As we expected, Colgate walked away from the Patriot league handily. Butler upsetting Xavier sent them straight to the bottom of bubble talks. With their season officially over, Xavier may be looking at an NIT appearance. For a team expected to finish 3rd in preseason polls, this is embarrassing. They also screwed up our longshot future to win the Big East tournament. Still a lot of game left, let’s check out the rest of the conference action.
SWAC
I didn’t forget about this conference…no way. I wanted to see how my personal perennial favorite Texas Southern would fare before laying down a future on them. They’re at +130, not the greatest odds considering they still need to win two more games, but you can maybe hedge with Southern University at +250 and be in good shape.
American
Houston is on a different level then the rest of the conference when they’re playing their best ball. They look like a top 10 team in the country when they’re firing on all cylinders. The problem has been these desperate bubble teams have been showing up when it counts against them. They also have one of the friskiest teams in the country in Tulane (+2000) on their side of the bracket. Memphis and SMU will be a blast in the semifinals, but I’ll take the hungrier dog (SMU) to win that game and maybe pull an upset in the finals. You can still get them at +700.
Ivy
These nerds need just two days to figure out their champion. Princeton is -110, and my favorite to win the conference, but you can hedge with Yale at +220.
We ran out of time on a couple conferences, but that’s every conference from coast to coast. Now you know who to look for those upsets in your brackets. Good luck, love you, bye.
The Morning Flush 