Conference Tournament Week: Saint Joseph’s, UConn and Miami All Chase Another Title

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Conference tournament week is here, and three leagues have their brackets locked in. Saint Joseph’s, UConn and Miami all go in as the teams to beat, but none of them gets an easy road. Here’s how each bracket shapes up.

Atlantic 10: Saint Joseph’s go for six in a row

Saint Joseph’s are the top seed again, and the numbers explain why. The Hawks swept the regular season 6-0, and they have won the last five Atlantic 10 titles and eight of the last nine. That’s not a hot streak. That’s ownership of the league.

The tournament runs Thursday to Saturday at Cary Street Field in Richmond, Virginia. Thursday’s semi-finals are Saint Joseph’s against Davidson at 11am, then Richmond against VCU at 2pm, both on ESPN+. The final is Saturday at noon, also on ESPN+.

Davidson grabbed the last spot in the field on Friday with a 7-1 win over Lock Haven, edging out Saint Louis and La Salle on the tiebreaker after all three finished 2-4 in league play. Richmond and VCU already know each other well. Richmond won Friday’s regular-season finale 4-1, a game that effectively decided which team wore which colours in the rematch, since both were already locked into the second semi-final. VCU host the tournament, so the Spiders will have to beat the home team to reach the final.

BIG EAST: UConn top, Liberty lurking

UConn are the BIG EAST’s top seed after sealing the regular-season title with a 2-0 win over Georgetown on 16 October. The Huskies play Villanova in Friday’s first semi-final at 1pm ET at Howarth Field in Philadelphia. The second semi-final, Liberty against Old Dominion, follows at 4pm ET. Both games stream on ESPN+, and the final is Sunday at noon ET, also on ESPN+.

The seeding tells its own story. Liberty took second at 5-1 in league play, including a head-to-head win over Villanova. Old Dominion and Villanova both finished 3-3, with Old Dominion taking third on the tiebreaker. So Villanova have to beat the team that beat them to the regular-season crown, and Liberty have to get past a side they only just edged for second. The winner takes the league’s automatic NCAA bid, which is what all of this is really about.

MAC: Miami hunt a ninth straight title

Miami host the MAC Championship on campus from 4 to 7 November, and the RedHawks are chasing something special: a ninth straight MAC tournament title. They finished 13-4 overall and 8-1 in the league, good for the No. 2 seed and a bye straight to the semi-finals.

Wednesday’s quarter-finals are App State against Kent State at 11:30am ET, then James Madison against Ohio at 2:30pm ET. Top seed UMass await the App State-Kent State winner in Thursday’s first semi-final at 11:30am, and Miami face the James Madison-Ohio winner at around 2:30pm on Thursday. The final is Saturday at 1pm.

Nine straight titles is the kind of run that makes every opponent’s season. Miami have been here before, and they know the drill. But a bye can cut both ways. Their semi-final opponents will have a game under their belts, and in a one-off semi-final, that sharpness matters.

For our money, Saint Joseph’s are the safest pick of the three favourites, UConn have the toughest semi-final draw, and Miami’s streak is the best storyline of the week. The Big Ten bracket, by the way, was covered separately on this site, with Northwestern as the top seed in Columbus.

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