Ladie-, well probably more like just gentlemen, the best time of year at TPB has finally arrived (two days ago). It’s time for the Ultimate Conference Tourney Pick’em (fuck exclamation points). If you need a refresher course on the rules, click here. Pat and I will be going head-to-head, picking every game of every conference tournament as I try to atone for the beating he gave me last year. I haven’t been as in tune to the college basketball world this season as I was last year, so I’m pretty sure that means I’ll actually do better.

There are 31 conference tournaments this year, so the bottom 11 conferences will be 1-point-per-game conferences, the middle 10 will be 2-point-per game conferences and the top 10 will be 3-point-per-game conferences. Picking the winner in a tournament is a x2 bonus.  Following last year’s results, it was clear that the top conferences were probably weighted too highly, as a first-round game in the ACC would be worth as much as picking the winner in the Patriot League. I’m not sure exactly how to rectify that though, especially considering that we’ve already missed three first-rounds, so we’ll have to make the changes next year.

As I just mentioned, the first round games in the Ohio Valley (2-pointer), Horizon League (2-pointer), and Big South (1-pointer) have already taken place. We can either disregard those points or, for the sake of historical consistency in points scored, assign ourselves the “chalk points.” I’ll let Pat make the final call there. For the record, the OVC had only one upset in the first round, the Big South was all chalk and the Horizon also had one upset.

Anyway, onto the picks for today’s games. Two tournaments start today, the Patriot League and the Atlantic Sun – both 1-pointers. We’ll check back in later with our picks for tomorrow’s big slate, but here are my picks for now. Pat’s unable to get online before the first game of the day in the A-Sun, so I’ll relay his pick of #1 Lipscomb over #8 Kennesaw State.

Bo’s Picks

Atlantic Sun (1-pointer)
1st round: #1 Lipscomb over #8 Kennesaw State, #4 Campbell over #5 E. Tennessee State, #6 Mercer over #3 Belmont, #2 Jacksonville over #7 North Florida.

Semi’s: Lispcomb over Campbell, Jacksonville over Mercer

Champion: Jacksonville

Thoughts: Go Jags

Patriot League (1-pointer)

1st round: #1 Lehigh over #8 Army, #5 Navy over #4 American, #6 Colgate over #3 Lafayette, #2 Bucknell over #7 Holy Cross

Semi’s: Lehigh over Navy, Colgate over Bucknell

Champion: Lehigh

Thoughts: Later skaters