Ohio Valley, Big South, ASUN, Summit, and NEC Tournament Previews

Five tournaments start today. We even have daytime basketball in the ASUN.

Ohio Valley Conference

Bracket

Format

It's another ladder bracket! This one comes with less hoops. The OVC has 11 teams. They only invite the top eight programs to Evansville. This year Tennessee Tech, Southern Indiana, and Western Illinois missed out on making the bracket.

Across four consecutive days, the OVC will be determined. For each day except championship Saturday, there will be four games of basketball played in the Ford Center of Evansville, Indiana. That's because the women's tournament is running concurrently. The women play in the afternoon. The men play in the evening.

Apparently the admissions fair the OVC schools were running in coordination with the basketball tournament didn't go very well the past few years because it's not mentioned on the OVC site like in past years.

Kind of...: Yeah, don't know how many people going to the OVC tournament aren't already committed students, parents of committed students, fully aware of these schools, etc...

PAW: One of the best things about this tournament is how needlessly late in the day it's held. I love you for those 10pm tip-offs, OVC.

Regarding the recruiters, I'm just amazed that these schools thought that was a good use of their money.

...on second thought, check that. I have no problem believing that these schools thought this was a good idea. I'm amazed that they got away with it for as long as they did. Meanwhile, we're having to fight with our recruiters to stop telling prospective history majors "There aren't many jobs in that field, are you sure you don't want to be a teacher?"

Anyway, point is, if my school wants to send me to OVCit! I will happily recruit the next generation of "I want to be a real estate agent, but I'm so dumb I think I need a four-year degree" students in Evansville.

How to Watch

First Round and "Quarterfinals": ESPN+
Semifinals: ESPNU
Championship: ESPN2

Favorites

1 seed Tennessee State Tigers - 6'6" senior Aaron Nkrumah is a menace on the defensive end of the court. The Tigers like to turn steals into points at the other end of the court. They play fast and will want to avoid getting into a half court battle.

2 seed Morehead State Eagles - Morehead State has won 7 in a row. Predictive metrics aren't crazy about the chances for Morehead, but down the stretch the Eagles have found a way to get to the paint and score.

3 seed Southeast Missouri Redhawks - SEMO was one of the best teams in the OVC the last month and a half, losing just two games since mid January. The Redhawks also got close last year. Three starters are returnees from the team that lost in the championship game to SIU-Edwardsville last season. SEMO's issue is they foul way too much.

4 seed Tennessee Martin Skyhawks - Tennessee Martin has the best defense in the conference and early in the season appeared to be the favorite. They stumbled down the stretch (5 losses in the last 7 games), but the generate turnovers, force tough shots, and play slow enough tempo that their legs shouldn't give out in game 3 if they make it that far. The question is can the Skyhawks make enough shots?

Never Made the Tournament Club Members

Western Illinois Leathernecks (1982) - already eliminated :'(
Tennessee Martin Skyhawks (1993)
Lindenwood Lions - first season eligible
Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles - first season eligible, already eliminated

Kind of...: Maybe I'm petty (okay, I AM petty), but Southern Indiana is forever tainted by Bruce Pearl. Glad you're eliminated despite your nickname.

Other Long Droughts

Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (1963) - already eliminated
Tennessee State Tigers (1994)
Eastern Illinois Panthers (2001)

Rooting Interests

Unfortunately, Western Illinois, Tennessee Tech, and Southern Indiana have already been eliminated. That leaves Tennessee Martin as the best hope for this conference.

SEMO is coached by Brad Korn, a former Southern Illinois Saluki player under Bruce Weber and Matt Painter so they probably get my cheering at the end of the day.

PAW: Go SkyHawks, I guess. It'd be go Leathernecks, but Jim Molinari ain't walking through that door, is he?

Conference NCAA Tournament History

Last season Southern Illinois Edwardsville made their first NCAA Tournament before being smothered by Houston. I distinctly recall arriving back at the Cincinnati airport, getting to my car, and tuning into the SIUE student radio call for the end of the OVC championship game.

The most recent NCAA victory for the OVC came from former member Murray State in 2022. The Racers beat Todd Golden's San Francisco 92-87 in overtime of a 7/10 game.

Little Rock has advanced to the Round of 32 twice. The first time came in 1986 against Notre Dame - nice and the second time was less nice as they defeated Purdue in double overtime during the 2016 tournament.

