| Saturday’s Conference Tournaments | ||
| America East Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Higher Seed at Home | ||
| Home | Visitor | Spread |
| Vermont | Maryland Baltimore Co. | 14.3 |
| American Athletic Conference–Semifinals | ||
| Fort Worth, TX | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Houston | Tulane | 12.5 |
| SMU | Memphis | -2.7 |
| Atlantic 10 Conference–Semifinals | ||
| Washington, D.C. | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Davidson | Saint Louis | 0.2 |
| Dayton | Richmond | 2.1 |
| Atlantic Coast Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Brooklyn | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Duke | Virginia Tech | 5.6 |
| Big 12 Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Kansas City | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Kansas | Texas Tech | 1.1 |
| Big East Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| New York | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Villanova | Creighton | 7.2 |
| Big Sky Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Boise, ID | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Montana St. | Northern Colorado | 3.4 |
| Big Ten Conference–Semifinals | ||
| Indianapolis | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Iowa | Indiana | 5.6 |
| Purdue | Michigan St. | 5.4 |
| Big West Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Henderson, NV | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Long Beach St. | Cal St. Fullerton | -0.5 |
| Conference USA–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Frisco, TX | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| UAB | Louisiana Tech | 4.8 |
| Ivy League–Semifinals | ||
| Boston | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Princeton | Cornell | 5.8 |
| Yale | Penn | 3.6 |
| Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Atlantic City, NJ | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Saint Peter’s | Monmouth | 1.8 |
| Mid-American Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Cleveland | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Kent St. | Akron | 0.4 |
| Mideastern Athletic Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Norfolk, VA | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Norfolk St. | Coppin St. | 8.1 |
| Mountain West Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Las Vegas | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Boise St. | San Diego St. | -1.4 |
| Pac-12 Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Las Vegas | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Arizona | UCLA | 2.5 |
| Southeastern Conference–Semifinals | ||
| Tampa | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Arkansas | Texas A&M | 5.3 |
| Tennessee | Kentucky | -1.8 |
| Southland Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Katy, TX | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Southeast Louisiana | Texas A&M-CC | -1.6 |
| Southwestern Athletic Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Birmingham | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| Texas Southern | Alcorn St. | 4.5 |
| Western Athletic Conference–CHAMPIONSHIP | ||
| Las Vegas | ||
| Higher Seed | Lower Seed | Spread |
| New Mexico St. | Abilene Christian | 3.1 |
| Dance Tickets Punched | |||
| 1 | Murray St. | Ohio Valley | 27-2 |
| 2 | Longwood | Big South | 26-6 |
| 3 | Loyola (Chi.) | Missouri Valley | 25-7 |
| 4 | Chattanooga | Southern | 27-7 |
| 5 | Georgia St. | Sun Belt | 18-10 |
| 6 | Jacksonville St. | Atlantic Sun | 21-10 |
| 7 | Bryant | Northeast | 22-9 |
| 8 | Delaware | Colonial Athletic | 22-12 |
| 9 | Wright St. | Horizon | 21-13 |
| 10 | South Dakota St. | Summit | 30-4 |
| 11 | Gonzaga | West Coast | 26-3 |
| 12 | Colgate | Patriot | 23-11 |
Hunkered Down In The Hull
The PiRates have had their tea and bickies and swabbed the deck. It’s time to head down to the hull and hunker down with typical PiRate ship tools. We have no torpedos and no swords. Our weapons are power ratings, strengths of schedule, quad ratings, and strengths of record. We will be carefully perusing the field to see which team to pillage and which team to let pass into the Dancing waters.
The Florida Gators have been scuttled and sunk to the bottom where they have met the sandy silt known as NIT. Texas A&M just might pass through if the Aggies can fire more shots at the SS Razorback today then they take on.
With a late Winter storm plunging most of the Eastern half of the nation back into January-like weather, this is a good day to stay indoors and watch teams qualify for the Big Dance. We will be looking at a lot of Bubble teams as well as teams that can greatly alter our Bracketology.
Our final Bracketology prediction will be published here tomorrow afternoon. Depending on the games to be played after 1 PM EDT (yes, remember it will be D and not S tomorrow), we may have to have two different brackets prepared and waiting to use one over the other depending on the outcome of the final games. Fortunately, almost all the Cinderella teams that could only get into the Field of 68 by qualifying automatically lost yesterday. Colorado, Penn State, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Cincinnati, and Central Florida helped teams like Wake Forest, BYU, and Xavier feel a little better when they bowed out of their tournaments. Indiana probably worked their way into the field by topping Michigan and Illinois, so the Hoosiers can win or lose today and tomorrow and not change the teams getting bids.
There are still some potential bid-stealers where the top seed could lose and still get an at-large bid, but if the top seed wins, the conference in question will not receive the extra bid. In the Atlantic 10, Davidson is now a lock to make the field without winning their tournament. If Saint Louis wins today, or if today’s Richmond-Dayton winner beats Davidson tomorrow, the A-10 will get one extra team in the field, and one bubble will burst. In the American Athletic, should Tulane upset Houston today and then beat the winner of today’s SMU-Memphis game, the AAC will receive an extra bid, and another bubble will burst. If Tulane is put out of the tournament today, then the only game that will affect the 68 teams tomorrow would be the A-10 Championship Game. That game should end between 2:45 and 3:00 PM EDT, so our final projections should publish soon after the conclusion of that game and possibly earlier if this game is a blowout.
The Pi-Rate Ratings 
Good stuff, gentlemen. Can you provide your thinking regarding favoring Villanova over Arizona? What puts Villanova over the top? Thanks!
Comment by hokieharry — March 15, 2022 @ 5:06 pm
It was a 50-50 call, but Villanova was a preseason top 25 pick, whereas Arizona was not. All past national champions in the current tournament era of 64 to 68 teams were ranked in the top 25 in the preseason. The Pac-12 was weaker than all the other Power Conferences this year, while the Big East was strong as usual. It was almost a flip of the coin, but with Jay Wright having won two titles, and with Arizona having a first-year head coach, the experience will be worth an extra 5-8 points. Thanks for asking.
Comment by piratings — March 15, 2022 @ 6:43 pm