Broad Street Believers

The winner of this game can basically just book a flight to Dayton, even if it’s Mississippi Valley St., and their gaudy conference record.  The Delta Devils haven’t exactly looked dominant here in Garland, TX, though, struggling against Jackson St. before winning that quarterfinal matchup by 3, and then taking care of AR-Pine Bluff by 7 yesterday, avenging their only conference loss.  Texas-Southern, the only other team that seemed to even be able to compete with MVSU this year, pounded Alabama A&M in the quarters, before edging a red-hot Alcorn St. team yesterday.

Dave, Doogan, Mac, and Stri are all still perfect in the SWAC, and two of them are going to finish perfect, as Dave and Doogan have MVSU, while Mac and Stri have Tx-S.

#1 Mississippi Valley St. vs. #2 Texas-Southern
Tx-Southern was picked in the preseason to win this conference, but MVSU was utterly dominant all year, winning their first 17 conference games before losing on the last day of the regular season.  Now, the two will face off for the SWAC title and auto-bid to Dayton.

Lohse, Man, RDoc, and Waters have Tx-Southern.  Alexi, Bry, Dave, Doogan, Lil Lohse, Lynch, Primm, Rikey, Scoot, and Stri all have the Delta Devils.

All chalk in the Mountain West, and it’s still been a phenomenal tournament.  #1 San Diego St. needed a last-second shot to beat #8 Boise St. in the quarters, but handled #4 Colorado St. in the semis last night.  New Mexico took care of #7 Air Force two nights ago, before winning the war with UNLV last night.

RDoc is the leader in the MWest standings, and he has New Mexico today, so he will take it if the Lobos do.  If SDSU wins, Dave will sneak in and take this conference.

#1 San Diego St. vs. #2 New Mexico
These two teams have almost been afterthoughts to UNLV this year, even though they both finished higher than the Rebels in the regular season, beat them head-to-head, and have now outlasted them on their home court in this tournament.  So, maybe it’s time to realize that UNLV might actually be the third best team in this league.  The question now is who is #1 and who is #2?  They’ll settle it on the court tonight.

Only Dave, Rikey, and RSmith have the top-seeded Aztecs winning this tournament.  Alexi, Gross, J, Lil Lohse, RDoc, and Stri all have the Lobos.

A historically atrocious Pac-12 season has passed on to nearly as atrocious conference tournament, culminating in a terrible championship game.

Not only is Gross leading this tournament, but he is also one of only two people that can score points in the final (both with Arizona), so he has clinched this bracket, the only question is will he and Doogan (the other with ‘Zona) pick up 120 on the rest of the field or not.

#4 Arizona vs. #6 Colorado
The ‘Cats knocked off UCLA in the quarters and then caught a break with #9 OSU in the semis instead of #1 Washington.  Now, they get the 6-seed in the finals.  But, either way, they are 40 minutes away from the tournament (and, who knows, they might be in either way).

Doogan and Gross both have ‘Zona winning this tournament.  No one has Colorado.

This has been a fantastic tournament and now, while it’s not the championship we expected, it is going to be a great game.

Bry lost his perfect Big XII bracket with the Kansas loss yesterday, and he also lost his Big XII lead to KA and Lynch, who haven’t missed a game in this conference since the tournament opener.  With a Missouri win, KA will win the 2012 CTC Big XII crown, while a Baylor win earns Lynch this year’s title.  Bry has already locked up the money division in this conference.

#2 Missouri vs. #4 Baylor
These two teams are unbelievably fun to watch – most of the time – so this is must-see TV.  There are fascinating seeding questions surrounding both of these teams, so this game really have the chance to make a big impact in that Committee room tonight and tomorrow.

Lynch is the only one with Baylor winning this tournament, so he will get a free 120-point boost if they can come through.  9 people have Missouri today (Alexi, Bry, Doogan, KA, Lil Lohse, Lohse, Primm, RSmith, Teddy).

Well, Pat Knight’s senior class can’t be all that bad, as they are 40 minutes away from leading Lamar to their first NCAA tournament in a while.  But, this Beaumont, TX, squad has to avoid suffering the same fate as two of the Lone Star State’s better Southland teams, who fell to a McNeese State team that is rolling through Dallas.

Waters has the Southland lead currently, but he had SFA winning this tournament, so if Lamar wins, he will give up the title to Doogan.  If McNeese wins, Waters will take the title and the “money” division will be split several ways.

#3 Lamar vs. #4 McNeese St.
This Lamar team was supposed to be one of the best teams in the Southland, but they struggled mightily in the middle of the season.  Now, they can erase all of that and make the Dance.  But, this McNeese St. team has been counted out all season and just kept winning.  Then, they knocked off a pretty good UTSA team in overtime in the quarters, and then blew out a very good UT-Arlington team yesterday in a very surprising semifinal result.

No one has McNeese winning this tournament; Doogan, KA, Lohse, and Scoot have Lamar.

The MEAC’s chaos has died down, and now we just have two of the conference’s better teams playing for the title.

Dave has the current lead in this conference and has Norfolk in this game.  With no one picking BCC, he’s got this conference title locked up.

#2 Norfolk St. vs. #4 Bethune-Cookman
Somewhere the great John Chaney will be tuned in as his alma mater attempts to upset Norfolk St. and punch their ticket to the First Four.  Norfolk, which was the best team in the league for three months before a poor February, has an outside shot at not ending up in the First Four, but it’s unlikely.

