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. 📉
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. 😰
No comments:
Post a Comment