The busiest day of the rest of the season is upon us. There are 135 games left to be played and 61 will be played on Thursday. Four teams that are just off the current bracket and 43 that are in it will be in action.
However, Iona will not be one of them. Rick Pitino’s team will miss the NCAA Tournament after a 71-70 loss to No. 9 seed Rider in the Metro Atlantic conference tournament.
Colgate won the Patriot League tournament on Wednesday over Navy. The Raiders will be making their third straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
There are no more conference championship games until Saturday.
Some of the most compelling action Thursday may come from the ACC, where Miami, North Carolina and Notre Dame, all No. 10 seeds, play their first conference tournament games. Virginia Tech is a fringe bubble team looking to take down the Irish.
Duke will play Syracuse and the Orange will be without Buddy Boeheim, who was suspended for this game after gut-punching Florida State’s Wyatt Wilkes. Inexplicably, no foul was called on the play.
Bracketology top seeds
Check out Palm’s latest bracket, full field of 68 and all the teams on the bubble on the Bracketology hub.
Three potential No. 1 seeds will take the court as well. Baylor and Kansas have quarterfinal matchups in the Big 12 conference tournament. Top seed Baylor faces West Virginia, while the Jayhawks take on Oklahoma. A loss by either would jeopardize a potential top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The same is true for Arizona, which will face off with Stanford in the Pac-12 quarterfinals. The Cardinal beat Arizona State on a last second shot in Wednesday’s first round.
The top teams in the SEC and Big Ten will not play until Friday.
