It's all Over :(

As you all know by now, conference tournaments, the NCAA tournament and sports in general are all cancelled due to the Coronavirus. Before I get to deep into the blog please reach out to me and confirm which option you will be choosing.

1. Refund - I will refund the money you paid into the conference tournament pool
2. I keep your buy in for 2021 - I'll just hang on to your buy in and apply it to the 2021 conference tournament pool

I updated the spreadsheet through Wednesday night so we could get some final standings and I truly feel bad for Chris who was absolutely on fire, winning at a 75% clip. Chris, Dan, Joey and Brad we're having a fantastic run and conference tournaments were wide open this year.

It is also super weird looking at this spreadsheet and seeing "canceled" across the majority of the conference tournaments. My feelings are captured below #Marchsadness

Patriot League Preview Before our Championship Game Drought

We will not have any conference tournament championship games Thursday & Friday, this means we're going through a two day stretch in which we will rack up a ton of losses. Unless something crazy happens in terms of multiple upsets, Coronavirus updates or something else blog-worthy, I will not post again until Saturday morning.  I will however be updating the spreadsheet 1-2 times each night so ensure you bookmark the standings link below for updates. This is the last blog post/email you'll see for a few days unless something newsworthy happens.  Depending on how exciting it is, I may possible do 1 more post on the Patriot League conference tournament championship game tonight.

STANDINGS

Patriot League Championship Game

• (1) Colgate will be playing (3) Boston at 6:30p CST with 67% of the pool picks backing the toothpaste conglomerate

• 4 players in the pool went with the bonus pick (3) Boston, with one of those players being Chris who is already in 1st place so a Boston win really makes Chris tough to catch, especially with the reality that we may see more conference tournaments canceled.

• A (1) Colgate win still has an impact for the 67% as every win means something with the reality that we may see more conference tournaments canceled.

• Love a great bracket graphic!

As I try to stay positive, below is a snapshot of all the teams that have punched a ticket to the NCAA Tournament. With the exception of Yale, these teams earned their way in through winning their conference tournament championship game. We will have 16 conference championship games on Saturday! If you are towards the bottom of the standings, everything can be flipped upside down in a matter of hours.

5 More Tickets Punched to a Tournament that will Never Happen

This has been the most depressing day in conference tournament history, we keep getting bad news story after bad news story. Ivy League conference tournament canceled, MAC and Big West tournaments will be played in empty stadiums and a real possibility the NCAA Tournament gets canceled within the next 72 hours. Even with all that bad news, the basketball games have been awesome so we'll enjoy the few days we have left, below is a recap of today. We had 3 court storms this evening for teams that may have played their last game of the season.

It was a very chalky evening of games as we first saw (1) Robert Morris destroy (2) St. Francis PA in the Northeast conference. Only 8 players had Robert Morris and Penguin finally got on the board with his first win!

The second conference tournament championship finish we saw was in the Colonial conference and (1) Hofstra beat (6) Northeastern in what was a close game up until the last 90 seconds. Many players picked Northeastern and by them losing it really keeps everyone alive in the pool, a Northeastern win would have been a dagger for many players. Not many players had Hofstra and Penguin got his second win of the tournament! This shows how quickly a player can get right back in to the mix.

The Horizon League was another opportunity for Bonus points, however (4) UIC was blown out by (2) Northern Kentucky. Only 2 players in our pool had UIC so this wouldn't have been a dagger like Northeastern, but the story is the same, everyone is still well in the mix without these bonus point teams winning.

In the Summit league (1) North Dakota State completely dismantled (6) North Dakota in a 30 point win that was never in doubt. Only 11 players went with the 1 seed in this conference so everyone that got the win here was able to really jump a few spots in the standings.

Finally, in the last game of the night (1) Gonzaga had trouble with (3) Saint Mary's early on, but as we got into the 2nd half Gonzaga pulled away and was able to win very easily. The majority of us did have Gonzaga as the champion so nothing to celebrate, except that TrainGuy finally got his 1st win and now everyone in the pool is on the board with a win!

The link below has the current spreadsheet updated with all the games tonight, no late night games were played that we'll need to wait for. We have an amazing battle at the top of the standings with Dan Sohler and Chris Iannuzzi, both with 8 wins and a 72.7% winning percentage. The winning percentage is unbelievable, something we have not seen in the past this far into conference tournament week. Joey is right behind them, he has 8 wins but a lower winning percentage. Also, Brad has snuck up to the top with 7 wins.

STANDINGS  

Let's hope we get some better Coronavirus related news tomorrow, but I am not optimistic based on how everything has been trending.

Coronavirus Killed the Ivy League

It's now official, the Coronavirus has ruined conference tournament championship week with the killing of the Ivy League. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of this over the next few days. In terms of impacts to our pool, I will be removing the Ivy League from the spreadsheet so it will not count as a win or a loss, however it does reduce all players max points by at least 1, 2 point reduction if you picked a 3 or 4 seed. If we really do continue to see cancellations we may have to end the pool and refund money. Updated spreadsheet to follow by early this evening.

