Thursday, March 6, 2014

First Blood

Eight conferences have started their tournaments, so it's time for our ever popular feature, "Who Already Screwed Up."

Tonight in the Atlantic Sun, everybody's darling from last season -- Florida Gulf Coast (chosen by 36) -- remained alive by outscoring hardly anybody's darling East Tennessee State (chosen by just 2, M Josephs and L Leach). Everyone else (65 in all) likes Mercer in this conference.

Last night, in the Northeast Conference and the Patriot League, three teams chosen by one or more of our contestants lost by a combined three points. That's right all three of these games were decided by a single point. The biggest disappointment for our entrants came in the Northeast, when St. Francis PA (selected by nobody) edged Bryant (selected by 11: Urban Angels, George B, Fitch, Corey, Gorenstein, Moscow, Pomerantz 1, Pomerantz 2, Steitz, Watson, and B Wright), by the score of 55-54. In some ways more interesting was the mano a mano matchup between two teams picked by a sole entrant, in which Templeton's Mt. St. Mary's topped D Kornfeld's St. Francis NY by a score of 72-71. The big favorite in the Northeast is Robert Morris (chosen by 87).

In another 72-71 contest, Army (taken by nobody) beat Bucknell (taken by B Brenner, L Leach, M Paston, K Ripley) in the Patriot League. The big favorite here is Boston University (selected by 77), followed by American (17).

There is no favorite in the Big South, at least not according to our contestants. Top vote-getters in the conference are Coastal Carolina (27), VMI (27), and High Point (26), but in what may be a first, the votes are scattered among eight (8) teams, including UNC-Ashville (10), Charleston Southern (3), Radford (3), and Winthrop (1). Oddly, the only team among the top eight seeds in this tournament that wasn't chosen by anybody (Campbell) was the one seed that lost, meaning even though we chose eight different teams, everyone's Big South champ is still alive at the moment. Even more oddly, the Big South has split itself into two divisions and named them "North" and "South," meaning there's a Big South, North and a Big South, South.

None of our entrants have picked an eliminated team in the Horizon, MVC, OVC, or WCC tournaments. Yet.

Tune in for more fun tomorrow.

No comments: