Blogs by Hof

March Madness gets its name from the madness that occurs when there are major upsets in the NCAA basketball tournament field. It's synonymous with wild upsets such as #15 St. Peter's over #2 Kentucky in 2022 and #16 Fairleigh Dickinson over #1 Purdue in 2023.  Copyright NCAA, 2024 Sometimes, though, if your team is struggling to do anything right in a game that should be closer than the score indicates, it's less "madness" and more "maddening."  On Saturday, March 30, TD Garden in Boston hosted the first Elite Eight game of 2024, with a trip to the Final Four in Phoenix on the line. Top-seeded Connecticut faced off against the University of Illinois. Historically, this was significant for both: Connecticut was the first defending champion to make the Elite Eight since Florida did in 2007; Illinois had not made the Elite Eight since their runner-up finish in 2005. Several current U of I freshmen had not been born yet.  Copyright Illinois Athletics, 2024 I...

The Fairfield Stags of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference entered the conference tournament on a hot streak, winning their last 26 games and only accumulating one loss on the season. That's impressive. Copyright Fairfield University Athletics, 2024 Fairfield's women continued winning in their conference tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They rushed past Rider in their first game and grounded the Canisius Griffins in their second. The Stags were met with a big scare as the Niagara Purple Eagles took them to overtime in the conference championship, but Fairfield still came away with the win to reach 31-1 and qualify for the NCAA tournament. 31-1.  On selection Sunday, the MAAC champion received word they were slated as a 13-seed and that they would play 4-seeded Indiana in Round 1. Furthermore, they are in the same quadrant of the bracket as top-ranked South Carolina. Copyright  Fairfield University Athletics, 2024 A team with a 96.9% winning percentage received a 13-...

With only one guaranteed spot for each conference in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, winning the conference tournament is vital for most schools to enter the "Big Dance." Unless they don't lose in the regular season, the odds of Fairleigh Dickinson ever making the tournament are essentially zero without the automatic bid.  Critics of this process argue that it discounts the validity of the regular season for "Mid-Major" schools. While a team could be the clear top team in a conference and have the record to show it, one untimely upset could release them from NCAA tournament contention.  Northeast Conference: Low Reward, Low Madness Most conference tournaments use a traditional bracket format, where (nearly) everyone must win the same number of games to snag the automatic bid. Central Connecticut State won the 2023-2024 regular season in the Northeast Conference (NEC), but they are unrewarded for it - the Blue Devils need the same number of wins as 6-se...

Since 2011, the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament has put the top 68 teams head-to-head to determine a season champion. This was up from 65 beginning in 2001 , which was up from 64 beginning in 1985. The 68 teams that qualify each year include 32 automatic bids, which are filled by each conference's tournament champion, and 36 at-large bids. Before the Big Dance packs a punch into TV screens across America, there are four games for teams to advance into the official "First Round." These four games are known as the "First Four."  Copyright Dayton Daily News, 2017 There are two types of First Four games. The first is the lowest-ranked at-large bid teams. The second is the lowest-ranked automatic qualifying teams. Usually, the at-larges go to a Power Conference school - Arizona State, Syracuse, etc.  I see these first four games as a snub to the teams that earned their spot through an automatic bid. Two conference tournament winners will not get to play in an ...

The Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball regular season is less than two weeks from completion, and there are still four teams in the running for the #1 seed in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament. Which team has the best chance? Copyright Ohio Valley Conference, 2023 The OVC tournament will only feature the top eight teams of the eleven-school conference, which means that conference standings play a large role for several teams in the bottom half to even have a shot at qualifying for the NCAA tournament - an important automatic berth in a conference that will only see one team selected.  Seeding matters even more in the OVC when you reach the top few spots. Unlike a traditional 8-team bracket, the OVC will utilize a four-round system with higher seeds receiving a free pass to the next round, similar to the bracket adopted by the Big 10. For the OVC, the top two seeds will receive byes all the way to the semifinal round; the three- and four-seeded teams will have a bye to the ...

Copyright Bob Donnan, USA Today Sports, 2020. The stories of the 15-seed underdog knocking off the 2-seed favorite in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament are enough to increase the applications to a small Division 1 college - ask the Saint Peter's Peacocks. Basketball fans around the world tune in for March Madness each year, all the way from the beginning of conference tournaments to the Final Four. Once people have placed their bets and filled out their sure-to-be-perfect bracket, the Field of 68 dwindles to just one champion in a matter of weeks.  Copyright NCAA, 2022 The first two rounds usually bring a lot of excitement and intrigue. Which school will upset the Power 6 (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC, Big East) juggernaut? Will that one Sun Belt Conference school get its first tournament win? Where the heck is Fairleigh Dickinson?  By the Sweet Sixteen, though, the hype has mellowed out - perhaps too quickly. By April, when the last four teams take the flo...