Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Conference Showdowns

Things are heating up as we approach 11 days from Selection Sunday. Conference championships are on the line, and the leader board is tightening.

ACC: It all comes down now to Sunday's North Carolina-Duke game. If North Carolina wins, they win sole possession of the ACC championship, and Jaybird picks up 7 points. If Duke wins, they share the championship (they will have split their 2 meetings) and both Jaybird and The CEO will get 7 points each.

Big 12: Missouri's (Gunz) huge win over Oklahoma (Boaris) could have given Kansas (Jaybird) the conference championship but Kansas fell to Texas Tech, meaning that Kansas must beat Texas on Saturday to become sole Big 12 Champ, or both Missouri and Oklahoma must lose. If Kansas loses and Missouri wins, Gunz and Jaybird will both get the 7 points. If Kansas loses and Oklahoma wins, Boaris gets nothing because Oklahoma lost to both Missouri and Kansas in their only games against each other.

Big East: The Big East has come down to UCONN (HippieD), Pittsburgh (Boaris) and Lousiville (Jutdog). Pitt & Louisville both won Wednesday night, putting the pressure on UCONN to win their final game on Saturday against Pittsburgh in order to take the Big East championship (and 7 points for HippieD). If Pitt beats UCONN, and Louisville beats West Virginia, Louisville will get sole possession of the Big East. If Pitt beats UCONN and Louisville falls to West Virginia, we have a three way tie, and all three (HippieD, Jaybird, & Boaris) will get 7 points each. Pitt will have beaten Louisville twice, but Louisville beat UCONN in their only matchup, and UCONN beat Pitt in their only match up.

Pac 10: This is Washington (Akaoni) to win or lose. If Washington beats Wash St on Saturday they get the sole championship in the Pac 10 (and Akaoni gets 7 points). If Wash loses, UCLA (NotaTurtle) could share that championship but only if they sweep both Oregon & Oregon St this week. They face Oregon St on Thursday, and a loss gives Akaoni the title.

Mountain West: It is a horse race. BYU (Phunmunki), Utah (Jutdog) and New Mexico (Akaoni) are all 11-4, with one game remaining. San Diego St (Babs) is 10-5, with one game remaining. None of them play each other in their final game, so whichever teams win on Saturday will get the 6 points for the MWC. If all three lose, and San Diego St wins, Babs will get 6 points along with the other three.

MAC: Buffalo (Jaybird) not only needs to win both of their final two games, but they need Bowling Green to lose at least one of their final games. If they finish tied as they are now, Buffalo won't get squat because they lost twice to Bowling Green this year. Buffalo plays Kent St (Turtle) on Thursday and Miami (OH) (Gunz) on Sunday. Technically both Miami (OH) and Kent St. are still in the running, but Buffalo would have to lose their final games to put them into play.

Ivy: Cornell (Jutdog) is taking their time securing these 6 points, plus the 4 points for an automatic bid into the NCAA Tourney. They have 2 games left.

Big West: Cal Northridge (NotaTurtle) has a one came lead with two games remaining. They are on the road in both games, and will need to win at least one to get these 6 points.

I predict Jaybird scoring points for the ACC, Big 12, and MAC. Jutdog is going to get the Big East and Ivy. Akaoni will get the Pac 10, Turtle the Big West, and the Mountain West will give 6 to Jut, Phunmunki & Akaoni.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like South Carolina's game tonight vs. Tenn is missing from the spreadsheet and this week's games on the front page. Just an FYI.

Ron said...

Good call, fixed it. I also added South Carolina's Saturday game against Georgia. I think I just forgot to extend their schedule past last week.

Ron said...

Check out what Andy Katz has to say about the 57 teams that he considers "in" and on the bubble.

Ron said...

I just love the little conference tournaments!

Wednesday saw no losses by our player teams again. No player teams have been eliminated from potential automatic bids yet.

In the Patriot, Holy Cross (Babs) and American (Progress) both advanced to the Sunday Semis, preparing to face off in the Patriot Finale Friday March 13.

In the Atlantic Sun, E. Tenn St. (Progress) advanced to the Friday semis, possibly against Belmont if Belmont wins tonight.

In the Sun Belt, Middle Tennessee (CEO) won in the first round and will now face the Mean Green of North Texas in the Quarterfinals on Sunday.

Tonight's conference games include:

NEC:
Mt. St. Mary's (CEO) vs Wagner
Robert Morris (Jaybird) vs St. Francis NY

Atlantic Sun:
Belmont (Jaybird) vs. Mercer

Big South:
VMI (Babs) vs. Liberty - [Watch VMI, great team, 5 p.m. on ESPNU if you get that]

MVC:
Drake (Akaoni) vs. Indiana St.

Anonymous said...

double check your Big East breakdown. Without looking, I thought Pitt traveled to UCONN this year and won, and this Sat is the rematch.

Ron said...

Okay, you are right, I got all the teams mixed up. It should have said:

Pitt will have beaten UCONN twice, but Louisville beat Pitt in their only matchup, and UCONN beat Louisville in their only match up.

UCONN lost at home to Pitt, they play this Saturday.
UCONN beat Louisville at Louisville, it was their only meeting.
Pitt lost at Louisville their only meeting.

I think if it is a three way tie, since Louisville beat Pitt and Pitt beat UCONN and UCONN beat Louisville, they all get 7 points.

Is that right...

Ron said...

Xavier clinches the Atlantic 10 tonight, so Six Points for Xavier & Phunmunki!

