Our 2026 Conference Tournament Champion: Cox (Pool Closing & Payouts)

A big congratulations goes out to Cox for not just winning but completely dominating this years' 2026 Conference Tournament Challenge! Cox got out to an early lead and never looked back, scoring 18 overall points, 14 wins and a 45.2% accuracy rate. 🎉

We had some really great final games today, starting with (3) Penn knocking off (1) Yale in the Ivy League, tying the game with a 3-pointer to send it into overtime. Fran McCaffrey is back in the NCAA Tournament. Team TNT, Balls Boy and Jack were all able to secure a nice bonus point win. (3) Arkansas, (2) VCU and (1) South Florida won without any real competition. And the last game to wrap up was in the Big Ten and (7) Purdue knocked off (1) Michigan to give SJS the Lowest Winning Seed!

     

As always, click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

Below is the final standing for anyone that has won money or a free 2027 entry, outlining how much money each person won. Please reach out to me and let me know how you would like to be paid. I hope everyone had fun, this year's conference tournament was a wild one, but now it's on to the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Finally, I've included an invitation below for anyone that is interested in a bracket pool. 🏀

Bracket Link: Drais College Basketball Transfer Portal Presented by Vanderpump

Thank you and enjoy the tournament!

Rick Donegan

Happy Selection Sunday 2026!

Happy Selection Sunday!

We finally made it to Selection Sunday, one of the greatest days on the sports calendar, but we still have 5 conference tournament championships that need to be decided today. We have seen eight 3-seed, or lower, teams win their conference tournaments, with Prairie View A&M the lowest as an 8-seed, winning the SWAC. Sunday guarantees that number will get to at least nine, and it could potentially hit double digits. The 2026 conference tournaments have been a complete opposite of last year's and it is fantastic. However, the most important thing is that we will have multiple winners in our pool later this afternoon, bringing everything to a close. 🏀

As always, click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

Spoiler Alert! We do already have a winner in our 2026 Conference Tournament Pool as nobody has enough Max Points and/or unique picks to catch Cox, who has a staggering 18 points. Congrats to Cox on his win! I will break down his stats in the final blog post later this evening. Don't go anywhere yet though as we still have a battle for 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, in addition to several bonus money categories, which means still plenty to watch for in our pool today. All bonus money categories are still up for grabs, even the Lowest Winning Seed with 7-seed Purdue. 💰

Here is a quick overview of the games today. The Ivy League tips off first at 11:00 AM CST today with (1) Yale vs. (3) Penn, and three people in our pool do have Penn. The SEC game starts an hour later as (4) Vanderbilt plays (3) Arkansas, and in this game alone we have bonus points available, Power Conference points at stake, and we all are competing for the closest score. This is a must-watch game in our pool. In the final game of the day, we wrap up conference tournaments with the Big Ten game tipping up at 2:30 PM CST as (7) Purdue takes on (1) Michigan. SJS can swoop in and take that Lowest Winning Seed money with the final game! 😁

I will attempt to keep the standings updated as games end so those in contention for anything will know where you are at, and then I will post one final blog later tonight with the final standings and payouts. Enjoy the last day of conference tournament college basketball games before we head into the 2026 NCAA Tournament! 🎉

The Final 36 Hours of Conference Tournaments

We are down to the final 36 hours of conference tournament basketball and all of us have taken a pounding with losses the last few days. However, some are in a much better position than others. A few notable upsets include, but are not limited to, undefeated and 1-seed Miami Ohio losing in its first round against the Frank Martin led (8) UMass team in the MAC, popular bonus point pool pick (5) UC San Diego losing in the Big West quarterfinals and in the MEAC, another popular bonus pick (4) Norfolk State lost. That was just Thursday! 📅

Friday brought us gifts of even more upsets and losses. Keeping with the theme, a popular bonus point pick (4) Illinois lost in overtime to (5) Wisconsin in the Big Ten, (2) Sam Houston was knocked out of the Conference USA tournament, leaving zero people alive in the pool, and (2) Arizona beat (4) Iowa state on a buzzer beater in the Big 12. Additionally, in the SEC, (2) Alabama was beat by a team that is having a crazy run, (15) Ole Miss, and yes, that is fifteen seed. Finally, extremely late Friday night, and into Saturday morning, in the Mountain West (2) San Diego State defeated our most popular pick (3) New Mexico, potentially reshaping the standings for the final 36 hours. 🏀

