2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 32 (Part 2)

The Round of 32 is underway in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions, and already we've seen a little upheaval.

Our two most recent NBA champions held serve in their series, showing continued dominance for the modern era of the NBA. But we also saw that the gap between teams is closer than it might appear, as we lost both a 2 seed and a 1 seed in the first set of games.

In the Round of 64 the way I'd shuffled series it was set up so that no matchups for the next round would be determined in the first half. The shuffle didn't work out that way this time, but that's okay as if this were happening in reality games would be going on at the same time and we may have some matchups determined sooner than others.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 32 (Part 1)

We started with a playoff field of 64, and now that has been cut in half as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on.

Chalk largely ruled in the Round of 64, as we only had five upsets: three five seeds and two six seeds were able to advance to the Round of 32, otherwise all the teams that finished in the top four of their respective groups held serve. Meanwhile from a historical perspective, the two teams that have won previous Tournaments of Champions are still alive, as are two of the three runners-up, and all of our previous semifinalists. By era, only two teams from before 1980 remain alive, and all but two champions from 2009-onward are still in contention.

Now the road gets a little bit harder as we move to the Round of 32. Since every group's top two finishers remain alive, those teams will continue to carry home court advantage into this round of play. As we did in the Round of 64 (though I don't think I ever specifically mentioned it), all series are best of sevens played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 7

As the NFL season rolls on, so to does the coalition's quest to pick NFL games against the spread.

This past week was kind of a mixed bag. Joe was tied for the week's best mark in the group as he took three of four from me and three of five from Adam, Adam took four of seven from me. As a result, Adam moves a tiny bit further ahead of me while Joe pulls into what is now a three way tie for second, with the rest of the group just one game behind us.

You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here. The status quo of the group remaining just a hair above .500 on consensus picks continues; meanwhile it was a good week for hero picks, with four of the five from last week hitting, raising the group's record when going hero to 17-11 through six weeks. Geoffrey is the only one below .500 in such games, and Adam's lead is largely based on his usual nonsense of picking the most hero games and winning more often than not.

As we look ahead to Week 7, Joe and I disagree on just two games, while Adam is more in his usual range of six disputed with me and eight with Joe out of 15. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 8)

Just four series remain as we finish out the Round of 64 of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

12 of the 16 matchups for the next round are now set in stone. We had a couple more first round upsets in the last set of games, including a series that went the distance and a game that was easily the highest scoring of the tournament.

As we finish this round out, three of our four one seeds will finally get their series covered, as well the two-time Champion of Champions. Hopefully this round will be able to finish with some dramatic finishes as well.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 6

The coalition returns for Week 6 of the NFL season, and I think it's official: The Great Reversal has begun.

I say this mainly because it was a pretty rough week for the group as a whole. No one finished above .500 for the week, a couple folks are now below .500 for the season, and yet just seven games separate first from last place. This bears out what happened in the column last week: Joe and I split our two disputed games, while Adam narrowly won the week, taking five of nine from each of us.

You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here. As you would figure from the nine disputed games figure, Adam had several hero picks this week, but he ended up missing on a couple. As tends to be the case, his volume is higher than the rest of the group and he's hit on enough that it's helped him to first place. I hit on my first hero win of the season (albeit in a much smaller sample size). Meanwhile our consensus game rate remains at just a hair over .500.

So as we look ahead to this week, Adam and I disagree on seven games, Joe and I on four, and the two of them on five out of 15. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 7)

We're coming up to the end of the Round of 64 of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions, and in the last set of games, chalk went back to prevailing.

I'm not super surprised that most of the series we've done in this round so far have largely adhered to chalk. Just one five seed and two six seeds have advanced to the Round of 32 to this point. In terms of competitiveness, just three series so far have gone the full seven games and only six others have gone as many as six games.

Eight matchups for the next round of games are determined, and we'll set up four more in today's post.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 6)

Four second round matchups are determined, and today we set four more as we continue with the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

After the first half of the round saw only one lower seed advance, in the last batch we did we had two, including the defending Champion of Champions in the 1985 Lakers. So far two of the three upsets have been by six seeds, with the other being a five seed.

The current second round matchups that are set in stone look to be pretty good, and hopefully we'll have four more that look to be just as compelling once these games are completed.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 5)

Half of the Round of 64 is done. Let's get moving on the second half of this round of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Of the 16 rounds that we've simulated so far, 15 of them have been won by the higher seed, most of them well short of the full seven. The biggest surprise to date was the 1995 Rockets falling in five; they were the highest seeded 3rd place team and won the consolation bracket in the 2016 tournament, and after a 15-5 group play resume, they fall almost immediately.

Initially by happenstance, then in the last part by design, I haven't simulated series yet such that we know what any of the Round of 32 matchups are yet. We'll know what four of the 16 will be following the conclusion of these series.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 5

The coalition is back at it for Week 5 of the NFL season! Bye weeks finally come into play, and part of me wonders if Adam's theory of The Great Reversal has hit for the season yet.

