Sectional Semifinal Predictions for Groups I and III, Quarterfinal Predictions for Non-Public A and Conference Tournament Predictions

Through the first 4 days of the state tournament, here's how I'm doing so far.

37-10 in Group I games
42-6 in Group II games
35-13 in Group III games
34-14 in Group IV games
8-3 in Non-Public A games
13-3 in Non-Public B games
28-12 in last nights games
169-49 overall

Not too bad of a night, but Group IV killed me going 7-9. There were a number of upsets, most of which i never saw coming. We are now starting to get into the best part of the tournament where the games are dwindling down and each game becomes more and more important. There's still a number of teams left who going in I'm sure most people though there's no way in hell they'd still be around. 14 seed Carteret, 15 seed Science Park, etc. Who'd have thought the 10 seed Marlboro would be getting a home game this late in the tournament vs. the 11 seed. Unbelievable developments so far and the plot should only thicken with the great set of games tonight with my high school probably having the marquee game of the night when the 10th best team in the state, St. Joe's Metuchen, takes on their archrival and team they haven't figured out as of late in the 8th ranked CBA Colts. There's 24 games tonight and here are my picks to each of them. They should all be very exciting games as many of which have been to this point.

North I, Group I(Spreads according to Born Power Index)
#1 Boonton-18 over #4 Wood-Ridge
#2 Cresskill-14.5 over #3 Palisades Park

North II, Group I
#1 University-12 over #4 Dayton
#3 Newark Central-31.5 over #7 Harrison

Central, Group I
#4 Metuchen-1 over #1 South Hunterdon
#3 Asbury Park-8 over #2 Academy Charter

South, Group I
#1 Pitman-1 over #5 Pt. Pleasant Beach
#6 Penns Grove-0.5 over #7 Woodbury

North I, Group III(Spreads according to Born Power Index)
#4 Teaneck-10.5 over #8 West Milford
#3 Passaic Valley-8 over #2 Old Tappan

North II, Group III
#4 Newark East Side-11.5 over #1 Mendham
#2 Millburn-8.5 over #14 Carteret

Central, Group III
#5 Lakewood-6 over #1 Freehold Borough
#7 Neptune-9 over #11 Ocean Twp.

South, Group III
#1 Kingsway-4 over #12 Moorestown
#2 Lower Cape May-9 over #3 Pt. Pleasant Boro

Non-Public A
#1 Seton Hall Prep-13.5 over #9 Bergen Catholic
#4 Paramus Catholic-11.5 over #12 Union Catholic
#3 St. Peter's Prep-20.5 over #6 DePaul
#2 St. Joe's (Montvale)+0.5 over #10 Don Bosco Prep

#1 Camden Catholic-12.5 over #8 Paul VI
#4 St. Joe's (Metuchen)+1 over #5 CBA
#6 Bishop Eustace-13 over #3 Bishop Ahr
#2 Monsignor Donovan+0.5 over #7 St. Augustine

Those are all my picks for tonight. I look for all the Non-Public A South games to be particularly exciting because they're all close matchups. PVI and CC are big rivals so the score may be closer than the spread indicates. Obviously, same goes for Joe's and CBA. Bishop Ahr has home court so you never know how they could do coming off a horrendous first round loss in the GMC's and then you have a battle of the better point guards in the state in Isaiah Morton and Zack Grennan in the MD-SA game and that one can surely go either way as well.

Now onto my college predictions for tonight as there are many tournaments starting to get into full gear. Here are my records first as to how I'm doing through 3 nights of conference tournament games.

2-2 Atlantic Sun Quarterfinals
4-2 Big South(Up to Semis)
2-2 Horizon League Opening Round
1-1 Missouri Valley Opening Round
2-2 Northeast Quarterfinals
2-2 Ohio Valley Quarterfinals
3-1 Patriot League Quarterfinals
4-4 in last nights games
16-12 Overall(Ouch lol)

Now onto tonight and today's(I can finally say that during a weekday lol, that's when you know tourney time's near. Colonial and Southern Conferences start at noon)

Atlantic Sun Semifinals
#5 East Tennessee State over #8 Kennesaw State
#2 Jacksonville over #6 Mercer

Colonial Athletic Association Opening Round
#9 UNC-Wilmington over #8 Towson
#5 VCU over #12 Delaware
#7 Hofstra over #10 Georgia State
#6 Drexel over #11 James Madison

Horizon League Second Round
#3 Green Bay over #7 Detroit
#5 Cleveland State over #4 Milwaukee

Metro Atlantic Opening Round
#9 Manhattan over #8 Loyola (MD)
#7 Canisius over #10 Marist

Missouri Valley Quarterfinals
#1 Northern Iowa over #8 Drake
#4 Creighton over #5 Bradley
#2 Wichita State over #7 Missouri State
#3 Illinois State over #6 Indiana State

Ohio Valley Semifinals
#1 Murray State over #4 Eastern Illinois
#2 Morehead State over #6 Tennessee Tech

Southern Conference Opening Round
#3S Davidson over #6N Elon
#5S Furman over #4N UNC-Greensboro
#4S The Citadel over #5N Samford
#3N Chattanooga over #6S Georgia Southern

West Coast First Round
#5 Loyola Marymount over #8 Pepperdine
#7 Santa Clara over #6 San Diego

So all in all, there's 22 games today and 22 teams whose season will end unless perhaps Northern Iowa if they were to go down today. I think your best bet today as a fan is to follow the CAA and Southern Conference tournaments. They are always hard fought and generally well-played exciting games. On an individual game level I would say Murray State-Eastern Illinois is probably the game of the day. Both teams are looking to get into the final. Murray State is about 29-4 which is very impressive for any school, let alone an OVC school. They're coming in against a scorching Eastern Illinois team. That should be a phenomonal game. The Ohio Valley Semifinals can be found on ESPNU. They start at 7 with Murray State-Eastern Illinois and follow with Tennessee Tech-Morehead State at 9. Hope everyone enjoys the games today and over the weekend. I'll be back tomorrow with more sectional semifinal picks as well as my conference tournament predictions. Tomorrow there are 3 tickets punched for the Big Dance in the Big South, Atlantic Sun and Ohio Valley Conference Championship games. Combine that with Duke-UNC and a couple other great games and it should be a hell of a weekend for college basketball.