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

The standings order has not dramatically changed due to not having conference tournament championship games over the last few days, but we now have a better sense of how we all stack up as we make this final push. The key metrics to look at outside of the overall standings are Accuracy and Max Points. Our top 14 is where we should focus, but that doesn't mean that someone outside of this top 14 can't jump into the top 4 spots 📈

• Cox has a commanding lead in every metric, and this is his pool to lose at this point. Key teams for him are (3) Tulsa and (3) Southern, if both those teams win he has a 99.4% chance to win, the pool. I did make that number up, but it is probably true.
• Thomass, Heffron and Novakii are all tied with 10 points and are battling each other for spots two through four. One slip up from one of their teams and they can get left in fourth, or lower.
• Our dark horses to watch are Rory & Webb with 23 Max Points and Corey with 22 Max Points. If they can get their picks correct the rest of the way, with some luck above them, they can finish in the top 4 spots
• Unfortunately, we do have some people eliminated, and that is updated on the spreadsheet. The only reason Balls Boy and Team TNT are not eliminated is they have (3) Penn and can pray their way into 4th place with some tiebreakers.

As a reminder, for those of you that are not doing well in the 2026 Conference Tournament pool, you still can win up to $500 without coming in first place. Zero power conference championship games have taken place, there are still several low seeds in play and the SEC championship game is Sunday afternoon.

• (1) Most bonus points - The person with the most total bonus points (picking 3 seeds or lower winners) will win $150. 💰

• (2) Most power conference points - The person with the most power conference points (wins + bonus points) will win $150. 💸

• (3) Lowest winning seed - The person who has the lowest winning seed conference tournament champion wins $150. 😍

• (4) Closest SEC championship game score - The person with the closest SEC championship game score wins $50. 😎

Only 15 of the 31 tickets have been punched, which means 16 opportunities are still available in our pool. Every game on Saturday is either a championship game or a semifinal, this should be a great day of basketball games. One last note, I will likely be gone for the majority of Saturday, still peak at the blog once in a while just in case, but don't expect any updates or new standings until later in the evening. 🌜

McNeese, Lehigh and Idaho Punch Tickets

Three more tickets to the 2026 NCAA Tournament were punched Wednesday, and in non championship conference tournament games several favorites were not just eliminated but blown out. Focusing on the championship games first, we start in the Southland where (2) McNeese clobbered (1) Stephen F. Austin in a game that tipped off at 4:00 PM CST for some reason. SFA should be fine though, I assume Thomas Walkup will be back for his 19th season next year. In the Patriot League, (2) Lehigh crushed (4) Boston, handing out three pool wins. Finally, in another massive upset (7) Idaho defeated (4) Montana in the Big Sky championship game, resulting in zero pool wins. If you are a fan of wanting the conference's "best" team to represent them in the NCAA Tournament, this past week has been a nightmare for you, and Jay Bilas. However, none of these teams are considered bid stealers, so all the terrible bubble teams still have a shot. 🏀

  

Some important, pool-related upsets happened on Wednesday, as well as tickets punched. A few key upsets include, but are not limited to, (1) Liberty lost in the Conference USA quarterfinals, knocking out the most popular pool pick, (1) Bethune-Cookman lost in the SWAC quarterfinals, again knocking out the most popular pick in our pool, and staying in the SWAC, popular bonus point pick (7) Jackson State went down. Several other one-off pool eliminations happened as well. 📉

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

This may be the last blog post until Saturday morning, as we do not have any championship games, or new conferences tipping off both Thursday and Friday. However, the next 48 hours are the worst 48 hours of this pool, as the only thing that happens is we all rack up losses. My plan is to post standings updates at least twice on Thursday, and at least three times on Friday, so even if you don't see a blog entry, check those standings. I guess we can call this the mid-point. 15 conferences complete, 15 conferences in progress, and the Ivy League does not tip off until Saturday. Enjoy the next brutal 48 hours of elimination basketball. 😰

