Recapping Small Conference Tournaments

[ericd7633]

2015 Atlantic Sun Tournament:
North Florida defeats USC Upstate
North Florida was the #1 seed and had the 2nd best RPI in the A-Sun

2015 Big South Tournament
Coastal Carolina defeats Winthrop
Coastal Carolina was the #3 seed and had the 2nd best RPI in the Big South

2015 CAA Tournament
Northeastern defeats William & Mary
Northeastern was the #3 seed and had the best RPI in the CAA

2015 Horizon League Tournament
Valpo defeats Green-Bay
Valpo was the #1 seed and had the best RPI in the Horizon

2015 MAAC Tournament
Manhattan defeats Iona
Manhattan was the #3 seed and the 3rd best RPI in the MAAC

2015 MVC Tournament
Northern Iowa defeats Illinois State
Northern Iowa was the #2 seed and had the best RPI in the MVC

2015 NEC Tournament
Robert Morris defeats St. Francis(NY)
Robert Morris was the #2 seed and had the 2nd best RPI in the NEC

2015 OVC Tournament
Belmont defeats Murray State
Belmont was the #3 seed and had the 2nd best RPI in the OVC

2015 Southern Conference Tournament
Wofford defeats Furman
Wofford was the #1 seed and had the best RPI in the SoCon

2015 Summit League Tournament
NDSU defeats SDSU
NDSU was the #2 seed and had the 2nd best RPI in the Summit

I wanted to do this just to see if it would have an affect on the NCAA Tournament in terms of it being less competitive. IMO the only tournament outcome that will "water down" the NCAA Tournament was Iona losing in the MAAC Championship to Manhattan. Iona would have been on the 12/13 line, and now the MAAC's representative will more than likely be placed in Dayton. That is a pretty sizable difference in representation. Wofford winning the SoCon was absolutely huge. Had Furman won, they were a lock for Dayton. I fully expect Wofford to end up on the 12 or 13 line.

Projecting ahead, the America East is sending it's top two teams to the final(in terms of RPI) as is the Patriot, which is good for the NCAA Tournament.

We'll see about how the Big Sky, Big West, CUSA, MEAC, Southland, SWAC, Sun Belt and WAC play out. So far IMO, these results have been good for the NCAA Tournament product.

 

[jontaejones]

I watched a couple of those finals and the execution was horrible down the stretch. Crapload of missed free throws under pressure, bricks, bad fouls, bad execution, and bad play calling too.

The NEC looked horrible.

 

[rmilia1]

This years small tourneys havent really provided any huge surprises yet with the possible exception of Manhattan and Belmont but even those arent monster surprises. Luckily we avoided sending a 11 win Furman team to the tourney. LOL

 

[TrollyMcTroller]

My cousin graduated from Furman. I wouldn't have minded seeing the... um... (looks it up on wikipedia) Paladins make the tournament once.

 

[PhilSimms11]

My hope is that all regular season champions win the conference tournaments in the smaller conferences. They are the most deserving. I can't stand it when a team like Furman (11-22, 5-13), which finished in last place in the Southern, gets an opportunity to knock off first place Wofford (28-6, 16-2). If there are multiple teams that finished tied for 1st I'm okay with one of those going. In the Colonial, there was a 4-way tie for first (12-6). Northeastern was one of those teams and they won the conference tourney. Murray St (27-5, 16-0) losing to Belmont is annoying as all get out. Belmont (22-10) is a fine team and they have NCAA experience, but when you run the table in your conference you are clearly the best team, yet you have to prove it all over again in a potentially fluky conference tournament. So far, 4 of the 9 one bid conferences have been won by a team that did not when the regular season title.

 

[tducey]

Thanks for posting this, nice to keep up to date with the smaller schools.

 

[Cincyfan78]

My hope is that all regular season champions win the conference tournaments in the smaller conferences. They are the most deserving. I can't stand it when a team like Furman (11-22, 5-13), which finished in last place in the Southern, gets an opportunity to knock off first place Wofford (28-6, 16-2). If there are multiple teams that finished tied for 1st I'm okay with one of those going. In the Colonial, there was a 4-way tie for first (12-6). Northeastern was one of those teams and they won the conference tourney. Murray St (27-5, 16-0) losing to Belmont is annoying as all get out. Belmont (22-10) is a fine team and they have NCAA experience, but when you run the table in your conference you are clearly the best team, yet you have to prove it all over again in a potentially fluky conference tournament. So far, 4 of the 9 one bid conferences have been won by a team that did not when the regular season title.

Couldn't agree more. What they are saying is that 3 days is more important than 3 months worth of work. Stupid.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

No C-USA recap?

 

[ericd7633]

No C-USA recap?

Can't recap it when the Quarterfinals are happening today.

 

[UVA_Guy81]

Can't recap it when the Quarterfinals are happening today.

Fair enough. Wasn't sure if you were going to do a quick summary of the whole tournament or not since I didn't see any thread at all dedicated to them.

 

[ericd7633]

Fair enough. Wasn't sure if you were going to do a quick summary of the whole tournament or not since I didn't see any thread at all dedicated to them.

It was basically a recap to see which seeds won their respective tournaments and how that affects the NCAA Tournament.