STANDINGS

PRINCETON, N.J. -- With the health of students as well as the campus and the general community in mind, the Ivy League Presidents have decided to cancel the upcoming Ivy League Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. The League’s regular-season champions, Princeton women and Yale men, are the automatic qualifiers to the NCAA Tournaments.

Mario Day Conference Championship Game Previews

This is going to be a great night watching basketball for our pool, we have 5 conference tournament championship games to throw our standings upside down on Mario day! The 5 conference tournament championship games tonight will be played in the Colonial, Horizon, Northeast, Summit and West Coast conferences. Here. We. Go.

STANDINGS

Colonial Championship Game

• (1) Hofstra will be playing (6) Northeastern and we almost have an even split between those that picked Hofstra vs. those that picked Northeastern.

• 7 players in the pool went with the bonus pick (6) Northeastern, they clearly did some studying for so many to pick a 6 seed.

• If (6) Northeastern pulls this off the standings really get flipped and we're likely to have a 7 way tie for the "Lowest Winning Seed" pot, not sure we'll see a lower seed win.

• A (1) Hofstra win is definitely not as big of an impact as (6) Northeastern winning which means we'll have 26 players rooting for the 1 seed.

Horizon League Championship Game

• (2) Northern Kentucky will be playing (4) Illinois-Chicago and we don't have many players left in this conference

• 2 players in the pool went with the bonus pick (4) Illinois-Chicago, TrainGuy really needs this win to get on the board while the Olsen couple need this to vault themselves into 1st place.

• Only 6 players went with (2) Northern Kentucky, which is not shocking since the analytics were not with NKU.

Northeast Championship Game

• In a match-up of chalk, (1) Robert Morris will be playing (2) St. Francis PA and we almost have an even split between those that picked Bob Morris vs. those that picked St. Francis PA.

• We really don't have much to cover in this league, the analytics say (2) St. Francis PA wins, but Vegas favors (1) Robert Morris by 1 point, either way this should be a great game.

Summit League Championship Game

• (1) North Dakota State will be playing (6) North Dakota in the battle for the higher Dakota.

• No one in our pool picked (6) North Dakota, but we do have 11 players on (1) North Dakota State making this a critical conference tournament championship win since most people were not on the 1 seed.

• The analytics did say to go with (1) North Dakota State, however a staggering 50% of our pool went with the 2 seed, South Dakota State. As a group we're typically not this wrong.

West Coast Conference Championship Game

• As usual we'll see (1) Gonzaga playing in the West Coast Championship game and they will be matched up against (3) St. Mary's

• 85% of the players in our pool went with (1) Gonzaga, so a Gonzaga win really means nothing

East Tennessee State Punches Ticket and Horizon League Upset

(7) Wofford could not compete with (1) East Tennessee State in the Southern conference tournament championship game tonight, losing by 14 points. Wofford got out to an early lead, but by halftime ETSU had the lead and in the second half they destroyed Wofford. 50% of the players in the pool got a win tonight. Surprising that more players did not have a 30 win team as the champion.

While the Southern conference was playing a championship game, (4) Illinois-Chicago was dismantling (1) Wright State, knocking out 55% of the players in the Horizon League. Only the Olsen couple and TrainGuy have Illinois-Chicago. A few other notable teams to be eliminated tonight include (4) Oral Roberts in the Summit League and (5) Buffalo in the MAC

Dan Sohler is still dominating the pool in 1st place with a 62.5% win percentage, followed closely by his buddy Joey! Encouraging news for the rest of us is that Dan's winning percentage has definitely plummeted, that 70%+ was unsustainable. 7 players are right behind Dan and Joey with 4 points. Moving to the bottom of the standings, Penguin finally moved out of the cellar and was replaced by Durkan. Durkan, Penguin and TrainGuy are still the only players without a win and we're officially 1 week in.

STANDINGS

5 more games are still being played tonight (tons of Vegas shots if you're watching the WCC), look for 1 more update from me tonight based on the results of these games and I'll preview tomorrow's championship games. All the games being played right now have potential impacts to our pool and standings.

Southern Conference Championship Game Preview

On Monday night at 6:00p CT on ESPN the Southern Conference championship game will feature (7) Wofford vs. (1) East Tennessee State. No one in our pool picked Wofford, but half the pool picked ETSU, this could be a key conference championship if ETSU wins. We know half the players will be rooting for Wofford so no points get awarded. This will be the only conference tournament championship game played on Monday. I have not seen a spread posted yet for the game, but it should heavily favor ETSU, so we may have a boring conference tournament championship game.

The link below has the current spreadsheet that includes ALL conference seed now finalized as well as the quarterfinal and semifinal games that were played this evening. We had some fun action tonight in these low mid-major conferences, especially the ending of North Dakota/South Dakota.

STANDINGS  

We do not have any afternoon basketball tomorrow, however from here on out every single game that is played will be a conference tournament game. The only new conference tipping off tomorrow is the MAC, 5-12 seeds only, and yes we'll have impacts to our pool as (5) Buffalo and (6) Kent State will be playing. #MACtion