Big Sky, Patriot League and Southland Championship Game Previews

It is a weird day of conference tournament championship games ahead of us today, from a pool perspective, and this is the last chance to earn wins, and points, until Saturday. Starting with StarchMadness, the Big Sky championship will feature some surprising teams as (4) Montana plays (7) Idaho, no chalk to be found. The impact to our pool is minor, only B.I. and Jack are on Montana, but they are also in 31st and 36th place. In the Patriot League, only three people survived and the matchup is (2) Lehigh vs. (4) Boston, which is not a crazy matchup, but so many of us were on the 1-seed, Navy. All three people in our pool are on Lehigh, and they sit right in the middle of the standings, making this a potentially nice win. Finally, we have our most meaningful championship game in the Southland when (1) Stephen F. Austin takes on (2) McNeese. Except for two people, we are about split between these two teams, making this a really important win as we head into the most brutal part of the conference tournament on Thursday and Friday. 🏀

        

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

I ran through the standings and ensured everything was completely updated, and calculating accurately, as I always miss crossing out a few teams that lost earlier in the week. Also, I cannot eliminate anyone from making the Top 4 spots in the pool yet, which is great! That means we have enough unique picks still left that would allow someone at the bottom of the standings to have a nice run to the top, or at least the Top 4. Our current Top 4 are having an impressive run.

• In first place is Cox, dominating the pool with 12 points, 8 wins and a 57.1% accuracy rate
• Second place belongs to Tomass, posting 9 points, 7 wins and a 50% accuracy rate
• Third place is Heffron with 9 points, 6 wins and a 42.9% accuracy rate, holding the max points tiebreaker over fourth place
• Novakii is hanging out in fourth place with 9 points, 6 wins and a 42.9% accuracy rate
• 20 people have between 5 and 8 points, all ready to take those Top 4 spots!

We are on pace to collectively hand out the most bonus points in the history of this pool. Out of 12 completed conference tournaments, we have witnessed wins by Three 3-seeds, and Two 6-seeds, meaning over 40% of conference tournament champions have not been the top two seeds. We are guaranteed another low seed winner tonight and I'm sure we'll have more over the weekend. Today, we have almost 40 conference tournament basketball games, ranging from first round action to championship games, and starting as early in the morning as 10:30 AM CST. Have fun watching! 😻

The Ransom Has Been Paid + Some Championship Games

I don't want to bury the lead, so I'll get right to it. If you have (1) Utah Valley in the Western Athletic, they have paid the $1m ransom and are safe, for today. Assuming the money clears the bank by tomorrow morning (what a wild fucking sentence to write during the conference tournament pool). They still may lose in the actual conference tournament, but we don't have to turn them ineligible, yet. That would have been some really unfortunate luck, but these weird one-off scenarios do tend to show up every 5 years or so. Research Texas Southern and Stephan F. Austin. 💰

We had a packed day of conference tournament basketball games, including some really fun championships, as well as semifinals. Starting with the first block of games, over in the Northeast Conference (1) Long Island fairly easily beat (3) Mercyhurst, giving 66.67% of our pool a win and ultimately not significantly changing the standings. Long Island does not get a picture below because they already clinched a tournament berth a few days ago. The next game to finish Tuesday evening was in the Horizon League where we saw (1) Wright State come back from being down double digits to knock off (3) Detroit Mercy. Only a handful of picks were backing Wright State, making those important points for those who made the wright pick in this conference. After 8 days the Horizon League finally has a conference tournament champion. The last game in this time slot to wrap up was over in the Coastal Athletic. In a crazy back and forth game, bonus point darling (3) Hofstra knocked off Dan Sohler's (4) Monmouth team, handing out 18 wins in our pool. 🏀

     

The second block of games was just as wild and fun. In the MAAC, after getting out to a huge lead and slowly blowing it, (3) Siena was able to hang on to beat (1) Merrimack. Bonus points awarded to those that participated in that pick. Finally, in the West Coast Conference (1) Gonzaga, in their last ever game as a member of the WAC, beat (3) Santa Clara, handing out 28 pool victories. 🏀

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

Everything is up to date in the standing's sheets, with the exception of the Idaho/Eastern Washington game in the Big Sky, that game is going to end well past my bedtime. For those of you that are veterans to this pool, you will know that Wednesday will be our last round of championship games, and then we go dry Thursday and Friday, before the final weekend push. I will spend some time Wednesday morning breaking down the standings and maybe previewing the championship games. 

