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

Bradley and Liberty Dancing

In the Atlantic Sun conference (1) Liberty led (3) Lipscomb wire to wire and the game was really not close at any point after the first few minutes. 70% of our pool was on Liberty which means not a great win for anyone, but it did get some players on the board finally. In the Missouri Valley conference (4) Bradley was in a great battle with (7) Valparaiso until about 10 minutes left in the 2nd half, then Bradley pulled away and cruised to an easy win. JoCo, Fuss and the Olsen couple were on Bradly and awarded bonus points in this key win for our pool. Also, we now have a 3 way tie in the "Lowest Winning Seed" prize pool, but in the past years a 4 seed has not been good enough to win that pot of money.

The link below has the current spreadsheet that now includes 30 out of 32 conferences with finalized seeding, some more semifinals action from this afternoon and the Liberty & Bradley championships. Dan Sohler, JoCo and Fuss take the top 3 spots with 4 points for each of them. Dan has an insane 66.7% win percentage early on. In past years, 42% - 47% win percentage wins the pool. Dan won this pool in 2017 so he knows what he's doing, we should all be worried that he's off to a hot start. Durkan, TrainGuy and Penguin still do not have a win, but their max scores are still >30 which means they are very much still in this pool.

STANDINGS  

Quarterfinals in some low major conferences are going on throughout the evening and 2 more conferences will have seeding finalized by tonight. I'll post a late night update as I'm sure will see a few minor impacts. We do not have any more championship games tonight, but we do have 5 tickets punched so far!

Winthrop Ticket Punched

The 4th ticket punched to the 2020 NCAA Tournament is (2) Winthrop, they easily took out (5) Hampton as well as Robb's gambling bankroll. #Rockthehill. Hampton was up big early in the game, Winthrop crawled back in by halftime and then late in the 2nd half Winthrop dominated.  Good win for many players in the pool and denied bonus points to BI, also leaving the "Lowest Winning Seed" prize pool wide open.

The link below has the current spreadsheet that includes 29 out of 32 conferences now with finalized seeding, some semifinals action from this afternoon and the Winthrop championship.  Dan Sohler 3 for 3 so far!

STANDINGS  

Still 2 more championship games in progress, quarterfinals in some low major conferences later this afternoon and all seeding to be finalized by tonight.

Atlantic Sun, Big South and Missouri Valley Conference Championship Game Previews

This afternoon we have 3 conference tournament championship games staggered/overlapping over a few hours in the Atlantic Sun, Big South and Missouri Valley conferences. By the end of the day today if we have any players in the 4-6 point range and you still have 0, it's time to be a little worried.

1. Big South championship game: 12p CT (Winthrop -12)
2. Missouri Valley championship game: 1p CT (Bradley -2.5)
3. Atlantic Sun championship game: 2p CT (Liberty -12)

The link below has the current spreadsheet that includes additional conferences that had finalized seeding posted this morning, you will see slight standings changes from last night. Many teams have been moving in/out of the bonus point range.  Chris Iannuzzi is in 1st place.  😂😂😂

STANDINGS

Big South Championship Game

• Only 14 players are competing in this conference tournament championship game that matches up (5) Hampton vs. (2) Winthrop

• The majority of the pool was eliminated when (1) Radford and(3) Gardner-Webb lost in the semi-finals.

• Congrats to BI for going with (5) Hampton, he definitely studied the Big South to pull that one out! For everyone that is out their is not a great rooting options as (5) Hampton gives BI bonus points that vaults him to the top of the standings and possibly wins the "Lowest Winning Seed" money while (2) Winthrop gives 13 players wins.

• (2) Winthrop is favored to win this game by 12 points so don't expect a close game.

• The Big South has a great bracket graphic so I had to include it below, I wish more conferences would do brackets like this.

Missouri Valley Championship Game

• Here is the weird championship game of the entire pool so far as we have (7) Valparaiso vs. (4) Bradley and only 3 players in our pool are alive, all with Bradley.

• 30 players will all be rooting very hard for (7) Valparaiso to win this afternoon as the ideal outcome so that no one gets any points from this conference. We're all rooting against you JoCo, Fuss and "The Olsen's"

• (4) Bradley is only favored by 2.5 points so we should expect to see a super close game and (7) Valparaiso has a legitimate chance to pull this off.

• #ArchMadness30 was awesome in the past as all the games were on TV, the graphics/media was great and the basketball was fun. Now, it's complete garbage. Example below, this is the graphic posted to hype up today's game.  No pictures of Valpo or Bradley, no cool bracket graphics, just a picture of America's shithole, St. Louis.

Atlantic Sun Championship Game

• This conference tournament championship game is a rematch of last year, except with the seeds reversed, with (3) Lipscomb playing (1) Liberty and we have 28 players alive.

• Only 5 players have been eliminated from this conference championship game, mostly due to (2) North Florida being upset earlier in the bracket.

