Welcome back, college sports fans. First, a happy heavenly birthday to G’s father, JoJo’s grandfather, who would have been 91 today. Second, each year the Ohio Valley Conference designs its conference tourneys to finish at least one day before any other conference, so that they can claim the first official NCAA teams. They did that last night with W Illinois (women’s) and TN St (men’s). As of this writing, the fields of 68 only need 67 more teams each to fill the slate. Congratulations to both teams!
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We have quite a few finals today: 9 on the women’s side and 4 on the men’s side. Check out the schedules below to catch as many as you can.
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Here is the women’s conference tourney schedule for today. Today ends the regular season for all teams, but those games (American, Coastal, C-USA, Ivy, MAC, Missouri Valley, and WAC) are not in this table. The Prediction column is based on two assumptions: 1) a neutral site and 2) both the Score and RPIF metrics agree (if they do, the predicted winner is listed, but if one metric favors one team while the other metric favors the opposing team, “NO PRED” is listed). Yesterday, the Prediction was correct 25 out of 31 games for a .806 success rate. The records and rankings are through yesterday’s games.
| CONF | Round | Game (All Times Eastern) | Tipoff | Prediction |
| A10 | FINAL | George Mason (23-8/59) / Rhode Island (27-4/25) | 4:00 | NO PRED |
| ASUN | FINAL | Austin Peay (19-12/133) / Jacksonville (23-8/66) | 5:00 | Jacksonville |
| ACC | FINAL | Louisville (27-6/12) / Duke (23-8/13) | 1:00 | NO PRED |
| Big 12 | FINAL | West Virginia (26-6/11) / TCU (29-4/7) | 5:00 | TCU |
| Big East | SF | Creighton (16-14/158) / UCONN (32-0/4) | 2:30 | UCONN |
| Big East | SF | Seton Hall (19-11/102) / Villanova (24-6/20) | 5:00 | Villanova |
| Big Sky | R2 | Weber St (11-21/256) / Idaho (26-5/56) | 2:00 | Idaho |
| Big Sky | R2 | Montana (9-21/296) / Montana St (23-6/23) | 4:30 | Montana St |
| Big South | FINAL | Radford (22-11/135) / High Point (26-5/58) | 6:00 | High Point |
| Big Ten | FINAL | Iowa (26-5/5) / UCLA (30-1/1) | 2:15 | UCLA |
| Horizon | R2 | IU Indy (14-16/209) / Fort Wayne (19-12/146) | 1:00 | Fort Wayne |
| MAAC | SF | Iona (20-11/180) / Quinnipiac (25-5/98) | 12:00 | Quinnipiac |
| MAAC | SF | Merrimack (19-11/154) / Fairfield (26-4/40) | 2:30 | Fairfield |
| Mtn West | QF | Air Force (14-17/222) / San Diego St (25-4/26) | 3:00 | San Diego St |
| Mtn West | QF | Boise St (24-8/87) / New Mexico (22-9/139) | 5:30 | Boise St |
| Mtn West | QF | Fresno St (15-17/232) / UNLV (20-10/101) | 8:00 | UNLV |
| Mtn West | QF | Grand Canyon (13-18/225) / Colorado St (24-7/60) | 10:30 | Colorado St |
| SEC | FINAL | Texas (30-3/2) / South Carolina (31-2/3) | 3:00 | Texas |
| SoCon | FINAL | Samford (15-18/207) / Chattanooga (20-9/128) | 12:00 | Chattanooga |
| Summit | FINAL | South Dakota St (26-6/21) / North Dakota St (28-3/24) | 4:00 | South Dak St |
| Sun Belt | SF | James Madison (24-8/45) / Ga Southern (23-6/22) | 12:30 | NO PRED |
| Sun Belt | SF | Arkansas St (24-8/64) / Troy (24-6/29) | 3:00 | Troy |
| West Coast | QF | Portland (18-13/149) / Oregon St (21-10/69) | 2:30 | Oregon St |
| West Coast | QF | San Francisco (18-13/136) / Santa Clara (23-8/53) | 5:00 | Santa Clara |
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Like the women, the men’s regular season ends today. The American and Big Ten Conferences are the only ones playing non-tourney games today, but they are not listed in this table. The Prediction column is based on two assumptions: 1) a neutral site and 2) both the Score and RPIF metrics agree (if they do, the predicted winner is listed, but if one metric favors one team while the other metric favors the opposing team, “NO PRED” is listed). Yesterday, the predictions were 21-7 for a .750 success rate. The records and rankings are through yesterday’s games.