Utah Valley WAC Tournament Eligibility

The Western Athletic Conference tournament tips off Wednesday, and the 1-seed, Utah Valley may end up being ineligible. The conference is demanding that Utah Valley pay $1m today and if they do not comply, they will be removed from the conference tournament. If they do in fact get removed from the tournament, they will turn "ineligible" in our pool and unfortunately will count as a loss for all 23 of us that picked them. This sort of scenario seems to pop up every 5 years, but it is usually related to grades or violating some obscure NCAA rule, not a team being extorted for $1m. 💸

If you have not been keeping up with the blog, you should, because I put a lot of effort into it, but I have attached the current standing and below is the link. I have not yet removed Utah Valley, they have until 5:00 PM Mountain Time to pay the ransom. ⏲

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

Mario Day Championship Day

Happy Mario Day! I don't have the energy, or the time, to outline and break down every single conference tournament championship game taking place today, but I'll hit some key highlights for this Tuesday. Today we have a total of 24 conference tournament games, starting as early as 11:30 AM CST, and ending well after midnight. The breakdown is 5 championship games, 3 semifinals and 16 games in the first or second rounds. It will not impact our pool yet, but we'll see some of the power conferences start today, all double digit seeds. Championship games will be played in the Coastal Athletic, Horizon League, MAAC, Northeast and West Coast Conference. 🏀

     

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

We will not have a meaningful game for our pool until 5:00 PM CST, but my focus today will be to update and post standings as conference tournament championship games end. For those of you that are not doing well in the 2026 conference tournament pool, now would be a good reminder that you still have the ability to win up to $500 without coming in first place. 

• (1) Most bonus points - The person with the most total bonus points (picking 3 seeds or lower winners) will win $150. 💰

• (2) Most power conference points - The person with the most power conference points (wins + bonus points) will win $150. 💸

• (3) Lowest winning seed - The person who has the lowest winning seed conference tournament champion wins $150. 😍

• (4) Closest SEC championship game score - The person with the closest SEC championship game score wins $50. 😎

Today's championship games will provide several opportunities for bonus points: (3) Hofstra, (3) Detroit Mercy, (3) Siena, (3) Mercyhurst and (3) Santa Clara. The spread for all 5 championship games are in the single digits, Santa Clara +6.5 is the largest spread, which should mean that we are in store for some good basketball games.🔥

Furman and Troy are Going Dancing

In a brutal ass kicking in the Southern Conference, (6) Furman punched their ticket to the 2026 NCAA Tournament. The Paladins led wire to wire and at no point did ETSU look like they had a chance to win. This is the second year in a row that a 6-seed has won the Southern Conference tournament. Great pool wins for Novakii and Heffron. Moving over to the Sun Belt, (1) Troy dominated a tired (10) Georgia Southern team to win back-to-back Sun Belt conference tournament championships. 13 pool wins were handed out with Troy's victory.

     

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

Although we had so few games throughout today, a few upsets and significant pool losses still occurred. In the Big Sky a very popular pool pick (5) Northern Colorado lost to (4) Montana on one of the brightest courts known to man. That knocked 8 people out of the pool for that conference. Back to the conference that tipped things off a week ago, (3) Detroit Mercy upset (2) Robert Morris in the Horizon League, eliminating the majority of the pool except for Rory & Webb. As if they needed that! We did have a few one-off pool losses as well; those are updated on the standings spreadsheet. The only game still in play as of this post is a West Coast seminfinals featuring (2) Saint Mary's vs. (3) Santa Clara. We'll get that updated on the spreadsheet Tuesday morning.

