The Patriot League is another conference that sends out lower seeded teams to often be shown the exit in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The conference has had two teams win a tournament game since 2010. One was Holy Cross last year winning a First Four game and the other was the legendary upset by #15 Lehigh over #2 Duke in 2012. Other than that, tournament wins are few and far between for this conference.
Bucknell won the conference this year for the third year in a row. Despite this, the Bison have exited the Patriot League tournament early in 2015 and 2016 and were relegated to the NIT. As conference champion, they are the team that shows up in the bracket projections, currently as a 14 or a 15 seed.
All 10 teams in the conference will participate in the tournament, with the top six teams receiving a bye to the quarterfinals. The games will be held on campus sites at the higher seed. The tournament runs from today to Wednesday, March 8th.
First Round-Tuesday, February 28th
#10 Lafayette at #7 Loyola (MD)
#9 American at #8 Army
Quarterfinals-Thursday, March 2nd
#9 American at #1 Bucknell
#5 Holy Cross at #4 Navy
#10 Lafayette at #2 Boston University
#6 Colgate at #3 Lehigh
Semifinals-Friday, March 5th
#4 Navy at #1 Bucknell
#3 Lehigh at #2 Boston University
Championship-Sunday, March 8th
The Bison will be glad not to see Lehigh in the final, as Bucknell lost handily to Hawks...twice. On the other hand, Bucknell handily defeated Boston twice, most recently by 20 in Boston. Bucknell should be able to get past the enigma that is this tournament and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013
Boston 65, Bucknell 78
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