Bracketology: Division II Boys Basketball (March 2)

The Division II boys basketball regular seasons are done and tournament pairings are expected to be released by the NHIAA on Monday.

But if you don’t want to wait that long to get an idea of where and when each team will be playing in the tournament, here are projections of what the D2 tournament will look like when the brackets are released.

Division II

Note: With the NHIAA’s 70-percent rule in place for the postseason, Division II boys basketball will have 15 playoff teams. Standings based off results reported to NHIAA.org and other media outlets. These are not official pairings.

Playoff field (record, rating, previous)

1. Oyster River (17-1, 3.8333, 1st)
2. ConVal (17-1, 3.7778, 3rd)
3. Pembroke (17-1, 3.7778, 2nd)
4. Pelham (15-3, 3.3333, 4th)
5. Merrimack Valley (13-5, 2.8889, 5th)
6. Kennett (12-6, 2.7222, 7th)
7. Lebanon (12-6, 2.6667, 7th)
8. Souhegan (11-7, 2.4444, 8th)
9. Kearsarge (10-8, 2.2222, 10th)
10. Bishop Brady (10-8, 2.2222, 9th)
11. Hanover (9-9, 2.0000, 12th)
12. Coe-Brown (9-9, 2.0000, 11th)
13. Hollis Brookline (9-9, 2.0000, 13th)
14. John Stark (8-10, 1.7778, 14th)
15. Milford (6-12, 1.3333, 15th)

Eliminated: Plymouth (6-12, 1.3333); Laconia (5-13, 1.1111); Bow (4-13, 0.9412); Sanborn (3-14, 0.7059); Manchester West (3-15, 0.6667); Kingswood (3-15, 0.6667); Stevens (1-16, 0.2353).

Tiebreakers

• ConVal (12-1, 3.6923) wins the tiebreaker with Pembroke (11-1, 3.6667) thanks to a better rating against tournament teams.
• Kearsarge wins the tiebreaker with Bishop Brady thanks to a head-to-head victory.
• Hanover (5-9, 1.4286) wins the three-way tiebreaker with Coe-Brown (4-8, 1.3333) and Hollis Brookline (3-9, 1.0000) thanks to a better rating against tournament teams.
• Coe-Brown wins the tiebreaker with Hollis Brookline thanks to a better rating against tournament teams.
• Milford (4-10, 1.1429) wins the tiebreaker with Plymouth (1-9, 0.4000) thanks to a better rating against tournament teams.

First-round bye

• No. 1 Oyster River

First-round matchups

• No. 9 Kearsarge at No. 8 Souhegan
• No. 13 Hollis Brookline at No. 4 Pelham
• No. 12 Coe-Brown at No. 5 Merrimack Valley
• No. 15 Milford at No. 2 ConVal
• No. 10 Bishop Brady at No. 7 Lebanon
• No. 14 John Stark at No. 3 Pembroke
• No. 11 Hanover at No. 6 Kennett

Tournament schedule

• Preliminary round: Wednesday, March 6, at home of higher seed.
• Quarterfinals: Saturday, March 9, at home of higher seed.
• Semifinals: Monday, March 11, at University of New Hampshire.
• Championship: Saturday, March 16, at University of New Hampshire.