Conference Tournament Madness: ASun, Horizon, Patriot, Northeast

One of the greatest times of the year is finally upon us. For some of you out there, March brings hope of warmer weather and a break from school; for us basketball fans we get the true madness before the madness–conference tournaments. These next 2 weeks before the tournament are usually more crazy than the actual tournament itself. We’ll break down EVERY conference and go through the contenders and dark horses. There’s always one sub .500 team that punches their ticket to the dance this time of year, let’s find them sum bitches.

ASun (Starts 3/1)

Heading into February I would’ve said, without a doubt, Liberty was going to run away with the conference. They should till be the odds on favorite as the number one seed, with Jacksonville, Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville State and Bellarmine on their heels. These are the true contenders in a top heavy conference, but one dark horse to look out for is North Florida who has won 7 of their last 10, including Liberty, FGCU and @Jacksonville State during that stretch. If you can find a book where you can lay a future down, I’d go with Florida Gulf Coast. They’ve won 7 of their last 8 and have a 6’11” big man, Kevin Samuel, that will give you 2013 NCAA tournament “dunk city” vibes, and a guard, Tavian Dunn-Martin who averages close to 21 points per game.

Horizon (Starts 3/1)

If you’ve followed “Horizon Hagen”‘s picks, you know how much I love this conference. There are about 6 legitimate contenders between Cleveland State, Purdue Fort Wayne, Northern Kentucky, Wright State, Oakland and Youngstown State. A lot of these teams have a ridiculous non-conference schedule and are over .500 in those games. Early on I thought this conference was Cleveland State, Oakland and everyone else, but it’s going to be a dogfight for the championship. A sub-.500 darkhorse is Detroit Mercy, who have won 3 of their last 4 against top dogs Northern Kentucky, Wright State and Cleveland State. They have Antoine Davis, whose dad coaches the team and played in the NBA, scoring 24 points per game and looking more like a NBA caliber player himself. If you forced me to choose a team I’d take Purdue Fort Wayne, who will probably be the favorites to win the conference. They’ve won their last 9 games and head into the tournament as the 2 seed. If they can get past Youngstown in the second round, I like their chances against Northern Kentucky or Detroit Mercy to get to the championship.

Patriot (Starts 3/1)

There have been a couple surprises in this league throughout the year with Navy and Army in the mix to make some noise in this league, but it really feels like it’s Colgate and everyone else. After an abysmal 4-9 non-conference record with bad losses to Cornell, Harvard, Niagra and Northeastern, Colgate has dominated the Patriot league with a 16-2 record, with a 12 game winning streak heading into the conference’s tourney. They’ve been inconsistent throughout the season, so don’t tail me, but I have to stand by my take about Boston University being one of the friskiest teams in the nation to win this game. A guy watches one game against a shitty Florida State team in November and falls in love….but they also lost to my sworn enemy Marist college (sorry future children).

Northeast (Starts 3/2)

If you look at the standings you’ll think this conference is Bryant, Wagner and everyone else…and you’d be right. I had Wagner as high as a 14 seed in my bracket before a shitty loss to Fairleigh Dickinson. They had been cruising before that, winning 17 of their last 18 and covering the spread left and right. Being the two seed doesn’t kill them though, they avoid a Merrimack team that dominated them on the road last month and will play Long Island in the quarter finals instead, who they swept in the regular season. I really think this is a two horse race for the championship, but you might be able to get good value with Merrimack, who enters the NEC tourney with a 14-16 record.

I love football as much as the next guy, but in my opinion, March is the most wonderful time of year on the sports calendar. This is your last chance to watch the teams that will bust everyone else’s bracket, but because you were following The Morning Flush, you’ll be able to call that shit. Picks coming soon.