EIVA Tournament Projections
The East is ready for a mighty showdown in New Jersey.
The EIVA has been a fascinating mystery this year. When healthy, teams look amazing. When battling injuries, everyone is beatable. With a ticket to the big dance on the line, this is sure to be a slugfest to the very end.
The Bracket
After securing the regular season championship, Princeton has the honor of hosting the EIVA tournament. With the tournament spread over a long 4 calendar days, there is time for the semifinal winners to rest for the championship.
Six teams make the EIVA tournament. In past years, this meant every team in the conference got to play in the postseason. With Sacred Heart joining this season, however, there was one team left out. Unfortunately for newcomer SHU, they found themselves at the bottom of the standings.
Going into the final day of the regular season, the only seed that was locked up for the tournament was #1 Princeton. In an amazingly transparent move, the EIVA was very up front on the tie-break criteria and where every team stood. We need more of this!
Round-by-Round Projections
I used the VBelo model and simulated the EIVA tournament 50,000 times. Below are the results for how often each team progressed through the tournament.
If Princeton is fully healthy, they will be hard to stop on their home court. They are a strong favorite to win the tournament and get the automatic qualifier to the NCAA tournament.
Penn State has struggled this year to find a rhythm, but they still had a chance of winning the EIVA going into the last weekend. The model, maybe surprisingly, has them with the second best odds.
Just behind them is NJIT who is probably the sleeper pick to make it all the way. They may only have a 15% chance, but I like their odds if they perform to their potential.
Who can stop Princeton? Will Penn State find a way to win? Is NJIT just waiting in the wings to pull off an upset?
First time in a long time since the bye format has been in place that PSU does not have a bye. It will be an awesome tournament