Welcome back, college sports fans, to episode 612 of the GCR. First, a correction. Yesterday, we posted that the Finals for the women’s Northeast Conference and Patriot League tourneys were scheduled for Friday. They are actually part of the quadruple header on Sunday. Second, a bit of news. The College Basketball Invitational, which has always been a little controversial, announced there would be no tournament this season. The controversy arose from a pay-to-play approach for the teams selected. After the first couple of years, the power conferences declined to join leaving lower-level teams, and often those with losing records, to play the games. The CBI is looking forward to next season, but that ship may have sailed. Third, a congratulations for winning their tourney and punching the NCAA ticket, to the Vermont women’s squad who won the American East (AME or AMEAST). And as the last order of business, there are 33 overall games today (12 women’s, 21 men’s) including 19 championship games (8 women’s, 11 men’s). The last set of finals will be played tomorrow prior to Selection Sunday.
…..
Yesterday, for the women, the GCR was a sad 12-9 (.571) picking the winner which brings our total to 101-38 (.727). As a reminder, the GCR predicts the winner if both of the Score and RPIF metrics agree. If one metric picks Team A and the other Team B, we post “NO PRED”. Here are the women’s games today.
| CONF | Round | Game (All Times Eastern) | Tipoff | Prediction |
| American | FINAL | UTSA (17-15/192) / Rice (28-4/47) | 9:30 | Rice |
| Big West | FINAL | Hawaii (22-10/69) / UC San Diego (23-8/85) | 6:00 | UC San Diego |
| C-USA | FINAL | Missouri St (21-12/125) / LA Tech (26-5/18) | 5:30 | LA Tech |
| Coastal | SF | Stony Brook (18-14/161) / Charleston (25-5/31) | 2:00 | Charleston |
| Coastal | SF | Hofstra (10-21/279) / Drexel (21-9/102) | 4:30 | Drexel |
| Ivy | FINAL | Harvard (18-10/84) / Princeton (25-3/11) | 5:30 | Princeton |
| MAC | FINAL | Toledo (17-14/165) / Miami OH (27-6/45) | 11:00am | Miami OH |
| MEAC | FINAL | Norfolk St (18-13/173) / Howard (25-7/112) | 4:00 | Howard |
| Missouri Valley | SF | N Iowa (18-13/152) / Murray St (29-3/38) | 2:30 | Murray St |
| Missouri Valley | SF | Evansville (9-24/317) / Illinois St (20-12/167) | 5:00 | Illinois St |
| SWAC | FINAL | Southern (18-13/174) / Alabama St (17-14/183) | 1:00 | Southern |
| WAC | FINAL | Abilene Chr (23-9/73) / CA Baptist (22-10/103) | 3:30 | NO PRED |
…..
The GCR finally had a good day predicting the men’s games going 24-6 (.800) yesterday bringing up the total to 125-58 (.683). We want to highlight the Cinderella of the tourneys. Mississippi is 15-19/195 following the impressive and unexpected 3-0 start in SEC play. During the regular season, they were just 4-14 against conference foes. They could match that win total today in the semifinal against Arkansas (24-8/12). As a reminder, “NO PRED” just means the GCR metrics Score and RPIF did not agree on who should win the game. Here is today’s men’s slate.
| CONF | Round | Game (All Times Eastern) | Tipoff | Prediction |
| A10 | SF | Dayton (22-10/58) / St Louis (28-4/27) | 1:00 | St Louis |
| A10 | SF | St Josephs (22-10/109) / VCU (25-7/31) | 3:30 | VCU |
| ACC | FINAL | Virginia (29-4/7) / Duke (31-2/3) | 8:30 | Duke |
| AmEast | FINAL | Vermont (22-11/144) / Balt County (23-8/131) | 11:00am | NO PRED |
| American | SF | Charlotte (17-16/209) / South Florida (23-8/44) | 3:00 | South Florida |
| American | SF | Tulsa (26-6/53) / Wichita St (21-10/86) | 5:30 | Tulsa |
| Big Ten | SF | Wisconsin (24-9/29) / Michigan (30-2/1) | 1:00 | Michigan |
| Big Ten | SF | Purdue (25-8/18) / UCLA (23-10/38) | 3:30 | Purdue |
| Big 12 | FINAL | Houston (28-5/8) / Arizona (31-2/2) | 6:00 | Arizona |
| Big East | FINAL | UCONN (29-4/4) / St Johns (27-6/11) | 6:30 | UCONN |
| Big West | FINAL | Hawaii (23-8/79) / UC Irvine (23-10/61) | 10:00 | UC Irvine |
| C-USA | FINAL | Kennesaw St (20-13/128) / LA Tech (20-13/149) | 8:30 | Kennesaw St |
| Ivy | SF | Cornell (15-12/162) / Yale (23-5/24) | 11:00am | Yale |
| Ivy | SF | Penn (16-11/110) / Harvard (17-11/134) | 2:00 | Penn |
| MAC | FINAL | Toledo (19-14/99) / Akron (28-5/30) | 8:00 | Akron |
| MEAC | FINAL | NC Central (14-17/289) / Howard (22-10/179) | 1:00 | Howard |
| Mtn West | FINAL | San Diego St (22-10/40) / Utah St (27-6/19) | 6:00 | Utah St |
| SEC | SF | Vanderbilt (25-7/15) / Florida (26-6/6) | 1:00 | Florida |
| SEC | SF | Mississippi (15-19/195) / Arkansas (24-8/12) | 3:30 | Arkansas |
| SWAC | FINAL | Prairie View (17-17/270) / Southern (17-16/235) | 7:30 | Southern |
| WAC | FINAL | CA Baptist (24-8/51) / Utah Valley (24-8/54) | 11:59 | CA Baptist |
…..
That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow for the final day of the tourneys. Thank you for reading and sharing with others, JoJo and G.
