Today we will have 5 conference tournament championship games, with a total of 14 conference tournaments in progress. For this blog entry I am only going to preview the conference championship games, but we should expect many losses from other conferences in play. I'll attempt to preview each conference tournament championship game in tip off order. As expected, many of them are at the same time, so frustrating. Before we dive in, the current standings can be found here, we only had a few insignificant updates from the late games on Monday.
Horizon League Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)
(1) Oakland will play (6) Milwaukee for the championship tonight, and it has an interesting impact on our pool as not many people are left alive in this one. With an Oakland win, Fuss will move up to 6 points, and tied for 1st place, but a win by Milwaukee, and Running Hoarses takes the top spot for the Lowest Winning Seed bonus. Oakland is favored by 5-points, but Milwaukee has been hot, making this an interesting matchup.
Coastal Athletic Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)
This is a good opportunity for Matthew to take back 1st place assuming Oakland wins in the Horizon League, as (1) Charleston takes on (7) Stony Brook. As you may have guessed, nobody is on Stony Brook, but 45% of the picks are on Charleston. What makes this interesting is that only 5 people in the top 10 are on Charleston, making this a great opportunity for Matthew, and Sohler, to create more separation from the pack. Charleston is a 10-point favorite, I don't expect Stony Brook to put up a fight tonight.
Northeast Conference Championship Game (6:00 PM CST)
Our final early game gives us another low seed in the championship game with (2) Merrimack vs. (6) Wagner, and yeah, nobody picked Wagner. In fact, 43% of our pool picks are riding with Merrimack, including 7 of the top 10 people. A Merrimack win pushes Matthew and Sohler even further from the pack, so if we want to keep the standings tight, we're going to need Wagner to pull this one out. However, that seems highly doubtful as they are 7.5-point under dogs.
West Coast Conference Championship Game (8:00 PM CST)
(1) Saint Mary's vs. (2) Gonzaga. This is the conference championship game we have been waiting for all year, and I love that our pool is split 50/50 on this one, except for BI, he went with Santa Clara. Obviously, it depends on how the early games finish, but this championship has the ability to create some separation in the pool standings with us being so evenly split, even in the top 10. I was shocked when I saw Gonzaga as a 4-point favorite, I expect this to be a tough, hard fought, back and forth game. I can't wait for this one!
Summit League Championship Game (8:30 PM CST)
I predict this is the championship game where Matthew either gets caught, or passed, and how fitting it is that it's the last game of the night. Huge Favorite (1) South Dakota State plays yet another surprise low seeded team in (7) Denver in the Summit League championship game. Almost 43% of our pool picks are on South Dakote State, except Matthew, he has already been eliminated. Sohler, Fuss, and Whit all have a shot at jumping into a tie for 1st place or holding 1st place all alone. With South Dakota State as a 10-point favorite, I am afraid we're in for a boring game, but wild pool standings.
That wraps up this blog entry, enjoy the games, look for standings updates throughout the evening, and I'll attempt to post some sort of wrap up later tonight. 🏀
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