Rory & Webb are still hanging on to first place with 6 over points, 5 wins and a staggering 62.5% accuracy rate. Novakii is in second, also with 6 overall points, but one less win than Rory & Webb. Cox rolls into third place with 6 overall points, 4 wins and 33 Max Points. Finally, Heffron is all alone in fourth place with 5 overall points.

We have a fantastic race at the top of the standings; however, we are starting to see significant separation between the top and bottom of the pool. Ballincat, Dubs and Jack are still the only winless entries in the pool. Tuesday is going to be a pivotal day as we have 6 conference tournament championships, putting us almost halfway home before Wednesday morning. 

Southern Conference and Sun Belt Championship Games Monday

We only have 14 basketball games today, but everything from here on out are conference tournament games. Although it is a light schedule today, there are some extremely important matchups for bubble teams, seed jockeying for the NCAA Tournament and of course, our pool. The SWAC first round tips off today at 1:00 PM CST, but it does not impact our pool as it is the 10 and 11 seeds, fortunately nobody reached that far. We do have two conference tournament championship games tonight, with a possible significant impact to our pool standings. Below summarizes what to watch for. 👀

Southern Conference

Tipping off at 6:00 PM CST tonight, the championship game will feature (6) Furman against (1) East Tennessee State. 12 people are on the favorite, and we have 2 people on Furman. If East Tennessee State wins, we will not see a significant impact to the top of the standings, however it will help bring everyone closer together and bunch up the standings, which is what we want. If Furman wins, Novakii and Heffron, who are already at the top of the standings, are going to strengthen their position. Even though this game has a large disparity in seeding, the oddsmakers have East Tennessee State as only a 1 point favorite, we should expect a good, close game.

     

Sun Belt

At this point everyone knows how much I hate this, but this championship also tips off at 6:00 PM CST. So. Fucking. Stupid. (1) Troy plays a team that has won 5 games in 5 nights, making (10) Georgia Southern an extremely dangerous opponent. Similar to our other championship game tonight, if the favorite wins it is really good for the pool as it brings everyone closer together and holds the people at top somewhat in place. We do have one person on Georgia Southern, B.I., and with a win he is very likely to lock in the Lowest Winning Seed bonus money. I'm not sure we'll see a seed higher than 10 win a conference tournament championship game. Vegas has Troy as a 5-point favorite, which means a win is not a lock, I expect another close, fun championship game.

I probably do not need to keep repeating this, but I will keep the standings updated throughout today, and every day, as losses impact our pool. We are on version 2.4 of the standings which means I have posted 14 updates to the standings in the last 7 days.

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

I'll attempt to post a blog entry as late as possible tonight that catches the championship games, along with other critical action, but the second West Coast semifinal doesn't start until 10:30 PM CST, so I may miss the (2) Saint Mary's vs. (3) Santa Clara matchup. That should be a fantastic game to watch! 🏀

One Week Until Selection Sunday Update

We have one week until Selection Sunday and five conference tournament championship games are now under our belt. It was a wild weekend of conference tournament games, and our pool standings are starting to shape up. On Sunday, tickets were punched in the Atlantic Sun with (3) Queens taking out (1) Central Arkansas, giving them their first and last NCAA Tournament appearance since this is their last year as a school. (1) High Point cruised to an easy victory in the Big South, (6) Northern Iowa clobbered (5) UIC in the Missouri Valley and (1) North Dakota State won the Summit League, proving itself to be the superior Dakota.

     

     

In addition to those conference tournament championships, Sunday brought us an entire day of conference tournament basketball and now all seeds are finalized on the spreadsheet. As fun as these low mid majors are, we're now going to see the big boys in action as the power conferences and mid-majors get started this week. The standings are really starting to come together, let's take a closer look.

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

• Rory & Webb lead the way with 5 Total Points and 4 Wins, giving them first place and they have an incredible accuracy at 57.1%
• Cox is in second place, also with 5 overall points, but one less win with 3 total Wins
• Novakii is in third place with 4 overall points, 3 Wins and only 6 losses
• Finally, Andrew rounds out our fourth place with 4 overall points, 3 Wins, but 7 losses

Finally, please take a look and if you are showing as not paid either send your payment today or if I mistakenly show you as not paid just let me know so I can correct it.