Morehead State reached the Round of 32 in 2011 as Rick Pitino's Louisville couldn't last the final 10 seconds and Morehead defeated them 62-61. This was actually the four time Morehead matched up with Louisville in the tournament so it's nice they finally got a win. Morehead State also won a game in the 1956, 1961, and 1984 tournaments.

Kind of...: Jeez, yet more 1986 content from BoilerUp89. What is going on? That Arkansas-Little Rock team (or UALR as they were known at the time) played in the Atlantic Sun back when it was known as the Trans-Atlantic Athletic Conference (TAAC). Had a senior guard tandem of TAAC POY Myron Jackson and Pete Myers (who famously "replaced" Michael Jordan on the '93-'94 Bulls). They combined for 51 in the upset of Notre Dame.

As for Morehead State, Kenneth Faried was a stud.

PAW: Good year, 1986. Kent Conrad, Tom Daschle, Dave Nagle...shame about Ed Garvey and Harriett Woods, though.

Storylines and Likely Seeds

The Ohio Valley is likely to get a 16 seed. There's a chance for a NMTC member to get to their first Big Dance, but to be honest this conference has much more parity since Belmont and Murray State left for the Missouri Valley.

There's reasonable hopes for everyone here as the bottom feeders of the conference were left out. Bit embarrassing for Southern Indiana to not be participating in their own conference tournament taking place in their city, but that's what is happening.

Tennessee Tech has fired their coach.

I'm most curious what happened to the admissions fair.

PAW: I can see, in the NCAA Tournament's inexorable march toward more P5 teams that went 6-12 in conference play, turning more of these low-major bids into guaranteed "playoff games" where the 4-8 lowest-ranked conferences are automatically (irrespective of team quality) assigned to playoffs to reach the dance as a 16-seed – think Patriot vs. NEC, MEAC vs. OVC, Southland vs. SWAC, MAAC vs. America East. Kind of like the World Cup intercontinental playoffs, only with less "New Zealand vs. Peru home-and-home" energy and more "a wet March day in Arlington" ennui. All these 16-seed games will be held in the Cowboys' practice facility, because that's where we do everything else these days.

Then that's two more guaranteed "good" games for Dayton, two more spots for 11-seed (First Four edition) USC.

Imagine how many college recruiters you could stuff into THAT event.

Big South

Bracket

For those that don't know the Big South logos from top to bottom, left hand side then right hand side: 1 High Point, 8 USC Upstate, 9 Gardner-Webb, 4 UNC Asheville, 5 Longwood, 2 Winthrop, 7 Charleston Southern, 3 Radford, 6 Presbyterian.

Format

Standard 9 team bracketed format. An opening round game between the 8 and 9 seeds followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship game. There's a day off between the opening round and the quarterfinals, but otherwise rounds are on consecutive days. All games will be played at the Freedom Hall Civic Center located in Johnson City, Tennessee.

PAW: More conference tournaments for the Johnson Citys and Atlantic Citys of the world. Reminds me of another article some strapping young lad wrote about a great event in Johnson City history, the Burley Bowl:

Thanksgiving, Black Friday College Football Schedule: Don’t Watch This; Watch That

From the Burley Bowl to Big Ten rivalries, we’ll take you on a walk for Thanksgiving Weekend football.

Off Tackle EmpireMN Wildcat

How to Watch

Opening round, quarterfinals, semifinals: ESPN+
Championship: ESPN2

Favorites

1 seed High Point Panthers (2025 champion) - The Panthers haven't dropped off since Alan Huss left to go be head coach in waiting at Creighton. The win the turnover battle, play fast, and went 15-1.

2 seed Winthrop Eagles - Winthrop has the only victory over High Point in the Big South, a 92-75 home victory. The Eagles also fell at High Point a week and a half ago by just two points. Their rotation features nine seniors and one sophomore. Winthrop enjoys feeding the post with former Hoosier Logan Duncomb playing the role of start center.

Never Made the Tournament Club Members

South Carolina Upstate Spartans (2012)
Presbyterian Blue Hose (2013)

Other Long Droughts

Charleston Southern Buccaneers (1997)

Rooting Interests

I will always root for Mark Prosser (head coach of Winthrop) since his dad was the first basketball coach I remember at Xavier.

For fans of potential Big Ten 4 seeds, rooting against High Point is an option as they are a likely 13 seed. On the other hand, High Point is the best team in the conference and face planted two years ago in the same position before breaking thru last year.

