Editor note: This begins a series of conference tournament previews for the worst conferences in college basketball. Every day we will preview the conference tournaments for the non “Power” conferences. We begin today with the two conference tournaments that begin on Tuesday, March 1, the Atlantic Sun and the Patriot League. With apologies to the former USSR, here is the AMSTS CCCP (Crappy Conference Championship Preview)
Conference: Atlantic Sun
Rough Geographic Area: Southeast (plus New Jersey)
School you’ve probably heard of: Florida Gulf Coast University, well known for being the first 15 seed to advance to the Sweet 16, doing so in 2013.
School you may not have heard of: South Carolina Upstate (Spartans), which has the smallest arena in Division I men’s basketball with a capacity of 878.
Favorite: North Florida 21-10 (10-4), #156 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings
Dark Horse: FGCU 17-13 (8-6), #194 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings
Game that might be closer than it should be: #3 Jacksonville vs #6 Lipscomb: Jacksonville sits at 258 in the AMSTS rankings while Lipscomb is only a few spots lower at 268.
Likely seed with Massey Conference Ratings: 15 with North Florida, 16 (non play-in) otherwise, ranked 28th of 32 conferences by the Massey Ratings Compiler.
How to watch the games: WatchESPN, Final on ESPN2.
Conference: Patriot League
Rough Geographic Area: Northeast
School you’ve probably heard of: Tie: Army and Navy, most known for combining forces to beat England in a War in 1776.
School you may not have heard of: College of the Holy Cross (Crusaders), which gave the world Bill Simmons AND the more annoying but less famous Dan Shaughnessy. Yuck.
Favorite: Bucknell 17-12 (14-4), #178 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings
Dark Horse: Navy 18-13 (9-9), #201 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings
Game that might be closer than it should be: #7 Navy vs #2 Lehigh: This assumes that Navy wins the first round matchup against Lafayette (they will), and I think Navy will also win the against a weak Lehigh team.
Likely seed with Massey Conference Ratings: 16 (non play-in), ranked 26th of 32 conferences by the Massey Ratings Compiler.
How to watch the games: Patriot League Network. Semifinals and Championship on CBS Sports Network