This is part 8 of a 33-part series in this blog, designed to give you all the information you need to know about each conference's tournament, and the postseason prospects of every single team in the conference.
Final standings:
Albany 15-1
Vermont 12-4
Stony Brook 12-4
New Hampshire 11-5
Hartford 7-9
UMass-Lowell 6-10
Binghamton 5-11
UMBC 2-14
Maine 2-14
Conference tournament format:
UMass-Lowell is still in D1 transition, so they're sitting this tournament out. The other play your standard bracket, but boy these games are spaced out. Each is hosted at the site of the higher seed.
Quarterfinals Wednesday March 4, semis Sunday March 8, finals Saturday March 14. Reseeded after each round, by the way.
Bracket:
1) Albany vs. 8) Maine
2) Vermont vs. 7) UMBC
3) Stony Brook vs. 6) Binghamton
4) New Hampshire vs. 5) Hartford
The stakes:
Albany nearly ran the table, however they stayed on the 16 line for just about all of my projections. Am I being too harsh? Perhaps. They've clawed their RPI to near 100, which historically is enough to avoid the 16 line. Once upsets happen elsewhere, they'll gravitate upwards. They did win at Yale in the non-con, and the SoS isn't awful, so I think the 15 line would be their eventual destination.
Stony Brook actually has a RPI near 100 too, with a non-con RPI/SoS both in the 70s. Some hay was made in the non-con (winning over WKU and at Washington, and playing up in the schedule against some name programs). This does look like the resume of a 15 seed too, give or take a spot.
The resumes do fall off a cliff after this. Vermont and New Hampshire, with their overall records and conference records, feel like somewhat safe bets to be desirable to the CBI/CIT (SBU definitely is). But their profiles track to be play-in game teams if they win this tournament.
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