A big weekend approaches for those seeking their first Sweet Sixteen ever, or at least since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1995.
Here are the top contenders in the Never Been Kissed fake conference:
* Because South Dakota St shared the Summit League conference regular season title, and IPFW won both meetings and thus the tiebreaker, Joey Brackets lists IPFW as a 15-seed. Since SD St has the higher KenPom ranking, we favor them in this space, putting us at risk of being on the business end of an IPFWFU or even an IUPUI
** Television network listed is for the conference tournament’s Championship game only
*** KenPom Log5 refers to the simulations run by Ken Pomeroy and published in his daily blogs, projecting likelihood of the team winning their conference tournament. If you love college basketball and have not yet subscribed to KenPom.com, do so now. I’ll wait.
Friday Afternoon Notes:
- St. Bonaventure, previously among the “First 4 Out”, is now among “Last 4 In” per Joey Brackets. We moved them up quite a bit in the NBK rankings. The NBK Selection Committee will see the Bonnies in person when they take on SLU tomorrow night. While the Committee is sure to administer variations of the Eye Test, the Sniff Test, and the Five Second Rule, we are confident if the Bonnies fall to the Billies, their at-large goose will be cooked.
- Oregon St. stunk things up a bit this week, falling Wednesday night at USC 81-70, but they remain in Joey Brackets’ current field nonetheless
- Big games tonight and tomorrow for Yale and Princeton. Both hit the road for a pair, with Yale facing the tougher test on Saturday at Columbia to close out their regular season. KenPom projects a Columbia 1-point win. So Princeton could emerge from the weekend needing only a home win against #294 Penn on Tuesday to clinch the Ivy title and the automatic bid
- Stony Brook got by UMBC on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals of the America East tourney
- Monmouth and the CAA trio kick off their action Friday
- CBS has an excellent site with Conference Tournament brackets. Pick a conference and off you go.
Buckle up and pucker up. It should be a great weekend of basketball.