Payment information on where to send your $50. 💰

• Zelle (Preferred): Rick Donegan 630-885-2873
• Venmo: @Rick-Donegan
• Cashapp: $RickDonegan
• Address: 1140 Venetian Court; Naperville, IL 60540  
• PayPal (Not preferred): rwdpeanut@gmail.com

Sunday Championship Games: Atlantic Sun, Big South, Missouri Valley and Summit League

We are only one week away from Selection Sunday and have four conference tournament championship games today, unfortunately three of the four overlap in the morning, and then the last one is late at night. We should be used to that at this point, that has always been the schedule, but we still have a full slate of games all day. I will post a more comprehensive blog Monday morning, but the four conference tournamnet championships today are the Atlantic Sun, Big South, Missouri Valley and Summitt League. 🏀

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

As of Sunday morning, 15 conference tournaments are in progress, 15 have not yet started and 1 is complete.As we turn the page to Monday, we'll see 90% of the conference tournaments either in progress or complete. 

Tennessee State Wins the Ohio Valley Conference Championship

The 1-seed Tennessee State punches their ticket to the 2026 NCAA Tournament by winning the Ohio Valley conference. They were the computer favorites, but not our pool favorites, so not many wins were handed out. Congratulations to the nine people that confidently picked Tennessee State, you are officially in the win column in the pool. If you did not get a win, no need to worry, no bonus points were awarded tonight, and we all have four more chances on Sunday.

Even though we only had one actual conference tournament championship game, we officially have two tickets punched to the 2026 NCAA Tournament. Earlier on Saturday, in the Northeast Conference, (1) Long Island defeated (7) Wagner to advance to the conference tournament championship; however, they will be facing ineligible (3) Mercyhurst. This means even if Mercyhurst beats Long Island, they are ineligible to participate in the NCAA Tournament as they are still in the Division 1 transition period. The Long Island Sharks are the first team to officially be in the field.

    

Saturday was a day full of big favorites advancing, top seeds going down, popular bonus picks losing and buzzer beaters. It was a great day for conference tournament and regular season basketball. As always, click here to see the latest version of the pool standings, especially since we now have people with wins on the board.

We're going to have a frantic finish to the weekend. Sunday will bring us 4 conference tournament championship games and by the end of the weekend all conference tournament seeding will be finalized. I will post a brief preview Sunday morning, so be on the lookout.

Ohio Valley Championship Game Preview: Tennessee State vs. Morehead State

We made it to our first conference tournament championship game, which will be a chalky match-up of (1) Tennessee State vs. (2) Morehead State in the Ohio Valley. We have nine people in our pool backing Tennessee State and six on Morehead State. This is the first opportunity for the standings to be flipped upside down as a win will shoot people right to the top of the leaderboard. While it is always nice to get a win under your belt, and rack up wins, without any bonus points being handed out tonight, this shouldn't be a pivotal conference to determine the winner of the pool. At least that is what everyone that has been eliminated should be telling themselves. 🏀

While I am not going to break down every single game or conference, I included a few important updates and things to keep an eye on today. 👀

5 conferences are playing semifinals games today, which means losses should accumulate across the board. Starting in the Atlantic Sun, (1) Central Arkansas plays (5) Florida Gulf Coast and then (2) Austin Peay takes on (3) Queens. 24 out of 36 people are still alive in this conference and we have all four teams covered. This conference tournament is so popular a traffic advisory was issued! Next, we have the Big South semifinals featuring (1) High Point playing (4) UNC Asheville and then we have (2) Winthrop against (6) Presbyterian. Our pool is overwhelmingly backing High Point, but we do have a few sprinkles of Winthrop, nobody picked UNC Asheville or Presbyterian. 

    

Living up to its name, we have some wild match-ups in the Missouri Valley Arch Madness semifinals. (5) UIC plays (9) Drake and then (2) Bradley goes up against (6) Northern Iowa. Amazingly, we have every single one of those teams covered in our pool. Unless 2-seeded Bradley can pull off winning the tournament, this could be the frontrunner for the Lowest Winning Seed payout. Over in the Northeast Conference semifinals, teams that are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament (3) Mercyhurst and (5) Stonehill play each other for a chance to play in the championship game, while (1) Long Island takes on (7) Wagner. Two thirds of our pool is on the favorite, but we do have Mercyhurst and Stonehill covered.

