Busting Brackets
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Patriot League Basketball: Bucknell, Colgate conference tournament favorites

By Daniel Benjamin

DETROIT, MI - MARCH 16: The Bucknell Bison leave the court after being defeated by the Michigan State Spartans 82-78 in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Little Caesars Arena on March 16, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - MARCH 16: The Bucknell Bison leave the court after being defeated by the Michigan State Spartans 82-78 in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Little Caesars Arena on March 16, 2018 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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HONOLULU, HI – DECEMBER 23: The Bucknell Bison bench cheers a basket during the first half of the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Stan Sheriff Center on December 23, 2018 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)
HONOLULU, HI – DECEMBER 23: The Bucknell Bison bench cheers a basket during the first half of the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Stan Sheriff Center on December 23, 2018 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images) /

Patriot League Basketball will tipoff its annual postseason conference tournament during the week of March 4.

The Patriot League finished the regular season with co-champions for the first time since 2006-07 as Colgate and Bucknell finished with identical 13-5 irecords.  As a result of a tie-breaker, the Raiders will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming conference tournament that gets underway on March 5. Meanwhile, the Bisons will be the second seed.

The teams entered Saturday’s season finale with the same league record as Bucknell was up-ended by Navy on Feb. 27. Both teams closed out the campaign on a high note with Colgate out-lasting Lafayette 76-70 and Bucknell nipping Army 62-61 on a pair of free throws by Kimbal Mackenzie with 10.6 ticks left.

By claiming a share of the regular season crown, the Raiders effectively ended the Bisons stranglehold on the conference. Bucknell, which has now won 13 conference championships, had been the outright champion in each of the past five years. This is Colgate’s first regular season title since winning three straight in the mid-90s with Adonal Foyle manning the middle. Amazingly, all four of the Raiders’ chips have been shared.

Lehigh (12-6) is the third seed and American (9-9) is the fourth seed. Each of the top four conference seeds will host a quarterfinal game.

Navy (8-10) and Army (8-10) received the final first-round byes as they finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the conference due to the tie-breaking procedure. The Midshipmen and Black Knights split their regular season matchups.

Lafayette, Boston University and Loyola (MD) all tied for seventh in the conference with a 7-11 record, but the Leopards will enter the conference tourney as the seventh seed due to them posting a 3-1 record against the Terriers and Greyhounds. The Terriers got the eighth seed as they went 2-2 against the other two teams while the Greyhounds are seeded ninth. Holy Cross (6-12) is the 10th seed.

This year was the first year that all 10 conference teams finished with six league wins since 2013-14. The Patriot League expanded to 10 teams that year by adding BU and Loyola.