Ron said...

Cal State Northridge redeems themselves and clinches the Big West, so Six Points for Northridge and the fightin' NotaTurtle! Who incidentally climbed out of twelfth place due to the big night for the Turtle!

Ron said...

Conference Tourney updates:

Drake (Akaoni) is the first (and only) team eliminated from conference tourneys, congratulations!

VMI pulled out a win after a close call with Liberty, VMI plays Radford on Saturday for the Big South Final with the winner going to the Big Dance. Go VMI!

Robert Morris (Jaybird) and Mt St Mary's (CEO) both won in the NEC quarters, they move on to the NEC Semis on Sunday.

Friday's Tourneys:

Missouri Valley Quarters:
UNI (CEO) vs. Indiana St
S. Illinois (Gunz) vs. Bradley
Creighton (Babs) vs. Wichita St
Illinois St (Progress) vs. Evansville

Atlantic Sun Semis:
Belmont (Phun) vs. E. Tenn St. (Progress)
Jacksonville (Babs) vs. Lipscomb

Horizon Quarters:
Wright St (Akaoni) vs Milwaukee (Turtle)
Cleveland St (Turtle) vs Ill-Chicago

OVC Semis:
Austin Peay (Boaris) vs. Murray St (HippieD)

Anonymous said...

Man, I am stinking up the joint this week...I think my long anticipated fall has begun.

-aka

Anonymous said...

Southern Ill (Gunz) - #2 team out for good.

Ron said...

Cornell won the Ivy outright with their win and Princeton's loss tonight. So Six Points for Jutdog and Cornell!

Now how many points is it for making it to the NCAA Tourney? I can't remember, but when I do, Jut gets those points as well since the Ivy doesn't have a tournament.

Anonymous said...

- A team that wins a major conference regular season earns 7 points
- A team that wins a non-major conference regular season earns 6 points
- A team that wins a major conference tournament earns 5 points
- A team that wins a non-major conference tournament earns 4 points

- A team that makes the post-season NIT final 4 receives 2 points*
- A team that makes the post-season NIT championship receives 4 points*
- The team that wins the post-season NIT championship receives 7 points*

- Each team that makes the NCAA tourney receives 4 points
- Each team earns 2 points for a NCAA tourney round 1 win*
- Each team earns 5 points for a NCAA tourney round 2 win*
- Each team earns 8 points for a NCAA tourney round 3 win*
- Each team earns 13 points for a NCAA tourney round 4 win*
- Each team earns 17 points for reaching the NCAA final*
- The team that wins the NCAA tourney earns 21 points.*
- * Each post-season win over another player will also include +2 points

Anonymous said...

Also:

AP poll is effective 2:00pm on each Monday throughout the pre and regular season, and lasts
through the end of conference tourneys. Following the conference tourney, you will no
longer receive a +2 bonus for defeating a "top ten" team

Ron said...

Babblemur & Boaris have the makings for a VERY BIG Saturday. In fact I could win 25 points if I win all 9 of my games...

Anonymous said...

A little housekeeping...

Michigan beat Minne today (Saturday) not Sunday as currently listed on the front page or Monday the 9th as listed on the spreadsheet.

Thanks,

aka

Anonymous said...

Boston U likely done for the year, I can't see anyone wanting to go three deep in the NEC, and with Vermont getting beat, they really had a shot at winning that conf. They led by 8 with 3 min's to go, and got outscored 9-1 down the stretch to go into OT and lose. A dissapointing season.....

Ron said...

Vermont and Boston both knocked out in the quarters! Lame!

Ron said...

East Tennessee State (Progress Media) wins the Atlantic Sun over Jacksonville (boo!). That will be 4 points for the Tournament for Progress, and 4 points for the auto-bid into the Big Dance!

By the way, Progress' Illinois State knocked off my Creighton today, I am getting really irritated at Progress Media and his teams and from now on I hope he loses all his games.

Take that.

Anonymous said...

Dammit - I can't believe I didn't take Auburn. Damn you Babs and CEO.

Ron said...

That was a crazy day.

Two losses (VMI & Jacksonville) cost me 19 points and the lead. I really needed at least one of those wins. And I was just starting to get attached to VMI... boo hoo.

Anonymous said...

It appears as though Boaris has been beaten up with the reg season conf champ points, only coming in with 6 from Butler.

Jaybird is the eventual winner of this crown, with 32 coming following a UNC conf crown.

Jutdog is a close 2nd with 31.

Others of note include CEO with 25 and ProgMEd with 24. Also, a shout out to HippieD for coming in with 0.

Overall, we selected the winner in all but 3 conferences.

Jut

Anonymous said...

It's nice to know that in about 1 month, Northern Iowa has scored more points for my team than any of my other bottom three teams that I had for the whole year.

I curse you Jut for not giving me time to research my second pick in the expansion draft, I can't imagine Oral Roberts getting any invites to post season play

-The CEO

Anonymous said...

You could have taken Auburn, commie.

Anonymous said...

Get your governments right, in communism, isn't the government the CEO?

Ron said...

Well this is cruel, but in the MAC, Buffalo and Bowling Green finished 11-5. However Bowling Green beat Buffalo at both meetings this year, so BG gets the MAC champ and Buffalo gets nothing.

I guess Buffalo will have to earn it in the tournament.

Anonymous said...

I think you have as good a chance of obtaining Musash and Turtle's win percentages by selecting blindly out of a hat. Keep them in for next year for sure.