Postseason Tournament Predictions I

Horizon
Preseason Predicted Champ- Butler
Regular Season Champ- Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Butler, Cleveland St.
Predicted Postseason Champ- Butler

I’d love to pick Cleveland St. but Butler beat them twice even when they were struggling and now Butler is on a seven game winning streak. Cleveland St. may get an at-large bid while Wisconsin-Milwaukee is locked into the NIT if they were to lose.


Big South
Preseason Predicted Champ- Winthrop
Regular Season Champ- Coastal Carolina
Predicted Postseason Champ- UNC Asheville

Coastal Carolina has been struggling since top player, Des Holloway, was suspended. Since that suspension Coastal has lost 2 home games including one to UNC Asheville. Asheville finished in 3rd place in the Big South regular season and ended the year on a three-game conference winning-streak including a win at Coastal, a team they will likely face in the finals despite their struggles.


Atlantic Sun
Preseason Predicted Champ- Lipscomb
Regular Season Champ- Belmont
Predicted Postseason Champ- Belmont

Belmont dominated the regular season and should win the postseason tournament as well. A potential pitfall would be in the 2nd round against either Mercer (game would be at Mercer) or rival Lipscomb who gave Belmont their only conference loss.


Patriot
Preseason Predicted Champ- American
Regular Season Champ- Bucknell
Predicted Postseason Champ- Bucknell

Bucknell has home court throughout the Patriot League tournament. At home they went 7-0 beating teams by almost 16 points a game.


OVC
Preseason Predicted Champ- Murray St.
Regular Season Champ- Murray St.
Predicted Postseason Champ- Murray St.

Murray St. didn’t dominate the Ohio Valley like I thought but they still won the OVC outright. They receive a bye to the semis and will likely face Morehead St. in the finals. The two teams split in the regular season with Murray St. winning last week 70-62 and Racers led by 21 midway through the second half. In that game Murray St. did a pretty good job of slowing down Morehead St.’s and OVC player of the year Kenneth Faried until the game was out of reach.


Ivy League
Preseason Predicted Champ- Princeton