One of my favorite conference tournaments tips off today, and that is the Missouri Valley, also known as Arch Madness. Every year this tournament is competitive, fun to watch, and we often see lower seeded teams win the championship. Previous winners also make noise in the March Madness bracket, even making it to the Final Four; Loyola-Chicago and Sister Jean. While 8 teams are playing tomorrow, only 1 team means anything to our pool, and that is the lone person on (5) Belmont. The rest of us went heavy on seeds 1-3, so we'll need to wait one more day.
Another favorite conference of mine is the West Coast Conference, they really drag out the tournament, and it is in Vegas. I love the conferences that decide to hold their tournament in Vegas. We only get a single game, and it is between (9) Pacific and (8) Pepperdine, not relevant to our pool. It is going to be a few days before we have any meaningful games in Vegas.
Now let's talk about some more meaningful pool related basketball that will be happening all day today. The Atlantic Sun quarterfinals begin tonight, and most of us will be rooting for upsets since only Team TNT and Sully are left in this conference. (2) Stetson, a 6-point favorite, will be playing a super hot team in (10) Jacksonville, while (4) Austin Peay, a 4-point favorite, plays (5) North Alabama. The oddsmakers have these as close games, both available on ESPN+, and should be fun to watch.
The Horizon League moves into the quarterfinals, which means every team will be playing, putting us all at risk of losses. In fact, multiple pool losses are guaranteed by the end of the night based on these matchups.
The Ohio Valley also moves into the quarterfinals, every team will be playing, and at least one person in our pool will suffer a loss. Depending how nuts it gets, we could see more pool loses rack up in this conference.
Similar to the leagues we just reviewed, the Patriot League moves into the quarterfinals. We're all at risk of losing, but with 80% of our picks on (1) Colgate, it's unlikely we see anything crazy happen today. I did update the sheet to reflect Boston as a 2 seed instead of a 3 seed, which caused Running Hoarses to fall 3 spots without a game even being played. Sorry about the bonus point being removed.
Finally, the Sun Belt moves into the 2nd round, but seeds 1-4 still have a bye, and our biggest reach in the pool is a 3 seed. Most of us are counting on a (1) Appalachian State vs. (2) James Madison championship game.
Standings Link
That covers it for today, I'll post at least 1 entry later today with updated standings, maybe a second entry if it gets really crazy. As we head into Friday it will be hard to blog this level of detail, I'll likely start focusing on championship games, upsets, and movement in our pool standings. Enjoy the games today!
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