Maybe that's just me rationalizing after the fact. Despite me having a wonderful oh-for-the-early-slate, I rebounded enough so that Adam only took four of seven disputed games from me; he took three of five from Joe, and Joe and I split our six disputed games last week.

My first sub-.500 week of the year drops me four games back of the lead at this early stage, yet I'm still in a big group tied for second. At this point, just six games separate first place from last place, and everyone is at least at .500 for the year to date.

You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here. Adam hit on another hero pick, putting him at 3-1 in such games on the season to date, which seems to be in keeping with his hit rate on those. We're also staying just above .500 as a group on consensus picks, which is part of why our overall records are doing okay to this point.

As we look ahead to Week 5, this could either go really well, or really really badly. Joe and I disagree on just two games, which is pretty low for us. And then there's Adam... we each disagree with him on nine of the 14 games this week. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 4)

We return for more of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions as the Elimination Stage rolls on!

Through the 12 rounds that have been simulated so far, chalk has ruled. Our highest seeds that have their series in the books have largely dominated, and even among the closer series we've only had three go the full seven. Though we did already have a blown 3-1 series lead (and I'm most upset it happened to the Bulls).

I didn't intend it this way, but the way our first 12 simulated series have gone, we don't have a set in stone matchup for the Round of 32 yet, and since it's happened to work out that way so far I'm going to keep it that way for this batch of games. The four series we're covering in this part will establish one team for all series in the round of 32, and the second half of this round will fill out those matchups.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 3)

We continue postseason play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions as the clock has struck midnight for more than one Cinderella.

The series covered so far have all gone chalk, with many of them only lasting four or five games. The last batch though saw a lot of the top seeds play, and we have several more even matchups based on seeding yet to go.

As we've done in the first couple parts of this round, I'm grabbing four series chosen completely at random and simulating through the full series, making sure to save box scores and make note of some of the key players from each game.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 4

The coalition returns to action in good shape as we enter our fourth week of picking NFL games against the spread!

A week after Adam went on an all-time heater, he regressed to the mean. Adam, Joe, and I all evenly split our disputed games with each other, which I think might also be a first in contest history.

Interestingly enough, the entire group almost all matched scores for Week 3, with the exception of Jim who finished just a game back of everyone this week. But the entire group remains above .500 through three weeks, with Adam holding onto his three game lead that he built on the back of the aforementioned heater.

You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here. Consensus picks came back to earth a little bit this week, though we remain above .500 there. We're a combined 5-8 as a group on hero picks to date, which is probably about on par with where we usually end up. Adam, for his part, is 2-1 so far including a split last week.

As we look ahead to the new week, Adam and I disagree on seven games, Joe and I on six, and the two of them on five out of 16. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 2)

So far chalk has prevailed. Let's see if that trend continues.

We're partway through the Round of 64 in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions. This round will cut the field down to 32 and get us closer to finding the greatest NBA/ABA team of all time.

Our first set of series mostly ended fairly quickly, with the higher seeds needing just five games to win in three of the four series covered. The other was a full seven game donnybrook that went down to the wire in the winner-take-all contest. Hopefully this round will contain more of the latter than the former.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Round of 64 (Part 1)

Let's get postseason play started.

We have 880 games in the books and another several more yet to get to. The 88 teams we started with have been narrowed down to 64, with half of those to be eliminated in this next round.

For the purposes of these first few rounds, I'm going to randomly pick some matchups and simulate the full series. I'll go into a little bit of detail about each game and provide some of the key stat lines from players and teams. This will be a little more in-depth than Group Play since each post will have fewer games to cover.

The up to date bracket, scores, and results from Group Play can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Elimination Stage Introduction

880 games are in the books. 88 teams entered. We've now cut that number to 64 as we're ready to move to the Elimination Stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

This stage is heavily expanded since the last time I did this tournament; we're back to the size of the field from the original NBA Tournament of Champions. These teams are all now 24 wins away from ultimate glory.

Let's take a brief look at some of the numbers around the teams that have made it to this point.

