Welcome to the Final 4, Butler.

I know this is something that Chris has written about in this space. SB Nation's Ryan Hudson covers an SI article chronicling the demise of smaller holiday tournaments like the Great Alaska Shootout because of ESPN. Both Ryan's coverage and the article itself are great reads.

Being a sabermetrician by trade, I tried to apply some statistical reasoning to one of the pools I participate in. This particular pool uses upset bonus points, so I applied expected values to determine which underdogs to pick. The main link is my introductory post from last year, and here's this year's follow-up.

Chief Kickingstallionsims
Alabama State
C
7'1"

Posted as a fanpost over at Rock Chalk Talk. Breakdown of the wins vs top 75 RPI of every team in the tournament.

Robert Morris, playing in the NEC title game tonight, wants to make the tourney and turn some heads.

And I quote: "With a victory tomorrow night in the Northeast Conference tournament championship against Mount St. Mary's, the Colonials just might earn that distinction.

A "Who the heck are they?" team can best be defined as a team that, when the NCAA brackets are unveiled Sunday night, a large portion of the viewing audience asks "who the heck are they?"

The Colonials want nothing more than to be that team."