America East Preview

America East

Ive been told by a few people to make my blog posts shorter. I’ve been told that this is supposed to be a blog with quick, one story bursts, and not a drawn out essay of every single thing I thought of throughout the day. Seems like a good idea. While I will still have big posts, I’ll try and shorten it up. It IS a good idea, however, to introduce a shorter blog concept in regards to my conference tournament previews. For one, you could now easily scroll and find your Big Sky conference tournament preview, instead of searching through a large mass of text. More importantly, there will be so much information posted in the next 24-72 hours that I would probably blow up blogger’s mainframe systems or whatever. So lets start.

I am going to start with the conferences that as of the end of tonight, Sunday, February 27, are completed. I will give all important information regarding the tournament, and maybe throw in fun trivia facts from years past. I will also go in reverse order according to KenPom’s conference rankings. That means I’m starting with the worst conference that is already done with all their games. That means you’re up America East (yes—‘America’ East, not American East like a normal person would say).

AMERICA EAST CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT (25^th ranked by kenpom)

March 3-13

Hosted by the University of Hartford, Finals will relocate to home gym of highest seeded team. Also, championship game will take place the next weekend.

Sponsored by Newman’s Own. (This should be its own trivia. The tournament is being held at the 6^th place team in the conference, and is sponsored by salad dressing).

Ticket Prices: $300 for VIP Session – Includes all you can eat food and drink throughout the tournament. This is actually an awesome idea, and I would go if I lived in Hartford.

$75 for non-VIP section, i.e, does not include the $225 dollars you spend on nachos, hot dogs and soft pretzels in four days. To give this point legitimacy, I will keep receipts on all food I purchase at Staples during the Pac-10 tourney and see how it compares.

The Bracket:

Thursday March 3^rd: #8 Binghamton v. #9 MD. Baltimore County (1)

Friday March 4^th: #1 Vermont v. Winner of (1)

#2 Boston v. #7 New Hampshire

#3 Maine v. #6 Hartford

#4 Albany v. #5 Stony Brook

The Favorite: Vermont, although the Cattamounts lost today to 5^th seeded Stony Brook. Hartford did beat Maine at home earlier in February. They also beat Boston at home. Possible sleeper.

Trivia: Malik Rose figures to be one of the most accomplished players in America East History. He led his Drexel Dragons to three straight championships in 1994-1996, winning MVP honors all three times. After two straight first round losses, #12 Drexel beat #5 Memphis in the first round of the 1996 tournament. The only problem with all this? Drexel isn’t in the America East anymore……

More contemporarily, #14 Vermont upset #3 Syracuse in the first round of the 2005 tournament. Don’t expect any similar upsets this year out of the conference.