• By League
• 5 ABA Champions
• 4 NBA Conference Champions (did not win their season's NBA championship)
• 55 NBA Champions
• By Decade
• 1950's: 0
• 1960's: 4
• 1970's: 12
• 1980's: 10
• 1990's: 11
• 2000's: 10
• 2010's: 10
• 2020's: 7
• By Previous Tournament Result (Quarterfinals or later)
• 2013, 2015 Champion ('96 Bulls)
• 2016 Champion ('85 Lakers)
• 2013 Runner Up ('05 Spurs)
• 2015 Runner Up ('91 Bulls)
• 2016 Runner Up ('97 Bulls)
• 2013 Semifinalists ('12, '13 Heat)
• 2015 Semifinalists ('86 Celtics)
• 2015, 2016 Semifinalists ('15 Warriors)
• 2016 Semifinalists ('02 Lakers)
• Previous Quarterfinalists ('71 Bucks, '72, '87, '88 Lakers, '92 Bulls)
• By Franchise
• Los Angeles Lakers: 12
• Boston Celtics: 10
• Chicago Bulls: 6
• Golden State Warriors: 4
• San Antonio Spurs: 4
• Detroit Pistons: 3
• Indiana Pacers: 3 (2 ABA Champions, 1 NBA Conference Champion)
• Miami Heat: 3
• Milwaukee Bucks: 2
• New York Nets: 2
• Philadelphia 76ers: 2
• Seattle SuperSonics/Oklahoma City Thunder: 2 (1 with Seattle, 1 with Oklahoma City)
• Cleveland Cavaliers: 1
• Dallas Mavericks: 1
• Denver Nuggets: 1
• Houston Rockets: 1
• New York Knicks: 1
• Portland Trail Blazers: 1
• Toronto Raptors: 1
• Utah Stars: 1 (ABA)
• Orlando Magic: 1 (Conference Champion)
• Phoenix Suns: 1 (Conference Champion)
• Utah Jazz: 1 (Conference Champion)

Obviously with this expanded field, we get a much larger sample of teams than we have in years past. In prior tournaments, 15 different NBA Champions made at least one run to the quarterfinals or deeper; all 15 advanced this year. We had nine new NBA Champions since the last time I ran this tournament; all nine advanced. To fill the field, I added five other conference champions who don't have an NBA title to their name; four of them advanced.

Meanwhile, there's a lot in the way of records from group play I want to get out of the way before we get into the seeding and bracketing.

• The worst possible record to get in Group Play and still make the Elimination Stage was 7-13.
• Four teams finished with that record; two of them made it in.
• The best possible record to finish with but still miss the Elimination Stage was 8-12.
• Seven teams finished with that record; five of them made it in.
• Any team that finished 9-11 or better made the Elimination Stage.

Unfortunately for the 1975 Kentucky Colonels and 1994 Houston Rockets, they went 8-12 in the wrong groups. The threshold for getting in ended up being about what I thought it was going to be going in.

From here, we move onto the seeding criteria for the Elimination Stage. I debated for a while about how to handle this, even contemplating a round robin before settling on a somewhat modified format based on finish in group play. Teams were sorted into one of the following tiers of seeds:

• Seeds 1-8: Group winners. These teams are, to borrow a term from Division III football, "top eight protected," meaning they are guaranteed to not have to face each other until at least the quarterfinals. By virtue of winning their groups, they are also guaranteed home court advantage up through the quarterfinals.
• Seeds 9-16: Group runners-up. Finishing second in their respective groups guarantees these teams home court advantage for the first two rounds of the Elimination Stage.
• Seeds 17-32: Group third and fourth place finishers. This was where I decided to change some things up. Finishing in the top four guaranteed you home court advantage in the Round of 64. However, finishing third in your group would not guarantee what was effectively a 3 seed in an eight-team bracket. Better finishes, following the tiebreaker rules used for group play, means that some teams that finished fourth in their group may be seeded ahead of third place teams from other groups.
• Seeds 33-64: All remaining qualifiers. Similar to the above tier, teams here were also seeded using the tiebreaker rules for group play, so teams that finished lower in one group may be seeded higher than teams from another group.
• Tiebreaker procedures among each tier, in order:
• Group Play Record
• Head to Head (for group standings only)
• Point Differential in Group Play
• Points Scored in Group Play
• Rematches from Group Play are allowed

And so without further ado, here is the bracket for the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions Elimination Stage.

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 3

The coalition returns for Week 3 of picking NFL games, and we have some history to discuss.

I dug back through the archives, and I went back far. In Week 12 in 2018, I went 13-2 against the spread. For nearly seven years, that record has stood as the best single week mark in contest history.

I bring this up because, while I took four of seven disputed games from Joe, Adam swept his disputed games with both of us last week. This is not unheard of; we've had sweeps pop up from time to time in this contest. But were it not for Kaleb Johnson (my finger pointing) and "A A Ron" (Adam's) among others... Adam would have had the first perfect week in this column's history. Instead, he'll have to settle for the mark being at 15-1.

Needless to say, his historic performance has him catapulted into first place in the group, with me just three off his pace and seven games separating the entire group.

You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here. It's a pretty small sample size of hero picks through two weeks, but we're picking at around our usual clip in those games. We're also in good shape on consensus picks through two weeks (with, again, that Seahawks-Steelers game being the only thing that stood between Adam and immortality).

And so as Adam attempts to follow up on the heater to end all heaters, he disagrees with Joe and I on six games, while Joe and I dispute four of the 16. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: All Group Teams

Before we officially move onto the next stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions... let's hand out some hardware.

Over the span of a couple months I simulated 880 games. That's a lot of manual score entry and trying to save box scores. And while there are a couple that I unfortunately missed, most of them are accounted for for this stage of the tournament. And with that, let's dig into those 880 games a little bit.