Our last semifinals breakdown takes us to the Summit League, and up until today I'm confident that none of their games have been available to watch yet, either on TV or streaming. (1) North Dakota State plays (5) Omaha while the next games features (2) St. Thomas-Minnesota playing (3) North Dakota. Looks like North Dakota proved to be the superior Dakota. The majority of our pool is on the 2-seed, but the 1-seed is not that far behind, and we do have a few people backing North Dakota.

I just wrote 5 paragraphs, and we only made it through 6 total conferences, but 15 of the 31 conference tournaments will have tipped off as of Saturday. We will have a full day packed with conference tournament games, ranging from a handful of meaningless first round matchups, quarterfinals, the Sun Belt chugging along to round 5 of 7, to the all-important first ticket being punched to the NCAA Tournament. 🎫

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

Down Goes 1-Seed Belmont

Arch Madness is living up to its name as (1) Belmont was absolutely blown out by (9) Drake in the Missouri Valley quarterfinals this afternoon. I couldn't believe how easy Drake was handling Belmont. Exactly 50% of the pool was eliminated with that loss, opening the door for someone to take control of the standings, as our pool picks are all over the place. Only one person, KatieMay, is on the 2-seed Bradley, which is wild, and we also have seeds 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 covered. If you lost Belmont today, that was a really tough one to lose. 😰

Belmont was not the only important loss this afternoon, in the Atlantic Sun quarterfinals, our most popular pick, and bonus opportunity team, (4) Lipscomb was curb stomped by Dunk City (5) Florida Gulf Coast. I assume we can still refer to FGCU as Dunk City. 10 people were eliminated, but as of posting this blog, both the one and two seeds are still alive. We are not done yet. In the Big South quarterfinals, (2) Winthrop came roaring back and won a close game against (7) Charleston Southern. Three of the first Five conference tournament games this Friday afternoon were so awesome to watch. 👊

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

It's time to do a quick standings overview because we are down to our last entry without a loss, and that belongs to...Rory & Webb. 🥁

• It's incredible that Rory & Webb have made it 4.5 days without a loss
• Ballincat is right on their heels, and with way more Max Points
• Joco and KatieMay are right there in 3rd and 4th place, with a nice 41 Max Points

If you are racking up losses, don't worry yet, as long as you have a few potential champions still in play this weekend, you're in a great spot. We have a whole night of conference tournament basketball ahead of us, and as always, I will keep the standings updated, even if you don't see a blog update. 🏀

A Very Chalky Thursday

Although we had a few high seed favorites pushed to the limit throughout this afternoon, most of the chalk survived. A few notable afternoon/early evening one-off pool losses worth mentioning include (9) James Madison losing to (8) Southern Mississippi in the Sun Belt, (8) Iona being upset by (9) Sacred Heart in the MAAC opening round and (8) Bucknell losing a big lead late in the second half to (1) Navy in the Patriot League quarterfinals.

     

We saw a similar story in the night games, no significant upsets, but more one-off pool losses were racked up. These evening conference tournament games were really competitive and fun to watch. Here are a few notable games. Back in the Sun Belt, (7) Arkansas State lost to (10) Georgia Southern, which knocked out four people in the pool. In the Summit League (2) St. Thomas-Minnesota easily knocked out (7) South Dakota State, I really enjoy seeing Dakota teams lose. Finally, in the Ohio Valley (6) Lindenwood lost a heartbreaker to (3) Southeast Missouri State, handing out two more pool losses.

     

Click here to see the latest version of the pool standings. 🏅

I am not planning to post a Friday morning blog, but there are 20+ conference tournament games starting at 11:00 AM CST. Depending on how the games are shaping up throughout the day, I will plan to update the standings throughout the morning and afternoon and post a blog later in the evening. Enjoy another great day of conference tournament college basketball games! 🏀