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March Madness: Sunday’s conference tournament breakdown

Mike Hugueninby:Mike Huguenin•03/06/22•

MikeHuguenin

To true college basketball aficionados, the real “March Madness” already has started. That’s because the “lesser” conference tournaments have begun; those are the conferences in which you must win your tourney to even get into the Big Dance. The pressure is immense, and a marvelous regular season can mean nothing.

Here’s a look at the tournament that starts Sunday, in the America East Conference. (Here’s a look at the complete conference tournament schedule. All hail March Madness.)

America East Conference

When: March 6, 9, 12 (the schedule is here)
Where: Campus sites
TV for final: March 12, 11 a.m., ESPN2
Regular-season champ: Vermont
Format: Eight of the 10 teams qualify. Third-place Stony Brook and 10th-place Maine were left out — Maine because it finished last and Stony Brook because it is leaving for the Colonial Athletic Association and was barred by the AmEast from postseason play this academic year.
Projected NCAA bids: 1.
The buzz: Vermont (25-5) ran away and hid from the rest of the league, going 17-1 in conference play and winning the regular-season title by six games. The Catamounts, who have won six consecutive AmEast regular-season titles, lost by 10 to Providence on December 7; their only setback since was a one-point overtime loss at Hartford on February 14. Vermont is 13-0 at home and will play its league tourney games on its home floor. Of the Catamounts’ 18 league games, just two were decided by single digits; in their nine conference home games, the Catamounts won by an average of 18.2 points. Seniors Ryan Davis (17.2 points per game, 5.8 rebounds per game, 57.9 field-goal percentage) and Ben Shungu (15.8 ppg, 43.6 3-point field-goal percentage, 1.1 steals per game) are an excellent 1-2 punch for Vermont. Fourth-seeded Hartford, which won this tourney last season to make its first NCAA appearance, is the other team to watch, simply because it beat Vermont and also played the Catamounts relatively close (10 points) in their other meeting.
The pick: Vermont.