At noon, or eleven, or ten, or nine, or eight, or seven, depending where in the United States you’re reading this (I’d mention other time zones, but I was told I couldn’t go past Hawaii), the America East Conference Tournament will commence.
Of course, the game that matters won’t begin until six (…or five, or four, or…), but that’s beside the point. The America East Tournament is here.
We never expect much from the A-East these days. Vermont’s throttled the league so tightly that it’s hard to earnestly expect anyone to compete. Still, sometimes, upsets happen, like in 2018, when the Catamounts were upended by a UMBC team best remembered for upending the Catamounts.
This year, the story’s the same. Vermont vs. the woeful inability of their comrades to send them to the NIT. Will a surprise happen? Our model puts the chances somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. But, if you had 100 explosive ducks in a room, and 15 to 20 percent of those ducks exploded, you’d have a lot of feathers to clean up. Don’t take Vermont lightly.
The A-East Tournament, like a duck, will flit in and out of our lives over the next week. It’s played in gymnasiums across the Northeast (the gymnasiums of the teams involved—not YMCA’s or middle schools or anything like that). It’s played with class, and with grace, and man I hope there’s a fight now that I’ve said that.
Anyway, A-East Tournament starts today. Vermont’s the only team that can make the NIT. They probably won’t do it, but they could, the same way ducks can explode if you feed them enough gunpowder.
Keep an eye on them.
