NCAA Tournament Watch: Top Seeds Safer With Odd Results

North Florida and Stony Brook now have better chances to make the NCAA tournament thanks to results from their respective conference tournaments.

Dec 8, 2015; South Bend, IN, USA; Stony Brook Seawolves forward Jameel Warney (20) goes up for a shot in front of Notre Dame Fighting Irish forward Zach Auguste (30) in the second half at the Purcell Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /

We’ve officially entered Championship Week. During this week, we’re going to see some odd scores and teams lose games earlier than expected.

That is already the case for both the Atlantic Sun and America East conference tournaments. With odd finishes, the Ospreys and Seawolves now have even better chances to earn those automatic berths to the NCAA tournament.

On Tuesday, the Atlantic Sun tournament began. This tournament is played all on teams’ home courts, so there’s a clear home court advantage in play here.

In the quarterfinal games, only North Florida (the top seed) and Florida Gulf Coast (the No. 4 seed) were able to come away with wins while Jacksonville (the No. 2 seed) lost at home to Lipscomb 92-89 in overtime and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (the No. 3 seed) lost to Stetson 82-67.

Based on these results, North Florida now has a clear advantage in repeating their NCAA tournament bid from last year. The Ospreys topped South Carolina Upstate 92-67 on Tuesday but now must gear up for another meeting with FGCU, which beat the the Ospreys by 16 in their most recent meeting.

Based on Tuesday’s results, the lower part of the bracket semifinal featuring Stetson and Lipscomb will play for the right to play at either North Florida or FGCU for the title on Sunday. Both of those teams have 20 losses this season, so if the string of odd finishes continues through the title game, there could be a 20-loss team in the NCAA tournament.

North Florida and FGCU split their regular season meetings while Lipscomb won both meetings against Stetson.

Over in the America East, the top seed–and one of the top mid-majors in the country–now has a safer route to the NCAA tournament, though it’s not guaranteed, obviously.

Despite trailing early on, Stony Brook was able to come away with a win against UMBC by a final score of 86-76. Lou Henson Player of the Year candidate Jameel Warney totaled 27 points and 23 rebounds, continuing his amazing season, now a three-time America East POY winner.

Meanwhile, their foe, Albany, entered the tournament as the second seed. You may remember, Albany’s the team that won on a buzzer beater last season to thwart the Seawolves’ attempt at an NCAA tournament bid last season.

Like the Atlantic Sun, the America East tournament is played at the venue of the top seed in each game, as displayed in the video where Albany won the tournament title at home. Stony Brook wouldn’t have had to play on the road in the tournament, but getting rid of Albany — which lost to Hartford 68-59 on Wednesday — should give them some breathing room.

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However, one thing to keep in mind is that either Stony Brook, Albany and/or Vermont have all taken part in the America East tournament title game in each of the past six years. This now sets up as a potential Vermont-Stony Brook title game. Vermont topped the Seawolves in 2012 to advance to the NCAA tournament.

Stony Brook is 13-1 at home this season, but that one loss came against Vermont just last week. Should the final be a rematch, there’s still a chance for an upset, but that’s always the case. Getting Albany out of the way should help, though.