Dave, Gross, J, Lynch, Primm, Stri, and Teddy all have Norfolk here.  No one has BCC.

The three best teams in the conference plus one party-crasher gives us an interesting SEC semifinal doubleheader today.

Doogan, Mac, and Primm all went 4-for-4 in the quarters yesterday.  Doogan and Primm are still perfect (a very impressive feat) in this conference so far.  This conference has given them 220 points already and there are still 3 games to go.  Wow.

#1 Kentucky vs. #4 Florida
This could be a really great matchup.  The first two times these teams met were intriguing, but they really just showed us how incredibly good UK is.  If they dismantle UF again today, then I might be convinced that they are as historically good as many think they are.  But, judging by their uninspired performance yesterday against LSU, I’m not sure that Calipari was lying when he said they didn’t care about winning this tournament.  Florida picked up a nice win over ‘Bama yesterday, and their shooters can really light it up.

RDoc is the only one that has Florida here, so a win here and he gains a free 85 points on the rest of the field.  KA has already lost this game with Alabama.  The other 18 have UK here, with 17 of them picking the ‘Cats to take this tournament.

#3 Vanderbilt vs. #7 Ole Miss
The Ole Miss Rebels may have punched their ticket to the Dance and ended any shot for Tennessee in one fell overtime swoop.  Vandy pounded Georgia yesterday opening their way to a possible dream UK-Vandy final tomorrow, but we’ll see if that comes out.

17 people have Vandy winning this game, so Gersh, Gross, and Rikey (who had Miss St.) will be strong Rebel fans today, trying to zero out this one.

I know that it has been almost a week since this conference had any tournament games (and they weren’t all that memorable anyway), but we are finally ready for the AmEast title game today from Stony Brook.

Four people went perfect in the quarterfinals and semifinals (and all four lost the opening round game) to set up a showdown in the championship here.  Two of the, Gersh and RDoc, have Stony Brook and would split the title if they win.  The other two, Scoot and Waters, have Vermont and would split the title if they win.  Doogan wins the money division if Vermont wins the title.

#1 Stony Brook vs. #2 Vermont
Both teams are coming off nail-biting wins last Sunday in the semis.  Stony Brook had a miracle tip-in the buzzer to knock off Albany, while Vermont needed two overtimes (and a lot of luck) to beat #6 Hartford.  But, they both made it, have had 6 days off to recover and are ready to get it on for the auto-bid and the 16-seed. 

8 people have Stony Brook here (Bry, Dave, Gersh, Gross, Lil Lohse, Lynch, Rikey, RDoc).  2 people (Primm-Albany and KA-Hartford) have already lost this game.  The other 10 have the 2nd-seeded Catamounts of UVM.

Rough day for the Philly contingent of the Atlantic 10 yesterday, as all three Big Five A-10 teams lost in the quarters, setting up an underrated Final Four here.

With the field going 6-for40 between the first two games yesterday, it’s no surprise that no one hit all 4 quarters.  Teddy, who hit the huge UMass upset and leads this conference by a wide margin.

#4 St. Bonaventure vs. #8 Massachusetts
A-10 POY Andrew Nicholson led the Bonnies over St. Joe’s yesterday, and they also caught a bit of a break when Temple went down to UMass in the early game.  Now, St. Bonaventure has a decent shot to get to their first A-10 title game in quite a while.

This game is already an L for everyone in the field.

#2 St. Louis vs. #3 Xavier
The Musketeers avoided an NIT-clinching loss yesterday with a dramatic win over their arch-rivals, Dayton.  St. Louis outlasted a game LaSalle team, setting up one of the more underrated games on a great day of hoops.

Gross, Lynch, and Scoot had Dayton here.  Waters had Richmond.  The other 16 all have a shot to pick up points here.  Alexi, Dave, J, KA, Primm, and RSmith have XU.  The other 10 have St. Louis.

All chalk in the quarters for the Big Ten, though Minnesota nearly spoiled the party.  But, this should be a really good Final Four here in Chicago.

Despite it being all chalk, only Bry, Rikey, and RDoc hit all 4.  Rikey does have the lead, due to a better first round than the other two.

#1 Michigan St. vs. #4 Wisconsin
The Badgers took care of Indiana yesterday, while Michigan St. looked as good as anyone anywhere in their dismantling of Iowa.  Now, we get to see the third version of a matchup that isn’t exactly pleasing to the eye.

Gross (the die-hard Michigan State fan) is the only one that has Wisconsin here, so he could gain some major ground on the rest of the field here.  Dave, Doogan, Lil Lohse, Lynch, Mac, Primm, and RSmith have already lost with Indiana.  The other 12 people have Sparty, with Gersh, Scoot, Stri, and Waters as the only 4 with the top seed winning this tournament.

#2 Michigan vs. #3 Ohio St.
The Wolverines narrowly escaped a young, feisty Minnesota squad yesterday, while OSU beat up on Purdue.  Now, these old rivals get to meet again – on the hardwood this time – in a really big game.

Lil Lohse and Lynch are the only two that have Michigan here.  KA and Stri had Purdue, so they have already lost it.  The other 16 have OSU, with most of them picking the Buckeyes to win the tournament.