I wanted to make sure that we handed out some accolades for this portion of the tournament. You saw looking through all of the score reportings that I also went into the box scores and provided some of the statistics that went into the game. Every game's Player of the Game as determined by WhatIfSports got included, plus some bonus guys depending on clutch performances or other eye-popping numbers that I happened to catch.

As a way to honor those players, I went back through and charted all mentions from Group Play and named All-Group teams for each group. The criteria for getting named to this team was pretty simple: get mentioned the most, you make the team. I also went through and named a Group Most Valuable Player, though this one went more into the statistics as well as team performance to determine, as opposed to just Player of the Game mentions, though that also carries some weight.

Each group will have a First Team and a Second team, each consisting of eight players (attempting to balance by position as best as possible). Players who make the First Team will be eligible for the All Tournament Team when everything is said and done; I will have more details about that once the tournament is complete.

For now, congratulations to the following All Group players and Group MVP's.

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 2

One week of NFL football is in the books, and the coalition returns for more!

We ended up with one more person in the group this year as my friend Tom also joined in last minute. He joined the group a couple years ago and is back at it this year with us, just on the picks side.

Meanwhile in the column, after talking all sorts of crap in our group chat Adam ended up with an okay start, though he is tied for last among the six of us at present. I took four of six disputed games from him and four of seven from Joe; Joe took four of seven from Adam in the first week. Despite my column lead, I currently trail the group by one as Jim is our early leader in the clubhouse.

You can view how we've all picked in relation to each other here. This is a continuation of the tracker I've used for the last several years originally built by Adam. This first week was pretty heavily tilted to 4-2 splits with games and no 3-3 even splits yet. Adam, Jim, and I have yet to go hero so far, with the other three guys splitting four hero picks in the opening week.

As we now look ahead to Week 2, Adam and I disagree on five games, Joe and I on seven, and the two of them on six out of 16. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 22

And so for several teams, it all comes down to this.

Just 40 games remain in the group stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions. For eight teams, their group stage is over; three of them are done for the tournament, while the other five have all locked up spots in the Elimination Stage. For 80 other teams, this round is their last change to either make the dance, affect their seeding, or for some, just play for some level of pride.

Of the 40 games left on the docket, only two are completely meaningless for the postseason. The remaining 38, at a minimum, are for positioning within groups, which could determine who gets home court advantage in the first round of the Elimination Stage. We also have two games between contenders for a 2nd seed, which would guarantee home court in the first two rounds. This accounts for half of the games this round.

By my count, we have 11 teams fighting for the final six spots in the tournament to be determined in this set. Nine games will determine those outcomes, including one win-or-go-home game. Meanwhile, only three of the eight groups have had their championships clinched; ten games will determine the fate of the other five, including one straight up title game. These include one game of overlap, so 18 of the 40 games have huge implications.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 COAS Pigskin Pick 'Em: Week 1

We interrupt your NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions... to bring you the longest running feature on Confessions of a Sportscaster.

The first full fall after I'd started COAS, I'd had the idea of picking NFL games against the spread. After a couple seasons of a partnership for that, I went somewhat solo in that every pick appears here, but it's never been something I've wanted to do alone. And so for the 14th season, I'll be picking games with a coalition.

Returning once again are good friends Adam Quinn and Joe Klecka. Adam won the column last year by a fairly narrow margin, ending my run of Even Year Magic. Just four games separated the three of us in total, and we all finished above .500. I can't complain.

So as we've done in years past, after ESPN announces its initial lines on Tuesday afternoons, the three of us will make our picks independently. Adam and I will provide a rationale, whether it be based on on-field observations, statistics, hatred of throwback uniforms, or the moon (no, really).

In addition to the three of us, we are once again joined by 2024 group champion and my co-host from Then There Were Two: A History of the World Series Geoffrey Clark, along with Joe's uncle Jim. My son Matthew opted out for this season despite having a pretty good 2024.

As we get back to it, Joe disagrees with Adam and I on seven games apiece, while Adam and I dispute six out of the first 16. Let's get back to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 21

As the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions nears the conclusion of this stage, eight teams will close out their 20 game slate. Many of them are either already advancing, though some are still fighting for some of the final spots in the bracket.

Another eight teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage, leaving just 18 spots left to be claimed with two rounds left to go. 29 teams are still fighting for those spots, so for 11 squads these next two rounds will be the end of the line.

No group championships have been clinched yet, but a number of them will officially be up for grabs in this round, including a couple de-facto title games on the docket this go-around.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 20

Time is running out as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

Just three rounds remain, but a lot still remains to be determined at this stage. Only five more teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage in the last round, but that leaves 26 spots open. 39 teams are still mathematically alive for those spots, though some of those doors are likely to be closing over the next few days.

Meanwhile, group championships are all still up for grabs at this point. One or two might get clinched in this batch of games, but others will probably come down to the final round.

We continue to have several instant classics as the tournament rolls on; this last round alone saw four games go to overtime, and we continue to have dramatic finishes aplenty as we come to our final 120 games of this stage of the tournament.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 19

Four rounds remain, and time is running out for teams to either punch their ticket or get their best possible seeding for the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Eight more spots got locked up in the last round, so with that the field is just over half filled. Seedings, however, are very much still up for grabs as the gap between the top two teams in each group ranges from as many as two games to a dead heat in a couple (though one is already settled via head to head tiebreaker).

