Under the Radar Games of the Day: Saturday, February 28, 2015: Lehigh at Colgate and Bucknell at American

Lehigh at Colgate, 12:00 PM Eastern, CBS Sports Network

Bucknell at American, 12:00 PM Eastern, free streaming at patriotleague.org

Twelve Under the Radar conferences play their final regular season games today.*  The regular season title and top seed in the conference tournament for several of them is still up for grabs, as is seeding, byes and double byes, and more. On top of that, there is a whole host of important games among conferences that do not complete their regular seasons until next week.  This makes choosing an Under the Radar Game of the Day extremely difficult, but in the end the battle for the top seed in the Patriot League, which plays its conference tournament at campus sites, is perhaps the most interesting and intriguing of today’s matchups.  Of course, to fully look at this battle, we had to select a pair of games today.

Bucknell enters play today with a record of 12-5 in conference and 17-13 overall.  The Bison hold a one game lead in the standings over Colgate, who sits at 11-4 conference and 14-16 overall.  However, the Red Raiders swept the season series, meaning that if the two end up tied, Colgate will capture the top seed and home court advantage throughout the conference tournament.  Amazingly, Colgate has a chance to be the #1 seed in the Patriot League tournament despite having a losing record overall!!!  Colgate hosts Lehigh (10-7, 16-12) at Noon Eastern today while Bucknell will be traveling to American (8-9, 15-14).  With the parity throughout the Patriot League, both of these games could go either way today, and both Colgate and Bucknell will be busy not only trying to win their own contest, but also keeping one eye on the scoreboard.  Somewhat luckily for both teams, neither of their opponents has nearly as much at stake today.  Lehigh is already locked into the #3 seed no matter what happens.  American is tied for fifth place, but cannot move up any higher than the 5 seed, meaning they will start the conference tournament on the road no matter what.  Despite having less at stake, both Lehigh and American clearly want the victories, and both games should be exciting contests.

*While the Summit League is one of these twelve conferences, Omaha (ineligible for the conference tournament) does have a non-conference game left this week at North Dakota.