• We only have 4 players on (3) Lipscomb which means a Lipscomb win would be huge for the standings since bonus points would be awarded. (1) Liberty is favored to win this game by 12 points so don't expect a close game.

Tickets Punched: Utah State and Belmont

The first punched ticket of the 2020 NCAA Tournament goes to (2) Utah State as they beat (1) San Diego State with a buzzer beater. Only 3 players in the pool got this one right as most of the picks were on (1) San Diego State. Dan, Chris and Derek were the only players that picked the right conference tournament champion for this league. SDSU is trash.

The second ticket punched was (1) Belmont over (2) Murray State. This was another great finish with Murray State hitting 2 free throws with 11 seconds to go up by 1, then Belmont took the lead with 2 seconds and Murray State had an opportunity for a buzzer beater that they couldn't get off. Our pool was a 60/40 split between Belmont and other teams, so this was a critical win to get.

The link below has the current spreadsheet through all the games tonight that impact our pool. Dan, Chris and Derek are the only players with 2 wins, going 2 for 2 across the Mountain West and Ohio Valley conference tonight. These 3 moved up 17+ spots in the standing with these 2 wins. Patrick, Ryan and Penguin are holding down the last 3 spots right now, with Penguin already at a staggering 7 losses. At this point no reason to either get too excited or too depressed, things can change very quickly over the next few days.

STANDINGS

The morning update will include additional finalized seeding across many conferences which could impact our standings and a preview of the Atlantic Sun, Big South and Missouri Valley conference tournament championship games.  All 3 championship games have the potential to award bonus points.

Sacred Heart Loses to St. Francis PA

In the Northeast conference (3) Sacred Heart lost to (2) St. Francis PA this morning and this is significant because 11 people had Sacred Heart to win the Northeast conference. The game was not even close, St Francis PA dominated wire to wire.  Until the Mountain West conference tournament championship game today at 4:30p CST we will continue to have smaller conferences play and possibly impact the standings. I'm pretty sure this game was played in a High School gym.

The link below has the current spreadsheet with the (3) Sacred Heart loss included and as of this post, (1) Robert Morris is up 16 on (4) LIU with 8 minutes to go, so I updated LIU as a loss for Brian.

STANDINGS

Mountain West and Ohio Valley Conference Championship Game Previews

We finally have our first 2 conference tournament championship games today with the Mountain West championship game at 4:30p CST and the Ohio Valley championship game at 7:00p CST. Below is a breakdown of each conference tournament championship game today along with some other key conference tournament games. Additionally, 4 more conference tournaments tip off today.

Mountain West Championship Game

• The first conference tournament championship game of the season is extremely chalky with (1) San Diego State playing (2) Utah State which is why we have 31 out of 33 of us still in this one.

• BI and Robb are the only 2 players out for this one with BI taking (5) Boise State (maybe he thought this was a football pool) and Robb taking (4) UNLV (totally got in his own head and also didn't check out injuries).

• We should talk more about Robb taking UNLV, he was so in his own head about his MMILV shirt not arriving, thinking about how to obtain more drink coupons and trying to figure out his seating at Westgate that he picked the wrong team.

• We only have 3 people on (2) Utah State so if (1) San Diego State wins, while it impacts 5 people that are not on SDSU, it really is not a critical conference in terms of our pool.

• Maybe I am behind, but I didn't know "Cowboy Ken" existed for Wyoming, but once I found out it was amazing to see him said at the end of the Utah State/Wyoming game.

Cowboy Ken 😂😂😂

Ohio Valley Championship Game

• In a complete shock we have (1) Belmont playing (2) Murray State in the championship game, oh wait, this matchup happens Every. Fucking. Year.

• 7 people are eliminated and only a little over half of us are on (1) Belmont, so this championship game has more of an impact than the Mountain West championship game.

As of today 14 conference tournaments are in progress so this is when I stop trying to detail out each one, I typically focus on championships and upsets.  The 4 new conferences that tip off today are the American East, Colonial, Summit League and Sun Belt. If I find some time this afternoon I'll break down each of these conferences, otherwise you can look at the spreadsheet yourself.

The link below has the current spreadsheet with all Friday games now updated and we had more conferences with seeding finalized, but nothing that impacted bonus points or standings. Good to see that Tim finally stopped editing the document over the past few days.

STANDINGS

At this point everyone has at least 1 loss, but we have 8 total people that only have 1 loss which is very impressive for the amount of upsets that we saw over the past few days. Heffron, Jack and Sam round out our top 3 with 1 loss and over 40 max points available to them. The bottom 3 are rounded out by Murder Mittens, Brian and Penguin, all 3 of them really racking up losses 

Now Loyola Chicago Goes Down in Arch Madness!

Earlier today in #Archmadness30 we saw the 1 seed Northern Iowa go down, now in the second game of the day we saw (2) Loyola Chicago lose to (7) Valparaiso. Loyola Chicago blew a 2nd half 18 point lead, missed 50% of their free throws and lost in overtime by not scoring a FG in over 4 minutes. Only 3 out of 33 of us have a chance to win the Missouri Valley conference, all 3 are on (4) Bradley. We seem to always have trouble picking the winner of this conference, last year nobody picked the champion.

