Now that conference tournaments have finally started, expect a steady stream of posts over the next 13 days. Tonight being the first night of tournaments, there is a relatively weak slate of games, but certainly enough to whet one's appetite. It also helps that there are several big games between ranked teams or featuring bubble teams tonight.
Anyways, on to the tournaments.
Big South
The big south is a weak conference that has produced little in terms of recent at large teams/ Big Dance wins. This year, the situation is no different. 1 seed Coastal Carolina has an impressive 26-4 record, but faces an NCAA investigation, losing streak, and program turmoil. Their at-large hopes are null, as they feature an RPI of 98 and very poor 302 SOS. 2 seed Liberty and 3 seed UNC-Ashville also have outside shots at winning the tournament, but neither have anything impressive on their résumés. The Big South also has VMI, the perennially highest-scoring team in D1 hoops, and previous champion and tournament shocker Winthrop.
First round schedule:
1Coastal Carolina-8Gardner Webb
2Liberty-7High Point
3UNC-Ashville-6Charleston Southern
4VMI-5Winthrop
Horizon
Dominated by the prominence of the Butler Bulldogs over the last couple of years, the conference was represented extremely well when the Bulldogs upset its way to the championship game last year, losing by 2 when their last-second 3 hit the rim. This year, Butler, Cleveland State, and UW-Milwaukee all tied for first, with Butler and UW-Milwaukee winning the tiebreakers for the double bye. Of the 3, Cleveland State, led by the ridiculous Norris Cole, and Butler both have at-large hopes. In this way, getting the double bye might actually hurt Butler, since it has fewer chances to add wins. Anyways, tonight's schedule is as follows:
3Cleveland St.-10Ill.-Chicago
4Valpo-9Youngstown St.
5Detroit-8Loyola Ill
6.Wright St.-7Green Bay
Get those brackets ready!
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