Patriot League (conference rank: 23rd)
Feb. 28, Mar. 2, 5, 8
All games at higher seeds.
kPOY: Tim Kempton, Lehigh
Regular season champ: Bucknell (preseason #189 / 3rd PL, current #78)
Overachiever: Bucknell
Underachiever: Lafayette (preseason #301, current #330)
My apologies to the Patriot League for this belated preview. (A couple of sources on reputable web sites had this tournament starting tomorrow.) Let’s pretend like it’s yesterday. Bucknell is the clear favorite having gone 15-3 and winning the league by three games. The Bison have the league’s best win with a November victory at #44 Vanderbilt. They easily led the conference in both offensive and defensive efficiency, the child of Bucknell’s excellent play and the parity in the middle of the league.
Lehigh is a bonafide challenger, though. Tim Kempton, Jr. is as experienced as you’ll see having been the focal point of the Mountain Hawks offense for the last four seasons. He has collected 29 game MVP’s over his career including 12 this season alone and he’s probably not finished. You can’t spell Kempton without kenpom so there’s that, too. Lehigh swept Bucknell this season so a rematch in the finals should be interesting.
Spoiler alert! Army and Loyola defended their home courts in first round games last night. That already makes this year’s tournament more conventional that last season’s when the road team went 5-4. Of course, four of those road wins were by Holy Cross in one of the more amazing conference tournament runs that has ever occurred. Last night’s results assure that no team will repeat that this season.
Qtrs Semis Final Champ 1 Bucknell 100 92.3 79.7 62.7 3 Lehigh 100 88.5 53.0 20.3 2 Boston University 100 77.8 39.9 10.5 4 Navy 100 63.9 11.4 3.2 5 Holy Cross 100 36.1 6.6 1.9 7 Loyola MD 83.7 20.9 3.8 0.5 8 Army 76.6 6.5 2.0 0.4 6 Colgate 100 11.5 3.3 0.4 9 American 23.4 1.2 0.2 0.04 10 Lafayette 16.3 1.3 0.07 <.001