Our version of March Madness has already begun. For almost everyone it’s one and done.
Furman beat UNC Greensboro on Monday to open the Southern Conference Championship that continues in earnest on Friday.
Evansville plays host to Indiana State tonight in the Missouri Valley Championship.
Most tournaments are this week, but some start next week. What follows is a breakdown of every conference, 23 of them, that — barring major surprises — will get just one NCAA Tournament bid.
This is part one.
In part two, we will feature the leagues that will get multiple bids — regardless of upsets — on Wednesday: ACC, American Athletic, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Conference USA, Pac-12, SEC and the West Coast Conference.
AMERICA EAST: Binghamton (17-7, 8-2), the school in upstate New York, took the conference tournament No. 1 seed for the first time. Binghamton is the host team and plays fourth-seeded New Hampshire on Saturday, followed by second-seeded UMBC vs. Bryant. The winners play for the NCAA bid on Sunday. Binghamton is led by Bulgarian junior outside Tsvetelina Ilieva, a Seton Hall transfer who has 331 kills (3.76/set) and 32 aces. The top two hittters are UMBC’s Mia Bilusic (376 kills) and Kamani Conteh (351).
ASUN: This league has been a fierce season-long battle between four teams that are separated by two games. There’s been a lot of beating up on each other. Accordingly, it should be a fun tournament that begins Thursday in Nashville when second-seeded FGCU (23-6, 13-3) plays North Florida (12-16, 9-7), followed by third-seeeded Jacksonville State (24-5, 12-4) vs. Kennesaw State (17-9, 10-6), No. 1 Liberty (21-7, 14-2) vs. Stetson (15-13, 6-10) and No. 4 Lipscomb (15-12, 12-4) vs. No. 5 Central Arkansas (19-10, 11-5). Liberty, which has won 10 in a row, leads the league in kills and boasts a balanced offense. FGCU has won seven in a row and is led by Erin Shomaker, who has 382 kills, eight behind league-leading Lena Kindermann of Jax State.
ATLANTIC 10: Talk about a good move. Loyola Chicago left the Missouri Valley and ran away with the A10 in its first year in the conference. Loyola (23-8, 17-1) finished three games ahead of Davidson (20-9, 14-4). Even though the defending-champion Flyers finished third, Lexie Almodovar has had a tremenous season. She leads the league in kills with 360 and is sixth in aces with 36.
The tournament starts Friday in St. Louis with two quarterfinals. Saturday, Loyola gets the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…