Blue Hose fans are always welcome, but Michigan State fans may find themselves rooting for a fellow Spartan. Longwood is the funny named option for those of you who get a kick out of that.

PAW: I'll say it again – if you started in 2012, you're not an NMTC member. You're just a new kid.

Go Buccos.

Conference NCAA Tournament History

Not a very good one.

Last season trendy 13 seed pick High Point lost to Purdue 63-75.

The most recent win by a Big South team was Radford defeating the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds during a First Four game in 2018.

UNC Asheville won a 2003 opening round game in overtime against fellow 16 seed Texas Southern and a First Four game over Little Rock in overtime during the 2011 tournament.

The only non 64/65 or First Four game won by the current conference members came in 2007 when 11 seed Winthrop upset the Fighting Irish 74-64. For some reason I'm unable to find video highlights of that ass kicking so here's Radford's tournament victory.

Kind of...: Winthrop/Notre Dame was wild. Winthrop blew a 20 point second half lead and Notre Dame went up a point or two inside of the under 4:00 timeout (okay...with 2:21 to to play), but then Winthrop ended on a 12-1 run. It was Winthrop's seventh tournament in nine years, and their first win, so there was a lot of "good guy coach finally gets a win" stories in the aftermath. However, the coach was Gregg Marshall so...

Anyway, Winthrop played in the first play-in game of the modern era of the tournament when it was "expanded" from 64 to 65 in 2001. They lost to Northwestern State. Did I go to a bar with an equally disturbed acquaintance to watch this historic event? You know I did.

Storylines and Likely Seeds

High Point is headed to a 13 seed if they win. Winthrop can probably avoid the 16 seed line with the smallest amount of help in other conferences. Everyone else is locked in as a potential 16 seed.

Beyond seeing whether High Point can avoid choking for the second time in three years, watch the Big South to see if tempo has any effect on teams. Everyone will need to win three games in three days to earn the auto bid. High Point, Winthrop, 3 seed Radford, and 7 seed Charleston Southern all like to play fast. Will their legs give out late in the tournament? Who can find ways to score when the jump shots stop falling?

PAW: What's enjoyable is that there IS potential for high-scoring basketball here. I'm still traumatized by looking at the tempo and offensive metrics for the fucking Patriot League.

Atlantic Sun

Bracket

Apologies for the readability issues, but this is the best graphic I found. 1 Central Arkansas, 2 Austin Peay, 3 Queens, 4 Lipscomb, 5 Florida Gulf Coast, 6 West Georgia, 7 Eastern Kentucky, 8 Bellarmine, 9 Jacksonville, 10 Stetson, 11 North Florida, 12 Jacksonville

Format

Standard 12 team bracket with a day off between the quarterfinals and semifinals. Note that West Georgia is ineligible to receive the auto-bid. Should the Wolves win the conference tournament, the auto-bid would go to the regular season champion Central Arkansas.

PAW: Is this a new development? Feels like in past scenarios where this was a potential outcome, the bid went to the tourney runner-up. Am I making that up?

How to Watch

First Round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals: ESPN+
Championship: ESPN2

Favorites

1 Central Arkansas Bears - Central Arkansas is led by senior SG Camren Hunter. Hunter returned to UCA this season following a year at Wisconsin in 2025. He's become a high possession guard that excels at drawing fouls and is capable of knocking down open threes.

2 Austin Peay Governors - Austin Peay was on a major winning streak until they lost the final two games of the regular season to fall into a tie for first. 6'8" Collin Parker is a 43.9% three point shooter on ~4 attempts per game.

3 Queens Royals - all offense, no defense, Queens might remind you of a Fran McCaffery team. They let it fly from three and play as a semi-frantic pace. Queens lost their only games against UCA and Austin Peay, but they were all close affairs.

4 Lipscomb Bison - the Bison resemble a Nate Oats offense. Lots of threes (nearly half their field goal attempts) and their average 2 point attempt is just 4.5 feet away (6th closest in the country). Lipscomb loses because they don't ever get to the free throw line (makes sense with how many threes they make) and are an awful offensive rebounding squad.

Kind of...: Hunter was just never healthy in his year at Madison. Definitely cheering for him and Central Arkansas, given...

