Albany(123) vs. Virginia Commonwealth(82)
With Virginia Commonwealth struggling, losing three of four, and Albany leading one of the lowest rated conferences in the league, there may not be much bracket busting for either of these teams. Albany is the leader in the America East conference and is the current projected winner of the conference tournament by the MRI. That still slots them in one of the four #16 seeds though in the MRI's latest tournament projection. As a result, their only hope to bust a bracket is to do something that has never been done before, beat a #1 seed in the first round. VCU's road to the tournament is going to have to be through the conference tournament and right now, no one looks good enough to beat either UNC-Wilmington or George Mason. With both those teams currently projected as "IN" the tournament by the MRI, maybe all VCU can do is knock one of them out.
MRI Predicts: Virginia Commonwealth Confidence factor: 79.13%
MRI Result: Win

Akron(62) vs. Nevada(44)
Nevada's stumbles in mid-January kept them from running away with the WAC title and have left them sitting on the bubble for an at-large bid. That was something that was not expected from Nick Fazekas and the rest of the Wolfpack at the beginning of the season when they were ranked. Now, they face an surging Akron team and a loss here could seriously jeopardize at-large hopes for coach Mark Fox and Nevada should they fail to win the WAC tournament. Akron is currently tied in the standings with MRI conference leader Kent State in the difficult MAC East. Unfortunately for the Zips, the Western side of the conference hasn't held up their end of the bargain this year and it looks to be a one-bid league. Tonight's match-up certainly has them in the role of spoiler though some television exposure for the team could have everyone talking about leading scorer and rebounder Romeo Travis should the Zips get through the MAC.
MRI Predicts: Nevada Confidence factor: 72.42%
MRI Result: Win