| CONF | Round | Game (All Times Eastern) | Tipoff | Prediction |
| ASUN | FINAL | Queens (20-13/131) / C Arkansas (22-11/109) | 2:00 | C Arkansas |
| Big Sky | R2 | Idaho St (13-19/276) / Portland St (19-10/130) | 7:30 | Portland St |
| Big Sky | R2 | Idaho (18-14/198) / Montana St (18-13/174) | 10:00 | Montana St |
| Big South | FINAL | Winthrop (23-10/73) / High Point (29-4/57) | 12:00 | NO PRED |
| Coastal | QF | Campbell (15-17/205) / Wilmington (26-5/35) | 12:00 | Wilmington |
| Coastal | QF | Drexel (17-15/188) / Monmouth (17-14/173) | 2:30 | Monmouth |
| Coastal | QF | Towson (18-14/125) / Charleston (21-10/68) | 6:00 | Charleston |
| Coastal | QF | William & Mary (20-11/111) / Hofstra (21-10/79) | 8:30 | Hofstra |
| Horizon | R2 | N Kentucky (19-13/167) / Green Bay (18-14/149) | 3:30 | Green Bay |
| MAAC | SF | Marist (19-11/120) / Merrimack (22-10/72) | 6:00 | Merrimack |
| MAAC | SF | Fairfield (21-12/108) / Siena (21-11/107) | 8:30 | NO PRED |
| MVC | FINAL | N Iowa (22-12/71) / IL Chicago (19-14/126) | 12:00 | N Iowa |
| Patriot | SF | Colgate (18-14/183) / Lehigh (16-16/226) | 12:00 | Colgate |
| Patriot | SF | Boston Univ (16-16/239) / Navy (26-6/85) | 2:00 | Navy |
| SoCon | SF | W Carolina (15-15/193) / E Tenn St (22-10/89) | 4:00 | E Tenn St |
| SoCon | SF | Greensboro (15-18/246) / Furman (20-12/122) | 6:30 | Furman |
| Southland | R1 | Houston Chr (12-19/290) / New Orleans (14-17/227) | 6:00 | New Orleans |
| Southland | R1 | Nwestern St (10-21/321) / Nicholls (13-18/261) | 8:30 | Nicholls |
| Summit | FINAL | North Dakota (18-16/202) / North Dakota St (26-7/74) | 9:00 | North Dak St |
| Sun Belt | SF | Southern Miss (19-15/166) / Troy (20-11/94) | 6:00 | Troy |
| Sun Belt | SF | Ga Southern (19-16/200) / Marshall (19-12/78) | 8:30 | Marshall |
| West Coast | QF | San Francisco (17-15/133) / Oregon St (16-15/135) | 8:30 | NO PRED |
| West Coast | QF | Pacific (18-14/168) / Santa Clara (24-7/26) | 11:00 | Santa Clara |
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That’s it for today. Thank you for reading and sharing. Tune in tomorrow for a G’s Expectation for the tourney games similar to this one. A week from today, March 15, will be selection Sunday for both men and women. The next day, we will have the final pre-tournament (NCAA, NIT, etc.) Women’s Top 363 and Men’s Top 365. During the tournaments, we will continue daily episodes like today’s detailing all the action. See you tomorrow, JoJo and G.