Never Made the Tournament Club Members

Central Arkansas Bears (2011)
North Alabama Lions (2023)
Bellarmine Knights (2025)
Queens Royals (2026)
West Georgia Wolves - ineligible to 2028

Other Long Droughts

Jacksonville Dolphins (1986)
Eastern Kentucky Colonels (2014)
North Florida Ospreys (2015)
Austin Peay Governors (2016)

Rooting Interests

It's Central Arkansas. A NMTC member that's a 1 seed. Go Bears! Central Arkansas didn't even make the ASUN tournament the past two seasons (the ASUN didn't allow everyone in until this season). Job well done by second year head coach John Shulman.

Kind of...: This is Central Arkansas' 20th season in D-1...and second winning season. Pretty wild story. They did make the NAIA title game a couple of times in the 90s. And they'll always be Scottie Pippen's alma mater.

PAW: 2011 isn't NMTC, but good luck to the Bears. I would root for Queens, but they're currently being incredibly shitty to their faculty. The Bisons offense and their needlessly pluralized name appeals to me, so come on, you mustache coiffeurs!

Conference NCAA Tournament History

Last season Lipscomb was blown over by Iowa State 55-82. The ASUN hasn't won a game since the Liberty Donkeys were in the league (2019).

The Jacksonville Dolphins were your 1970 national runner-up to UCLA. They defeated Western Kentucky, Iowa, Kentucky, St. Bonaventure on their way to the final. Future NBA star Artis Gilmore led them.

Dunk City made the Sweet 16 in 2013 after defeating Georgetown and San Diego State.

Kind of...: That Jacksonville team also had a second seven-footer, the awesomely named Pembrook Burrows. In the NCAA tournament, they were put in the Mideast regional where they beat Iowa (who had gone undefeated in B1G play) and #1 Kentucky to make the Final Four. Here's from the Wikipedia entry about the 1970 NCAA tournament:

Every game in the Mideast Regional saw at least one of the two teams score 100 points or more.

Notre Dame was in the regional and that was the year Austin Carr dropped 61 to set the single-game NCAA record. He followed it up with 52 in a loss to Kentucky before Iowa "held" him to 45 in the regional third place game (yeah, they used to play those way back when).

It was a wild tournament overall. St. Bonaventure, Jacksonville, and New Mexico State all made the Final Four in their first appearance. The latter was coached by Lou Henson. Does New Mexico State make the Final Four if Al McGuire doesn't get pissed Marquette was put in the Midwest regional instead of the Mideast, decline the bid, and opt to play in the NIT (see my Season on the Brink recollection from yesterday). Who knows? Have I written enough to convince you that the 1970 NCAA tournament was pretty wild? Hopefully!

But even with then-Lew Alcindor in the NBA, UCLA still won the damn thing.

Bonnie fans will tell you that they could've won it all if All-American Bob Lanier hadn't gotten hurt in the regional final. They were good enough to drill Purdue (who finished second in the B1G and still had Rick Mount) by 16 in the regular season. Given that Lanier averaged 29 and 16 on the year (but still shot nowhere near as many FT/game as Zach Edey), they may have been right. In their eight point loss to Jacksonville without Lanier, they were outscored at the line 37-15!

Storylines and Likely Seeds

Central Arkansas has two paths to an auto-bid.

Four NMTC teams can punch their first ticket to the Big Dance.

This is the final season of the ASUN as it's currently constituted. They are merging with the WAC to create the United Athletic Conference for football and effectively splitting for other sports to maintain two bids for March Madness.

The top 4 teams have a reasonable path to a 15 seed, but the rest are headed for a 16 seed if they win.

NEC

Let's get this over with.

Bracket

1 Long Island University, 2 Central Connecticut, 3 Mercyhurst, 4 Le Moyne, 5 Stonehill, 6 Fairleigh Dickinson, 7 Wagner, 8 Chicago State

Format

Outgoing Saint Francis failed to qualify for the 8 team NEC tournament. The Red Flash are self demoting to Division III after this season. New Haven wasn't allowed to participate because the NEC only allows two transitioning schools to participate in the NEC tournament. That's actually the most straightforward part of this tournament format.

Pairings are reseeded after the quarterfinals. Not a completely unusual thing in Division I, but something that can happen.

Here's where things get interesting. Le Moyne and Mercyhurst aren't eligible for the NCAA tournament. If either wins, the tournament runner-up will be awarded the auto-bid. If they somehow face each other in the championship game, a third place game between the two semifinal losers will be staged for the purposes of awarding the auto-bid. If you aren't rooting for that scenario, I don't know how to help you.

