2022 NCAA Basketball Conference Tournament Challenge: Prepare for 15 Conference Tournament Championship Games Today (Part 1 of 2)

Today will be an absolutely insane day for our conference tournament pool with 15 championship games starting as early as 10:00 AM CST and as late as 10:30 PM CST. This blog entry would be 25 pages if I tried to summarize each one so I'll keep it abbreviated as we really only care about the standings. I'll go in order of tip off time and if it has significant relevance to our pool then I'll go into further detail. I'll break this into multiple parts throughout the morning.

America East (10:00 AM CST)

(1) Vermont will take on (2) UMBC with Vermont favored by an incredible 15.5 points making me think the result of this game is not in doubt, but UMBC has overcome big spreads in the past. It is hard to believe that no one in our pool picked UMBC and 83% of our picks are on Vermont. A Vermont win will catapult a bunch of people over Matthew and Iannuzzi, making them huge UMBC fans this morning.

MEAC (12:00 PM CST)

How nobody decided to roll with Juan Dixon and (7) Coppin State vs. (1) Norfolk State still amazes me in this conference. Similar to the America East, the majority of our picks are on Norfolk State, 77% to be exact. While the spread is not as large as we saw in the American East, Norfolk State is still significantly favored at 7.5 points. I love that this game is on earlier in the day as a Norfolk State win means a loss for Pizzy and will tighten up the top of the standings. However, a Coppin State win puts Pizzy in a great position for the remainder of the day.

MAAC (3:00 PM CST)

The majority of us are dead in this conference, but we do have people on both sides when (2) Saint Peter's takes on (4) Monmouth today. Looking at the top half of the standings Iannuzzi and Matthew are on Saint Peter's and a win would be huge for them to be able to stay in contention for the remainder of today. Lundo and Evan are on Monmouth which is equally as big since bonus points can be won. Saint Peter's is favored by 3 so I am hoping we see a close game.

Big 12 (5:00 PM CST)

(1) Kansas will take on (3) Texas Tech in a game that is so huge for our pool considering Pizzy has Kansas, but everyone behind him has Texas Tech and those bonus points. Unlike the previous conferences I'm not sure the outcome means much here as the standings could get bunched up either way weather or not Kansas or Texas Tech wins. This game is almost a pick from a spread perspective so at least it will be fun to watch.

Mountain West (5:00 PM CST)

(1) Boise State plays (3) San Diego State in yet another game that has huge impacts to our conference tournament pool. 34% of our pool picked San Diego State and a few notable exceptions to that are Pizzy, Pat, Robb, Sohler and Sam, who are all in the top 10. Of course it depends what happens in the earlier games, but a San Diego State victory can completely change the standings. San Diego State has been on fire and are favored by 2.5 points today. Since I am pretty much out of it I am rooting for chaos today and want to see a log jam at the top of the standings going into tonight and tomorrow.

Our standings are completely up to date through all conference tournament action as of late last night. As expected, accuracy percentages and max points have completely plummeted over the past few days. Pizzy and Robb are the only ones remaining over 40% in terms of accuracy and Robb and Tom are tied with 28 max points. I like Robb's chances of winning this pool or at least being competitive over the next day and a half.

Below is our top 10 headed into today...