On the other end of the spectrum, just five teams have been eliminated from postseason contention, so even some folks at the bottom still have a shot to sneak into the Elimination Stage over these final four sets of games, though a lot of them will need help to get there.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 18

Tickets are getting punched left and right as we come into the home stretch of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Last round saw 12 different teams clinch a berth in the next stage of the tournament, meaning 25 of the 64 spots have been claimed with five rounds of games left to go. Meanwhile, only a few teams have been eliminated from contention. That number will likely increase as well with so few contests left to make up that ground.

As we move into this next round, we'll see how many of the 39 remaining spots in the postseason get taken. Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 17

Just a few rounds remain as we hit the three-quarter pole in group play of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Five more teams clinched berths in the Elimination Stage in the last round, leaving 51 spots still up for grabs. At present, most teams are still mathematically alive, though some of them will likely face elimination in this upcoming round and more spots are on the verge of being claimed.

We had a handful of triple-doubles in the previous set of games, and while no games went to overtime, we had a few photo finishes again as well, as well as a stunning collapse in one game. We'll see what kind of drama and phenomenal performances are on tap for us this time.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 16

The postseason picture is starting to take shape as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

With seven rounds of games left to play, 56 of the 64 spots in the Elimination Stage remain up for grabs. Most groups still have seven spots left, with one group still having all spots open while another only has six. A lot of these groups are looking like they're going to come down to the final round, given that no one has yet been eliminated from contention, though some teams face that danger as we approach the next round. The positive for those teams in the last round was that several teams still looking for that elusive first win finally broke through, and now just two winless teams remain.

More spots in the Elimination Stage are up for grabs as we get set for our next batch of 40 games, and we hope to have more compelling games as we continue.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 15

The races are tight as we get closer to the end of group play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

Several games in the last batch went down to the final possession, including a couple last-second makes that turned the result upside-down.

Most groups have more or less settled into a general pecking order. At present, 11 wins is the threshold to win your group, and many of those teams are on the verge of locking up their spots in the knockout stage, if they haven't already like the 2020 Lakers. Most groups have a team or two that aren't mathematically eliminated but would need an absolute miracle to make their way in, and many of those will likely have their last spots come down to the final round.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 14

The tournament continues as we seek to find the greatest basketball team of all time!

We had some more thrilling games in the last round, including our last unbeaten team taking its first loss, so no one will run the table. At this point the goal still is to at least make the knockout stage, which still has all 64 of its spots up for grabs and no teams mathematically eliminated quite yet. On the other side, we still have four winless teams, though they all still have time to get in the win column for the first time.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 13

We continue our second round of round robin play as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

We had some phenomenal individual performances in the last round, including a near quadruple-double as well as quintuple-nickel. No buzzer beaters or overtime games in the last round, but we did still have some games come down to the final possession.

Perhaps the most notable result was one of our two remaining undefeated teams suffer their first loss of the tournament. At this point, the only team with an unblemished record is the 1996 Chicago Bulls, though they were on their second bye in the past round.

We're going to start keeping an eye on the standings a little more heavily as the next few rounds get going, as the top teams will start punching their tickets to the knockout stage. We will probably still see spots up for grabs as late as the final round though.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 12

The second half of group play is about to get underway as we continue the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

At the halfway mark, a minimum record of 8-2 is what's required to win a group, but there are several 8-2 teams that are either tied at the top of trail someone who had an even better first half. Two undefeated teams still remain through a single round robin. Meanwhile down towards the bottom, there is a little bit of an imbalance among the groups. As a general rule, 4-6 halfway through would be good enough to advance to the postseason, but in some groups you would need five wins, and if the tournament ended today, two 4-6 teams would be knocked out while some teams at 3-7 are on the right side of the bubble. Based on this I'd anticipate needing eight wins total to advance, maybe seven depending on the group.

We're still waiting for some tournament-firsts; we've had several overtime games and buzzer beaters, as well as some 50 point outbursts, triple-doubles, and an early quadruple-nickel, but no quintuple-nickels (though we've come close). We'll see with another set of 440 games if any more of these outstanding performances come into play.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 11

Let's finish up this first half of round robin play.

Eight of our 88 teams have already played everyone in their groups to this point. The remaining 80 will all play their tenth game in this round.

The hype surrounding the last round of games truly did not disappoint. Five games went to overtime, including our most hyped one, with a sixth game being decided in the final second of regulation.

The pace we're currently looking at, an 8-12 record looks like it will be enough to guarantee an advance into the next round, with six or seven wins maybe being enough. We are in fact down to just two undefeated teams left, though whether they will be able to knock off their one unfaced opponent then proceed to repeat their feat remains to be seen. We'll see how tight the races at the top to avoid facing other group champions until the quarterfinals goes across the field.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 10

This may be one of the most anticipated rounds as we near the end of the first half of the round robin stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions.

