Five conferences have crowned a champion, and our contestants guessed one of them. Congratulations to Yale and the 41 contestants who chose the first place Ivy team that tonight clinched the Ivy League's automatic bid without the bother of a league tournament.
Of the four conferences who actually finished a conference tournament, the best our group could do was 11 of 67 (16.4%). That was our score in the Big South, where UNC-Ashville (chosen by 11: T Cristinzio, Crotty, Coach Doc, Harlan, T Joseph, Mad Leach, Packman, Pogach, Selig, Templeton, Tester) beat up a character from the Music Man (Winthrop, chosen by 28 of us). In the Atlantic Sun, Florida Gulf Coast (taken by 4: L Leach, Sa Leach, Marshall, Rybaltowski) dashed the hopes of ineligible Stetson -- as well as the 59 of us who hoped that regular season champion North Florida would steal the bid on a technicality -- edging the Hatters by 2 points in overtime. In the MVC, Northern Iowa (schelected only by L Schlegel) culminated its conference run by beating 2-seed Evansville one day after besting 1-seed Wichita State. And, as reported yesterday, none of us were savvy enough to pick OVC champ Austin Peay.
Another four conferences are on the verge of finishing up. In the Colonial, it'll be Hofstra (selected by 30) vs. UNC-Wilmington (selected by 29). The MAAC will pit Monmouth (favored by 48) vs. Iona (16). In the Southern Conference, Chattanooga (54) will take on East Tennessee State (12). And in the Patriot League, 9-seed Holy Cross (picked by none of us), having crushed 4-seed Army (60-38) the day after thrashing 1-seed Bucknell, will face Lehigh (taken by 9: Biebel 2, Butscher, Crotty, M Kleiman, L Leach, M McAtee, P Ripley, Sciarabba, J Whiteside).
Championship week's just getting started. Another 27 automatic bids to be determined.
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