implications, as only Bry does not have his OVC champion competing in this game. Lynch has Tennessee St. and everyone else has Murray St. winning the whole tournament.
- #5 E. Kentucky (10-8) at #4 Morehead St. (12-6). There are points at stake here because this game was contentious. Alexi, Ina, and J all picked the home favorite, while the other 5 picked the underdog. Alexi has Morehead St. going to the finals, while both Waters and Lynch have E. Kentucky going to the finals.
- #7 E. Illinois (8-10) at #2 Austin Peay (13-5). Only Lynch took a chance at the major upset points by picking E. Illinois in this game. Surprisingly, no one picked the Governors of Austin Peay to win this tournament, even as the #2 seed.
- #8 Tennessee Tech (6-12) at #1 UT-Martin (14-4). All 8 of us picked UT-Martin to win their quarterfinal game on their home court, but there is a big rooting interest in this game for the underdog #8 seed, as only Bry has UT-Martin winning the whole tournament.
HORIZON LEAGUE OPENING ROUND:
The interesting set-up of the Horizon League tournament really rewards regular season success (which I agree with 100%). First of all, the higher seeds get home games in the opening round. After that, the whole tournament shifts to the home court of the regular season champ. And, to top it all off, the top two seeds (Butler and UW-Green Bay, this year) have double-byes in the tournament. They automatically advance to the semifinals, while the other eight teams will play for two spots.
- #9 Valparaiso (5-13) at #4 Wright St. (12-6). Only Waters and Lynch were swayed by “Valpo.” They both went for the 10 upset points in picks them on the road against Wright St. Waters even had them advancing to the semifinals.
- #7 Illinois-Chicago (7-11) at #6 Youngstown St. (7-11). Five of us picked the mild upset of UIC in this game (Bry, Ina, J, Waters, and Lynch). Waters has them advancing to the semifinals. Stri will be rooting for Youngstown St. tonight, as he has them taking that semifinal spot against UW-Green Bay.
- #10 Detroit (2-16) at #3 Cleveland St. (12-6). This pick was unanimous, as everyone had Cleveland St. defeating hapless Detroit in this game. But, this game does have implications. All 8 of us picked Butler to win this tournament, so this will be decided by the semifinal and final picks, and Bry, J, Doogan, Alexi, and Lynch all have Cleveland St. defeating UW-Green Bay and going to the finals against Butler.
- #8 Loyola (IL) (6-12) at #5 UW-Milwaukee (11-7). Only J took the bait and went with Loyola as an upset pick. Lynch and Alexi care a little more than the rest of, as they have UW-Milwaukee making the semifinals.
Well, that will do it for tonight’s preview. Look tomorrow for a recap of the aforementioned action.
In case anyone else is reading and cares about the scoring, here it works. It’s the same as any normal tournament pool (all rounds are given as if the “byes” were teams):
round of 32 (only seen in the Big East’s first round)–1 point
round of 16–2 points
quarterfinals–4 points
semifinals–8 points
finals–16 points
Then, there are upset points. The way they work is that if you correctly take an underdog to advance, you get twice the
difference between their seed and the seed that “should” have won that game. For instance, if you pick the 7-seed to beat the 2-seed and they do, you get 5 points because the 2-seed should have won that game. Then, say you also picked that 7-seed to win the semifinal round and they do, you get 5 more points because the 2-seed “should have” made the finals. You get those
points regardless of what team they beat to get to the finals and whether or not you correctly picked their opponent. This sound complicated, but it’s not really. Basically, just look at a bracket with only seeds, advance the number of the better seed to a spot and that is the “base” of that spot. If you correctly pick a team that “shouldn’t” be there, then you get the difference of that seed and the seed of the team that “should have” been there.
Oh, and then there is the multiplier that weights each conference (you’ll see that on the bracket sheet). The number of points you get in a conference is multiplied by the weight of that conference.
Wow, I can’t believe almost everyone picked Murray State.