Eight teams will play their tenth game this round before getting their bye. The remainder will play their ninth, and with how the schedule was set up, our top eight teams from prior tournaments will now get to measure themselves against some of the more recent NBA champions.

Our undefeated team count is down to three now, with one of those going away as two of them will take the court against each other in this round. The third is on its bye in this set. By contrast, we have just four winless teams to this point.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 9

The tournament rolls on as we continue our quest to find the greatest team of all time!

Attrition continues to take its toll as we are down to just four undefeated teams remaining. We near the time when that will drop to three, as two of the four teams are in the same group. Meanwhile as the elimination stage picture starts to take shape, through eight rounds three wins seems to be enough to advance.

We had some high scoring games in the last round, and that was without any overtimes, though we had a pair of games decided at the buzzer. There have been some phenomenal individual performances that we continue to see, and I'm excited to see what else we have in store as the tournament continues.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 8

We return with another round of games as the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions rolls on!

Attrition continues to hit as we are now down to just four unbeaten teams remaining, though at least one will fall as two of those are in the same group and have yet to play each other. Further down the standings lists, at this point a roughly .500 record is easily enough to get you into the elimination stage that is still several rounds away from beginning. The current threshold for getting in is roughly a 2-4 mark, although that does require tiebreaker help. That means teams are going to need to have either head to head wins or a good point differential in order to advance.

Round seven had a couple thrilling overtime games, as well as a game that ended on a late in regulation game-winning shot. Hopefully we continue to have moments like that as we continue.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 7

We continue with our quest to find the greatest team of all time as the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions resumes!

With five or six games in the books for all teams so far, we're starting to get some separation in each of our eight groups. A handful of undefeated teams still remain, but we actually have more winless teams left than we do unbeaten's.

Last round really only saw one instant classic game that went to overtime, though we did have some tightly contested games in amongst the bigger blowouts. Triple-double's continue to pop up from time to time along with a fair number of quadruple-nickels. Still waiting to see some possible records fall, maybe as we continue through we'll see those.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 6

Many of our teams have hit the quarter pole so far in this edition of the Tournament of Champions, and today the remaining teams will hit that mark of group play.

The last round was a phenomenal one, as we had two games go to overtime thanks to game-tying shots at the buzzer (plus a third that would have had that shot go in), while two other games were won on shots in the closing seconds.

At this stage looking at standings, all of our recent champions are playing incredibly well; the worst record among champions since our last Tournament is by the 2019 Raptors, and even they are 3-2 so far. By my count, nine undefeated teams remain in the tournament at this point, while just seven are still in search of their first victory.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 5

For a large chunk of our teams, today marks the quarter pole of this tournament as we enter round five of group play in the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

The number of unbeatens continues to drop as the pecking order starts to take shape. But since this is only the quarter pole or thereabouts, there is still a ton of time for teams that are off to a sluggish start to right the ship.

Most of the tournament to this point has not seen a ton of tight finishes; we've only had two overtime games to date, though one came in this last round on a three at the buzzer; ignore that the overtime period was fairly one-sided. Several phenomenal individual performances continue to be had and we'll continue to track those as the tournament progresses.

As we continue, standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 4

We continue onward with our fourth round of games in the group stage of the NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions!

We had a pretty good drop from last round in terms of unbeaten teams; only 19 remain at this point. There are also still a large number of teams still looking for their first win. But this early in the tournament, anything can still happen.

After I mentioned it last time, we ended up almost getting the tournament's first quadruple-double via Wilt Chamberlain, who might be the most likely candidate to pull it off. We'll see if it ends up happening at some point before this is all said and done.

As we prepare for our next 40 game slate, standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 3

With the holiday behind us, we move on to our third round of games in this Tournament of Champions.

We're still very early in this, so for the 33 teams that remain unbeaten to this point, they should not start planning the parade yet, while the 31 without a win to this point should not yet be entering panic mode. After all, 64 of the 88 teams will advance to the next stage and there is plenty of time for everyone to make their case.

This last round of games also saw the tournament's first buzzer beater as well as our first 30-30 game. I'm waiting for the first quadruple-double to drop, as given we've already seen a quintuple-nickel in this tournament nothing else would really surprise me at this point.

As we move into our next round of games, standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 2

One round down, several more to go.

Our first batch of games ran the gamut from a handful of fairly tight contests (though only one that came down to the final possession) to some that saw teams get their doors blown off. In a tournament where point differential matters as a tiebreaker, these tight games will become important.

We also saw some phenomenal individual performances; I highlighted who the simulator marked as the player of the game for each contest. The list was a pretty veritable who's-who of NBA history and included things like a Hakeem Olajuwon quintuple-nickel; Hakeem pulled off a quadruple-nickel in reality, so to see a quintuple-nickel really blew my mind.

