363 Madness

  MVC Tournament Preview and Predictions Favorites Bradley Throughout the year, the MVC conference has had the most parity between teams out of any conference so far this season. I was surprised that a team even emerged at the top in the first place, but for Bradley to do it over the likes of SIU and Drake is very impressive. In the entire season, Bradley has been 15-1 at home, but 8-5 away.  Away, they were unable to beat Belmont twice and Drake once. So, in a neutral court, how will they fare in those games? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Despite that, Bradley is one of the best mid-majors in the country. They’re a more defensive team, ranking #37 in defensive efficiency on KenPom, but can get it done on the offensive end as well. They have a large rotation, commonly playing 8 guys over 15 minutes per game.  They’re very experienced, and shoot well. They don't have an insane X-factor, but are just one of the most well-rounded teams in the country and at one time were on the

WCC Tournament Preview and Predictions Favorite Gonzaga Despite a below-average regular season resume in Gonzaga terms as well as a conference loss to Saint Mary’s, Gonzaga has recently bounced back very nicely to retake first place in the conference from Saint Mary’s, who they just beat by 9 at home.  Led by Wooden Award candidate Drew Timme, Gonzaga has had pieces around Timme emerge to become a more well-rounded team. Julian Strawther has broken out to become the player many expected him to be, and guards Nolan Hickman and Malachi Smith have looked solid recently, which is just what the Zags need to win the WCC tournament again.  However, there are many dangerous teams standing in their way including Santa Clara, rival and ranked opponent Saint Mary’s, as well as Loyola Marymount, who already beat Gonzaga once, and is our WCC Tournament sleeper. Sleeper Loyola Marymount Loyola Marymount, as I had mentioned in the Gonzaga overview, has already beaten Gonzaga, a feat that is rarely pu

OVC 2023 Conference Tournament Predictions Favorite Morehead State After losing Murray State and Morehead State’s Johni Broome, the OVC was looking like one of the weakest conferences in college basketball. And, unfortunately, that hasn’t changed. But in this conference, despite losing C Johni Broome to Auburn, Morehead State’s guards have emerged and have carried this team to a 3-game lead in conference play.  They’ve got some very good experience, are pretty consistent, and have just been the most dominant team in a struggling conference. They’re led by 5 '11 senior Mark Freeman, but also have two other reliable scorers in forward Alex Gross and sophomore guard Drew Thelwell, who has been playing very well recently, scoring 15, 19, and 25 in three of his last 5 games.  Like I said before, they aren’t amazing, but are good enough to emerge in a weak OVC. Sleeper Tennessee State Unlike Morehead State, Tennessee State is not very balanced and consistent. Starting with their pure sta

Big South 2023 Tournament Predictions Favorites UNC Asheville UNC Asheville was expected to do very well, but very few expected them to emerge at the very top of the conference by a comfortable margin and become one of the best mid-majors in the country. Led by the 19th leading scorer in the country, Drew Pember, the Bulldogs have one of the best mid-major guys in the country and some of the best support cast around him.  Taijon Jones is a 5th-year senior who’s averaged double digit points in every year in his career, as well as a few other guys who have broken out for 20+ on some nights.  A lot of their role guys have been together for multiple years, and they’re one of the most well-rounded teams in the nation, with good size at every position. Results-wise, they didn’t get the season off to the smoothest start, losing 5 noncon games in a pretty easy schedule, but after losing to Winthrop, having only one loss in the past 16 games. Sleeper Winthrop As one of the only two teams that h

NEC Conference Tournament Preview and Predictions Favorite Merrimack This doesn’t happen too often, but in the NEC, the preseason picks for champs ended up being the regular season champs. Though they didn’t exactly dominate competition, going 12-4, they weren’t upset-prone, never losing to a team under .500 in league play. However, it is concerning that in two games they were never able to defeat #2 seed Fairleigh Dickinson, the most offensive team in the conference. Merrimack’s playstyle includes good defense, rebounding, and low turnovers, ranking first in the NEC for defense and #95 in the country. Because of this, they don’t stand out on the offensive end, ranking second to last in the entire country behind leaguemate LIU. FDU is first in the NEC, so it isn’t a surprise that they’ve really struggled to pick up a win against them. However, their experience should carry them far, and if that Fairleigh Dickinson game goes differently, Merrimack will clinch an NCAA Tournament berth. S