(3) Gardner-Webb was a popular bonus point pick in the Big South conference and they ended up getting blow out by (2) Winthrop. Also in the Big South conference (5) Hampton destroyed (1) Radford, knocking out 41% of our conference tournament championship picks. I would be doing a disservice to Tina if I did not include at least one sad player almost 5 days in to tournament play.

The link below has the current spreadsheet.  The only game that has not finished yet is (2) Utah State vs. (11) Wyoming, I'll update the standings to include this game in the morning.

STANDINGS

Tomorrow we will have 2 conference tournament championship games!  In addition to posting the current standings I will preview the 2 conference tournament championship games. We'll finally start filling out that W column tomorrow night. I feel like I have not made fun of enough people yet and I have not been including any Vegas pictures, even though we have 2 active tournaments being played in Vegas, so I'll make that more of a focus in my updates this weekend.

Northern Iowa Goes Down in Arch Madness!

First, I am updating the Blog regularly now.  My next email update will likely be Sunday night.  Below is a reminder of the Blog link, bookmark it, subscribe to it, check it out for updates.

https://2020conferencetournamentchallenge.blogspot.com/

Well, that didn't take long to get a crazy upset today, first game of the day (8) Drake completely destroyed (1) Northern Iowa.  For the first time ever at #ArchMadness30, a one-seed goes down. Not only did this wipe out 67% of our pool, it was super entertaining watching Dan Sohler absolutely lose his mind about Northern Iowa!

The link below has the current spreadsheet.  We're updated through the Southern Illinois/Bradley game that just finished with (4) Bradley beating (5) Southern Illinois.  Todd & Steve Olsen are now in sole possession of 1st place, what a cute couple!

STANDINGS

Afternoon Preview: Arch Madness Quarterfinals, Big South Semifinals and Southern Conference Tips Off

All Missouri Valley conference teams will be playing throughout the day today with the first game starting at noon CST and the last game starting at 8:30p CST.  Even with all teams in action today we are only guaranteed 1 pool impacting loss, we'll need an upset or two for more losses.  Below is a snapshot of the 4 games, all favorites are expected to move to the Semifinals.

The Big South is down to 4 teams and all teams are playing today, we are guaranteed to see multiple losses in our pool.  By early tonight we will know which teams will be playing for the Big South conference tournament championship on Sunday.

Southern Conference Preview

• 50% of the picks in our pool are on (1) East Tennessee State to win the conference championship and Team Rankings gives (1) East Tennessee State a 43% chance to win the conference championship so we close to being aligned with the prediction.

• We have picks all over the place in the conference once you get past ETSU, we're covering the 2-6 seeds.  However, the bad news is that only the 7 - 10 seeds are playing today which means we won't see any impact to our pool.

The link below has the current spreadsheet.  We had some significant changes to the standings this morning, prior to games being played, as the final Sun Belt Conference tournament seeds impacted bonus points.

STANDINGS

In case I don't get another post up before this evening, other conferences in action include the Ohio Valley and Mountain West conferences, with all teams playing.  Additionally, the West Coast conference moves in to the 2nd round, but no teams that impact our pool are playing.  My goal today is to get 1-2 additional posts throughout the day today, maybe 3 if we have some crazy late night upsets.

North Florida and American Defeated

In the Atlantic Sun (3) Lipscomb took out (2) North Florida in a close game, we did have 4 people in our pool on North Florida to win the conference tournament championship.  While this one was a significant loss, we saw losses across all active conferences tonight giving 11 people at least 1 loss and we have a few people with multiple losses.

In the Patriot League (7) Bucknell destroyed (2) American and we did have 2 people in our pool with American to win the conference tournament championship.  This was the second 2 seed to go down today.  Also, we do have someone in our pool that went with Bucknell to win the conference tournament championship.

Additionally today we saw pool impacting losses by (6) Oakland and (5) Youngstown State in the Horizon League, (10) Evansville in the Missouri Valley Conference, (5) Tennessee State in the Ohio Valley and (8) Lehigh in the Patriot League.  It's nice to see some standings start to formulate with some losses.  

The link below has the current spreadsheet.

STANDINGS

Penguin took the biggest hit tonight dropping 22 spots to last place, but Hurley dropped 15 spots while New Mexico Husted dropped 10 spots.  It is very early which means the standings will really fluctuate, but once those losses start racking up it's not fun looking at your name in red.  Nazzy, Aardvark Tina, and Chris Iannuzzi benefited the most today, jumping up 8 spots in the standings.

It's no wonder that Tennessee State got destroyed today as I look at this picture.  The coach (I think the guy in the glasses) looks lost, one player has on a hoodie, another player has his jersey rolled up and another guy completely took his jersey off.  This picture was posted on Twitter, by the Tennessee State Twitter account, during a time out.