28 February 2012

Bubble Watch: A Guide to Conference Tourneys

The bubble is shaping up nicely for NU at the moment, but be nervous as conference tourneys are getting underway.   As fans of a bubble team we are strongly against crowning any Cinderellas and other bubble teams making any noise (other than popping).

With 30 non-B1G conference tourneys over the next two weeks rooting interests can be confusing with so much new information to digest from the college basketball periphery.  We're here to help.  Here's a list of tourneys that 1) you can safely ignore and/or cheer for madness, 2) we want the clear favorite to win, and 3) we want bubbles to burst early and no Cinderellas.


Let Madness Ensue
Mid-Eastern
Big South
Northeast
Southland
Patriot
Horizon
Big Sky
Southern
MAC
Atlantic Sun
WAC
America East*
SWAC*

* RPI Alert: tourney favorites are NU opponents.


Be a Yankees Fan (Best Case Scenario)
Ohio Valley (Murray St win)
Ivy (Harvard win reg season)
Missouri Valley (Creighton/Wichita St win)
Big West (Long Beach St win/early loss)
Sun Belt (Middle Tenn win/early loss)
Metro Atlantic (Iona win/early loss)
Summit (Oral Roberts win/ early loss)


Needles Wanted (Bubble Teams)
A10 (StL/Xav/Dayton/St Joes)
Pac 12 (Cal/Wash/Ariz/Ore)
Big East (WVa/Cinc/So Fla)
CUSA (So Miss/Ctrl Fla)
Colonial (VCU)
West Coast (BYU)
Mountain West (Col St)
SEC (Miss St)
ACC (Miami Fla)
Big 12 (Texas)