March 14-16 at Chicago State.
All-kenpom: Chris Flores, NJIT (kPOY); Ben Aird, Utah Valley; Art Bernardi, Houston Baptist; Brandon Provost, UT Pan American; Nick Thompson, Utah Valley.
Realignment has taken many great rivalries from us, but none more memorable than Utah Valley and Houston Baptist. The two will lock up in the play-in of the Great West tournament for possibly the last time ever. UVU won seven of the ten meetings between the two and many of them were classics, but the Wolverines elected to throw away tradition and, along with Chicago State, bolt to the up-and-coming Western Athletic Conference. This effectively kills off the Great West and its four-year legacy of producing legendary cagers such as Ryan Toolson, Carl Montgomery, Louie Krogman, and Sammy Schickel. Such is the modern state of college athletics. This tournament brings down the curtain on the conference, but it will not be easily forgotten. It was a conference that made the West proud. Nay, it made the West great.
Numbers listed are the probabilities of a team advancing to each round. Unfamiliar with log5? Here’s more than you want to know.
(There is no automatic NCAA tournament bid at stake.)
Semis Final Champ 3 Chicago St. 100 70.0 39.8 1 NJIT 100 64.1 34.5 5 Utah Valley 65.9 26.9 11.9 2 UT Pan American 100 30.0 11.2 4 Houston Baptist 34.1 9.0 2.6