After an upset-starved Day One, we not embark on Day 2.\u00a0 Ina’s perfect day has put her ahead early and Lynch’s struggles have him behind, but, obviously, there is a LONG way to go.<\/p>\n
SUN BELT OPENING ROUND:<\/strong><\/u> PATRIOT LEAGUE QUARTERFINALS:<\/u> ATLANTIC SUN QUARTERFINALS:<\/u> After an upset-starved Day One, we not embark on Day 2.\u00a0 Ina’s perfect day has put her ahead early and Lynch’s struggles have him behind, but, obviously, there is a LONG way to go. SUN BELT OPENING ROUND: Prior to … Continue reading
\nPrior to the Big East’s expansion to a 16-team tournament, the Sun Belt held the distinction of being the largest conference tournament in D-1, with 13 teams.\u00a0 The first round of the Sun Belt tournament remains the largest single-round in all of D-1 conference tournaments–the only round with 5 games.\u00a0 Those five games all tip-off tonight around the different Sun Belt campuses.\u00a0 The 13-team format worked out well this year because there were three dominant teams this year (W. Kentucky, AR-Little Rock, and Troy) and this format yields three byes.\u00a0 The other ten teams play tonight.\u00a0 Last year, the Sun Belt conference was the only conference that Ina lost, only getting\u00a022 points.\u00a0 Alexi won the conference with\u00a052 points; Waters was close with 46, and everyone else had\u00a032 or fewer.<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong>One of the classic low-major conferences is the Patriot League.\u00a0 They play a true round-robin regular season and their 8 teams always play a standard 3-round tournament in the tiny, but packed gyms of the higher seeds.\u00a0 The league has had the same 8 teams for, well, as long as I can remember, and it is always a very entertaining tournament.\u00a0 This year looks a little top-heavy, as American and Holy Cross dominated the regular-season, but we will see if any of these other teams can rise up and steal a bid.\u00a0 Doogan is the defending PL champion (56 points last year), while Bry and Waters will try and come back from an absolutely dismal performance in the Patriot League last year (6 points each).<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong>In an 11-team conference in flux, after the Gardner-Webb departure,\u00a0the Atlantic Sun only has 7 eligible teams for the NCAA tournament, so only 7 teams are competing in this year’s conference tournament, which is being played on the campus of #4 Lipscomb, in Nashville, TN.\u00a0 Jacksonville edged out E. Tennessee St. and Belmont for the regular-season title and, therefore, a first-round bye and, as importanly, the ability to avoid either of those two until the finals.\u00a0 Waters (16 points), Stri, and Alexi (20 points each) struggled in last year’s A-Sun tournament; J did not.\u00a0 J will try and repeat his PERFECT bracket (54 points) of a year ago.\u00a0 As they did last year (in an attempt to give more of an advantage to the regular-season results), the quarterfinals will be played over two days.\u00a0 Therefore, only one of the three quarterfinal matchups will be played tonight.<\/p>\n\n