Favorites Youngstown State Youngstown State was my pick for the Horizon League champs, and they ended up finishing in first place at the end of the regular season. They'll be led by one of the best mid major guards in the country, Dwayne Cohill, but have 3 other very solid scoring options in guard Brandon Rush, forward Malek Green, and forward Adrian Nelson.  All 4 of the guys that I mentioned are seniors, so they have tons of experience between them. Because of all this experience, they’re the top scoring team in the Horizon League and the fifth best in the entire country at a ridiculous 83.5 PPG. Their defense has proven lackluster at times, allowing 81, 88, and 83 in losses to Cleveland State, Milwaukee, and Robert Morris. Despite that, they’re still the obvious favorite for the conference’s tournament bid and could be very dangerous in the NCAA Tournament. That is, if they can get past Northern Kentucky. Northern Kentucky In last year’s Horizon League tournament, Northern Kentu

Patriot League Tournament Preview Favorite Colgate Colgate has now won this conference two years in a row, and look to three peat in a year that they made conference history for amount of wins and have only lost one game this season.  They’re the only decent team in one of the weakest conferences in the country, but they have the tools to make some noise in the NCAA tournament if they can win this one. They have good experience, consistent shooting, and a good coach, very similar to their tournament team from last year. Their only loss of the season came by 1 at American, where Colgate wasn’t even playing bad. They shot a nice 37% from 3, but American played very well, shooting an impressive 46% from 3. Colgate hasn’t been blowing anyone out, and though they can be beaten, a 17-1 conference record is still one of the best in the country. Sleeper American American is the obvious sleeper pick, as they’re the only ones who have beaten Colgate this season. However, their season has been fu

Sun Belt Preview and Predictions Favorites Southern Miss After coming off of finishing dead last in the C-USA a year ago, the Southern Miss Golden Eagles are now flourishing in their new conference, as they finished first in this very deep conference. Their top two scorers, Felipe Haase and Austin Crowley transferred in this season and have both been all-Sun Belt level players.  Southern Miss’ playstyle is similar to that of an Arizona - Fast paced and lots of threes. A worry for them earlier in the season was if their numerous transfers (4) would mesh well with each other and with Southern Miss’ returnees. However, after starting the season 6-0 with wins over Vanderbilt and Liberty, it was obvious that that wouldn’t be a problem.  However, this playstyle has caused them to go cold in some very important games. Against Marshall and South Alabama, they only shot 25% and 23%, respectively, causing them to lose both games by 22 and 31. Both of those games, as well as their recent loss to

ASUN Conference Tournament Preview & Predictions As the ASUN conference tournament is upon us, it’s time to make some predictions as well as preview the tournament itself. I’ll go over the favorites, sleeper teams, as well as making my own predictions and fill out the ASUN bracket Favorites : Liberty The Flames have both come into the season picked first as well as coming into the ASUN tournament as favorites. They’re one of the parts in the ASUN’s two way tie for first, and though they won’t be the #1 seed in the tournament due to a loss to the other first place team, Kennesaw State, Liberty still has the best chances at winning it all. Led by the best player in the league and one of the best players in the entire country, Darius McGhee, Liberty will be extremely hard to upset, as all of their losses came away against top-5 teams. McGhee is essentially surrounded by a ton of role guys who all don’t shoot a lot but shoot at high percentages, which is the perfect combination with Mc

  2/24 Recap Thurday’s Bubble Implications On Thursday, some teams stayed in the competition for a tournament bid while a few others may have eliminated themselves from the tournament entirely. Penn State, who was the last team in the Next Four Out, avoided a bad loss as well as picking up a solid win at Ohio State. They’re beginning to move themselves back up near the end of the season, and they have some tough but winnable games coming up against Rutgers, Northwestern, and Maryland, as the Northwestern and Maryland games would likely be Q1 wins. It’ll be tough, but I could definitely see Jalen Pickett taking over and leading the Nittany Lions to a tournament berth. Next up, Charleston and Memphis both fended off tough league opponents in Towson and Wichita State, respectively. Both of these teams, if they were to lose, would likely be eliminated from the bubble, especially Charleston. Memphis likely would have been fine, as they were Last Four Byes, but with their difficult schedule

2/21 Recap Since we have a huge preview for Tuesday and not a very big recap for Monday, there’s not going to be a lot here Two big Big-12 games West Virginia had a big game yesterday, as they won what may end up being their last win of the regular season. It was a must-win against Oklahoma State, as though they’re on the right side of the bubble, they’re on the bubble, and don’t have a lot of wiggle room as they only played ranked teams in their last 3 games of the season. This was a big bounce back game from a loss against Texas Tech, but I am still worried about how West Virginia will be in their away games. Coming off an 18-point win, this is the best they have looked all season, so we’ll see if they are able to change the “can’t win away” narrative at Kansas and Iowa State. This game went very, very slowly and boringly, as TCU-Kansas was very low-scoring in what was one of the best games of the week. TCU was coming off a big string of losses without all-American Mike Miles, but wh