Hello folks, welcome back to Conference Tournament Central! I’m your host Bryce Hopwood and day 1 of conference tournament play has made me look like a genius.
The Atlantic Sun conference was the only conference in tournament play with 4 quarterfinal matchups. All the teams I picked were in italics and will be from here on out. I had the 1, 5, 3, and 2 seeds all of them took the W, so I’m 4-0 to start.
We have 3 conferences starting play today, the Big South has 3 games, Horizon League has 2 games, and the Patriot League has 2 games.
Big South 1st Round
#6 Charleston Southern vs. #11 USC-Upstate
Charleston Southern comes into this game winning 4 of their last 5 games. Their single loss was in 2 overtimes against Winthrop, the 3 seed in this conference. They hold an overall record of 15-14 for the season. On the contrary, USC-Upstate has won 1 game since January 2nd. They’ve got a cumulative record of 1-15 since the calendar change to 2019 and went 6-25 this season. Southern takes the cake.
#7 Presbyterian vs. #10 UNC-Asheville
Presbyterian saw a lot of good teams in the non-conference play and held their own for the most part, although they didn’t curate any crazy upsets. For the season they compiled 17 wins. They shoot 4 percent better as a team than Asheville. Unfortunately, 4 is the same number as the amount of wins Asheville had all year. The only reason they’re the 10 seed and not 11 is because they beat Upstate twice. Presbyterian is the victor.
#8 Hampton vs. #9 Longwood
These 8-9 matchups are the hardest because more times than not they had the same conference record and a tiebreaker is the only thing that separates the teams. What sets these teams apart is that Longwood comes in losing 3 straight, including a 20-point loss at Hampton. The first round of this conference tournament is held at the highest seed, so back in Hampton I don’t see Longwood pulling it out. Especially because Hampton has won 4 straight.
Horizon League Quarterfinals
#1 Wright State vs. #8 IUPUI
The Raiders of Wright State started their conference play at 2-3. After that they took off. They won 11 of 13 and took the tiebreaker from Northern Kentucky for the regular season conference title. IUPUI has dropped 2 in a row leading into the conference tournament. While the Jaguars score more points on average a night, Wright State’s defense is better and they took both games during the season against IUPUI. Wright State will receive the spoils.
#4 UW-Green Bay vs. #5 Illinois-Chicago
My best friend’s sister attended and graduated undergrad from UWGB. I might be a little impartial because of it. The 4-5 game is similar to that of 8-9 game where both teams are good and usually evenly matched. The numbers are almost all the same going through each stat and number. However, Green Bay took both matchups this season including a 1-point victory at UIC about 10 days ago. Green Bay is just going to outscore UIC and take this game and head to the semifinals.
Patriot League 1st Round
#7 Lafayette vs. #10 Holy Cross
Despite the disparity in seeding, the difference is only 1 conference victory. Holy Cross gives up about 9 points less on average per game than the Leopards of Lafayette. The teams split the season series with the home team winning each time. This game is played at Lafayette as most of these smaller conference tournaments have the first round or two host by the higher seeds. I think Holy Cross breaks the mold and takes this one in Easton, PA because they were there in the beginning on February and only lost by 2.
#8 Boston U vs. #9 Loyola-MD
Now we have another game that I have some sort of connection with, long story short an in-law relation plays women’s hockey for BU. This season series was split as well, with BU winning the most recent matchup at home. Seeing as Loyola went 3-15 away from home his season, the Terriers are going to make a chew toy out of Loyola and move on to the quarterfinals.
Hopefully day 2 is as well done as day 1!