The one thing we have not seen yet is any of the top eight teams from this tournament's history take the court yet; the scheduler scheduled pairings by the same tiers in each of the eight pools and that top tier got the first bye. Those teams will all see their first action of the tournament in this set.

Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Play Round 1

Let's start crowing a champion.

In prior iterations of this tournament, I've done a post for every single day. I'm... not going to do that this round. It required a lot of pre-planning and randomizing, and that's not very efficient for running this.

So this time what I will be doing is roughly every three days I'll update with a round of game results. The idea being if this were taking place in reality, each group would play a round once during a three day stretch. Some teams might get rusty and get a full week off, but this should make the load reasonable for all 88 teams. It would also allow for, if this were happening in reality, the logistics of a venue like TD Garden in Boston to run effectively nonstop without overloading folks (though in reality, some of those Celtics teams might do like they historically did and play some games in Hartford or something).

Despite the sheer volume (this stage is going to have 880 total games) I will link box scores from each game on here (hopefully these will stay for the long term, though I am backing up all boxes just in case). Standings, schedules, and scores for the tournament can be found here. All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com.

Without further ado... let's get to it!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Group Reveal

The field is filled. Let's set the stage.

Yesterday the final five teams were announced that would be participating along with the 74 NBA and nine ABA champions in this year's tournament. This gives us 88 teams that will be playing, a huge growth from the last time I did this.

The format will nonetheless be the same; there will be eight groups of 11 teams that will be playing double round robins amongst each other, giving each team a total of 20 games to try and prove their worth.

Because of the sheer number of teams, I needed to do my best to balance out the groups. Thankfully, most of these teams have at least one prior sample of games for me to go off of. Years ago, I had built out a formula to score how each team performed in each of the tournaments, and from there I found the average score. Obviously a team that made a deeper run in a single tournament would get a little more weight than a team that has struggled through all three appearances, so it's not perfect, but it's better than a randomly assigned bracket like I used in 2013 that included a first round matchup between the 1992 Bulls and 2013 Heat.

There are 74 teams that have participated in one of these tournaments before, allowing for them to have a baseline score. 72 of those 74 teams are organized into nine different tiers, with each group getting one team from each tier in the name of competitive balance, but also to keep the very best teams from having to play each other too early.

The two teams not in that list are the 1953 and 1954 Minneapolis Lakers; two iterations of the franchise that have won a combined three games across three tournaments, easily the fewest among tournament teams. Those two Laker teams will join the 2020 Lakers and the five non-champion entrants who made it via the play in round into one tier that will be distributed across all groups, with every other NBA champion between 2017 and 2025 into another tier, giving us 11.

All tiers will have their teams randomly assigned to groups, with the exception of that '53/'54 Laker tier. By virtue of winning at least one previous Tournament of Champions, whichever group contains the 1996 Bulls and 1985 Lakers will get one of those two Minneapolis Laker iterations in their group, with the remaining six teams distributed among the remaining groups. The 2020 Lakers are in this tier not through any fault of their own; due to the circumstances of their playoff run this seemed like the fairest team to take out of the tier of other NBA champions to be crowned since the last time I ran this tournament.

A couple caveats for the group assignments: due to the sheer number of titles won by a couple teams (looking at you, Lakers and Celtics), there is no limit to the number of representatives from a single franchise in each group other than how tiers are set up. The only override that will be done is if any of our five play-in teams would get paired up with the team that beat them in that year's Finals (e.g. the 1993 Suns and 1993 Bulls cannot be placed in the same group).

Without further ado, here are the draws for the 2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions Group Play.

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Play In Round

Let's get this tournament started.

As mentioned in the introductory post, we have 83 championship teams that are already into the field. Because this is not an even number, we need to get the field to a nice round number. Rather than pre-eliminating anyone, we're going to find a nice, round number of teams to add to get us to where we can group teams up.

20 of the 30 NBA franchises have won a championship, though I use an asterisk here to knock it down to 19 as the 1951 Rochester Royals are not on WhatIfSports, which knocks the Sacramento Kings' lone title off the board.

This gives me 11 teams for five spots. The Kings, since that 1951 title in Rochester, have not even made it back to the NBA Finals. Other franchises that have not had the fortune of making it to basketball's biggest stage are the Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves, and New Orleans Pelicans. Conveniently, that leaves us with five teams for five spots: the Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic, Phoenix Suns, and Utah Jazz.

Also conveniently, all of these teams have made multiple trips to the Finals without a ring. So to help determine which iteration of each franchise would earn the invite, we will do a play in round.

The franchises with two appearances will play a home-and-home, with aggregate scoring determining the winner. Now because the Phoenix Suns have three Finals appearances, they have some extra legwork that goes in with each team playing four games, so if there's a tie, head to head, then point differential, will be the tiebreakers.

All simulations are provided by WhatIfSports.com. Let's play!

2025 NBA/ABA Tournament of Champions: Introduction

I wasn't sure I'd ever get back to this. My daily workload became too much and I didn't have the bandwidth to start up a massive project like this again.

But with the 2025 NBA season now complete, and bandwidth seemingly in a better place... let's give this another whirl.

