Conference tournament predictions: Patriot*

Ok, so maybe I just wanted an excuse to put an asterisk by the word "Patriot", but since I missed the opening round of the tournament last night, I'll have to start at the semifinals. For what it's worth, I would have been 2-2 in the first round, so maybe it's a good thing I missed it.

The Patriot League has been wide open this year, with traditional powers Bucknell and Holy Cross holding down the 7 and 8 seeds (out of 8) in the tournament. First place American had a 10-4 record, and last place Holy Cross had a 5-9 conference record. So yeah, anything can happen in this tournament. This conference is kind of the victim of its own success, as the increased competitiveness of all the schools have not allowed any one or two teams to rise up in power rankings, meaning there will only be one NCAA bid and it won't be a very good seed. All tournament games are played at the higher seeds home court.

FIRST ROUND (already completed)

1 American 62
8 Holy Cross 60

4 Lehigh 61
5 Army 64 (OT)

3 Colgate 76
6 Lafayette 74

2 Navy 86
7 Bucknell 87 (3OT)

Wow...told you this league was wide open. Four games with a combined winning margin of 8 points, and four total overtime periods. But alas, I carry on with predictions.

SEMIFINALS
1 American
5 Army

3 Colgate
7 Bucknell

CHAMPIONSHIP (can be seen Fri 3/14 on ESPN2):
1 American
3 Colgate

Only fitting that a school named American would win the Patriot League, right?