All games are played on the home courts of the higher seed. Two travel days are between each round.

PAW: OK, so I DIDN'T make it up that there were runner-up formats. Good.

Kind of...: If you aren't rooting for a playoff among the semifinal losers, you need to leave this site. Now. Would ESPN2 still show the championship game? This could be really awesome.

PAW: OOOOOOOOOOH what's the appropriate forum for this game? I think something like Eleven Sports Network. Or maybe NEC Front Row, which is the greatest streaming service you're not watching.

How to Watch

Quarterfinals: NEC Front Row
Semifinals: YES, NESN, ESPN+
Championship: ESPN2

Favorites

1 Long Island Sharks . Long Island is one of two teams that pretends to play defense in this conference. They also have the least-worst offense of the league. The other okay defense has the 363rd ranked offense.

Never Made the Tournament Club Members

Chicago State Cougars (1985)
Stonehill Skyhawks - first year eligible
Le Moyne Dolphins - not eligible until 2027
Mercyhurst Lakers - not eligible until 2028
New Haven Chargers - not eligible until 2030?

Other Long Droughts

Central Connecticut Blue Devils (2007)

Rooting Interests

Chicago State feels like a good shout. Personally I'm rooting for Wagner and Chicago State to lost to Le Moyne and Mercyhurst in the semifinals and then play a third place game for the right to go to the NCAA tournament.

Some people... will root for FDU. You are monsters.

PAW: GO COUGARS

Conference NCAA Tournament History

Last season Saint Francis lost in Dayton 68-70 to Alabama State.

The most recent NEC victory came by Wagner over Howard in the 2024 First Four.

Long Island was a national powerhouse in the 1930s and 1940s. They won the 1939 and 1941 NIT. A point shaving scandal in 1951 caused the university to shutter their entire athletic program. As the Long Island Brooklyn Blackbirds, LIU is 0-7 in the NCAA Tournament (1981-2018). LIU is a merger of the Blackbirds and Long Island Post but retain the Blackbirds history.

Fairleigh Dickinson stunned the Purdue Boilermakers 63-58 in the second ever 16 seed over a 1 seed in 2023.

Kind of...: I make enough snide comments about Zach Edey (he just missed the front end of a one-and-one) so I'll let FDU pass by. But, if you don't know about Long Island's history, especially their coach Clair Bee, you really should. Still the highest winning % among any D-I coach ever. Responsible for the three second in the lane rule. Wrote sports books for kids!

Storylines and Likely Seeds

The conference is now known as the NEC, not the Northeast Conference. No, I don't understand the rebrand.

Chicago State has not won a conference tournament game since 2013 - the longest drought in the nation.

If Le Moyne or Mercyhurst make a run this gets interesting. There are few programs in this league that have gone dancing before so we could see a first timer.

I hate the NEC. Don't ask me why. I don't want to talk about it.

16 seed.

Kind of...: I've mentioned this previously elsewhere, but the fact that the NEC tournament is still not sponsored by Necco Wafers is really a missed opportunity on all sides.

PAW: The NEC is great and you guys are idiots. I'll chalk it up to you not having downloaded NEC Front Row (still branded in some of its graphics as NEC on the Run, a testament to how professional this operation is) and watched its delightfully-accented announcers run a relatively professional operation, given that most of these teams play in high school-sized gyms that would make Eden Prairie High School pity them.

And that's not accounting for Chicago State's Jones Convocation Center, a hilariously-bloated testament to Chicago's graft.

Again, go Cougars.

Summit League

Bracket

1 North Dakota State, 2 St. Thomas, 3 North Dakota, 4 South Dakota, 5 Omaha, 6 Denver, 7 South Dakota State, 8 Oral Roberts, 9 Kansas City

Format

Standard 9 team bracket with an 8/9 game feeding into a quarterfinal matchup with the 1 seed.

The quarterfinals are split over two days with the 1 and 2 seeds playing on Thursday and the 3 and 4 seeds playing on Friday. This gives the top seeds an extra day of rest headed into the semifinals. Otherwise rounds are on consecutive days.

All games will be played at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Denver is joining the WCC after this season.

How to Watch

First Round, Quarterfinals: Midco Sports/Summit League Network
Semifinals, Championship: CBSSN

Favorites

1 seed North Dakota State Bison - The Bison live off the three with four players shooting over 38%. Unfortunately some backups also take some ill advised threes and hold back the team averages to just 36%. If the right players are taking shots in these win or go home games, the Bison should pour it on. North Dakota State is also a good rebounding team that tends to avoid fouling.

2 seed St. Thomas Tommies - St. Thomas just beat North Dakota State by 22 last week so they should have a ton of confidence. The Tommies have the second closest average 2 point attempt distance in the nation (1 guess for who is #1) and convert that into the 4 highest effective field goal percentage. They won't go average offense rebounds except by mistake. 6'9" center Carter Bjerke is shooting 45.9% from three on five attempts per game.

Never Made the Tournament Club Members

Denver Pioneers (1939)*
Kansas City Roos (1990)
South Dakota Coyotes (2013)
St. Thomas Tommies - first year eligible

*Denver dropped down to NAIA after 1979. They rejoined Division I for the 1999 season.

Other Long Droughts

N/A

Rooting Interests

Minnesota fans are probably not rooting for St. Thomas as it would be a real shame if the Tommies proved themselves to be the #1 basketball program in the state.

I'd like to see any of the NMTC members make it but honestly I'm not fussed so long as Oral Roberts and South Dakota State don't make it. Never forget what Mike Daum took from us (2017 victory over then NMTC member Omaha, 2018 victory over NMTC member South Dakota). South Dakota State is one of the villains of college basketball amongst the fans of NMTC members.

PAW: As the son of a Tommie, roll Toms. As an NMTC rooter, though, go Pios.

Kind of...: Let's pour one out for 2013 Denver. Coached by Joe Scott, the Pioneers were 4-7 after dropping their WAC (their only season in that conference) opener to Louisiana Tech. From there, Denver went on a 17-1 run, including blowing out Tech by 24 to end the regular season and clinch a share of the title. Denver lost the tiebreaker...and lost their opening round game to 11-21 Texas State. Ugh. Heading into that game, Denver was 28 in KenPom. Nobody on the committee cared about KenPom back then, so I'm not saying they almost got an at-large bid. Still, damn.

Also, Louisiana Tech lost their opening round game to 9-seed UTSA, opening the door for New Mexico State to win the WAC title. The Aggies are also one of the villains of college basketball, although not necessarily for NMTC reasons.

Conference NCAA Tournament History

Last season Omaha went to their first Big Dance but lost to St. John's in the first round 53-83. Only seven more losses to catch up to Nebraska-Lincoln.

North Dakota State upset 5 seed Oklahoma following overtime in 2014 to make the Round of 32.

Oral Roberts made the 1974 Elite 8 before falling to Kansas in overtime. The Golden Eagles also made the 2021 Sweet 16 as a 15 seed after cracking 2 seed Ohio State Buckeyes and Florida Gators.

Kind of...: Running out of steam. 1974 was just Oral Roberts' third year in D-1. They went 26-2 in their first year. They didn't necessarily play the most challenging schedules, but they're '74 tournament run was Syracuse, Louisville, Kansas. Syracuse and Louisville would both advance to the Final Four the next year, playing each other in the 3rd place game after losing to Kentucky and UCLA, respectively (Louisville won). The Cardinals featured Junior Bridgeman, who went on to an excellent pro career, mostly with the Bucks (his jersey is retired), and an even better business career, as he made himself a billionaire through Wendy's and Chili's franchises, mostly. He died last year not long after buying a 10% share of the Bucks.

Storylines and Likely Seeds

Denver is leaving, North Dakota State is leaving behind a lot of these schools for football. Kansas City won just a single conference game all season.

St. Thomas has the opportunity to make the NCAA tournament in their first season eligibility. Seems unfair to programs that have been waiting a lot longer.

North Dakota State or St. Thomas should earn 14 seeds. It's a big drop off after the two of them. Probably a 16 seed for anyone else.

MNW: The Tommies, a team I have watched more than once thanks to their deal with Fox9+ in the Twin Cities, are a teM you'd want to know about in March if they manage a 13/14 seed. With that 3-oriented offense and a stretch center like Bjerke, they could be a shout to pull a first-round stunner. Think Ivy League style in a privileged Catholic school (wannabe Notre Dame, really a budget Marquette) setting.

I like the Roos (Turge has an uphill battle, though), Yotes, and Pios on principle. Summit is usually good for some home crowds and fun hoops, so it's worth a watch if you're looking for a game that's not Purdue steamrolling Northwestern.