I've done a project like this a few times before. Back in 2013 I went as far back as the first NBA Championship (with some caveats due to team availability) and did a single elimination tournament to try and determine the best NBA team of all time. Not surprisingly, and much to my delight, the 1996 Chicago Bulls ran roughshod over their competition en route to the title. Two years later I revised the tournament to include group play and actually have all teams that were available. With a little bit more of a battle, the 1996 Bulls once again came out on top. A year later, I decided to add in ABA champions to the list, with a different result as the 1985 Los Angeles Lakers were the ones who took home the hardware.

So I've been sitting on this for several years now. The original plan was to do another one of these in 2022; that would give me an even number of teams to build a tournament similar to what I did in 2016. That was in the height of my "I don't have bandwidth" era though, but I've nonetheless kept this filed away, waiting for an opportunity to use it. Now in 2025, I finally do, though I had to make some adjustments to keep the field at an even number.

My usual simulator, WhatIfSports, has teams going as far back as 1952. That gives me the last 74 NBA champions. The ABA is also on the simulator, which gives me their nine champions for a total of 83 teams. From here, there are five franchises that have made at least one (incidentally, all have made at least two) NBA Finals but have not won an NBA championship. That's 88, a nice divisible number that allows for a format similar to what we've used.

Like we did in 2015 and 2016, I will set up eight pools of teams. In this case, each pool will have 11 teams. This will allow for a double round robin of each team playing 20 games, a little bit bigger of a sample size compared to the last time I did this. The top eight teams will advance to the usual elimination stage, which means double the number from prior years with 64 teams. I'll have a pre-seeding stage prior to this round to try and balance the bracket out, but I'll have more on that when we get to that stage.

Prior to the tournament starting, I will have a preliminary round to determine the last five teams in, and from there I'll unveil the groups for pool play.

Looking forward to getting back into this grind!

Game Notes: (WBK) Illinois Wesleyan University @ North Central College (2/19/25)

Final Score
IWU 79, NCC 55

Game Summary
Things were okay for the first couple minutes. The Cardinals (10-14, 6-9) were able to get across half court against a pressure defense and get a couple baskets while keeping the Titans (23-1, 14-1) into mostly halfcourt sets. A Cardinal layup cut it to 7-6 with 6:14 remaining in the first quarter. And then the wheels fell off. Titan pressure began forcing turnovers, and the Titans capitalized to the tune of a 23-0 run, with the Cardinals only managing a free throw to ultimately kill that run. Illinois Wesleyan pushed the lead as high as 31 in the second quarter, but the Cardinals cut it to 27 by halftime. NCC cut it to 21 quickly out of the second half gate, but a Mia Smith timeout stopped the bleeding and the Titans pushed the lead back up. The Titans' largest lead of the game came at the end of the third at 73-36, and Smith called off the dogs with about six minutes to go. The Cardinals' reserves managed to get the deficit back down to 20, prompting an angry Smith to use her final timeout with about two minutes to play before the Titans added a couple last baskets to close out the scoring.

Key Players

• Sawyer White (IWU): 6-9 FG (2-4 3PT), 1-1 FT; 15 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 7 stl. Take your pick; this is an incredibly balanced Titan team, so we'll highlight their defensive master and the game's leading scorer. White picked off numerous ill-advised Cardinal passes, tying her season high in steals (done two other times this year) and is up to 78 on the year in 24 games. She's still 34 shy of her own single season program record in that category, but if my math is right, her final steal in this game moved her into second for a career in program history; Rebekah Ehresman's mark of 296 will be shattered probably by January of 2026.
• Lauren Huber (IWU): 5-12 FG, 2-2 FT; 12 pts, 11 reb (8 off), 2 ast, 3 stl. With five Titans in double figures, the other player to focus on has to be Huber. I saw the double-double and figured this was a no brainer, but the other number that jumped out was the eight offensive rebounds. I knew the Titans had gotten quite a few, but I didn't remember Huber specifically getting that many. Not the best shooting night, but she contributed in other ways as well.
• Biz Daly (NCC): 6-10 FG, 2-3 FT; 14 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 2 ast, 3 blk, 2 stl. Daly probably had the best night out of anybody. She was able to get a few wide open looks for easy layups, though after the outcome was pretty much decided. The rebounding numbers leave a little to be desired, but she filled the stat sheet enough elsewhere. It's been a good sophomore campaign for Daly, and I hope she can continue to develop into a serious All-CCIW caliber player.

Key Stats

• NCC: 28 turnovers. Look, it starts and ends here. Nine of the 28 came in the final six or so minutes of the first quarter after Megan McClure's layup made it a 7-6 ball game, including a couple stretches of three straight giveaways. As you'd expect, those 28 turnovers turned into 46 Titan points. For comparison, the Titans did commit 20 turnovers of their own, but the Cardinals only turned those mistakes into 14 points.
• IWU: Outrebounded NCC 39-28. I probably could have gone a couple different ways here, but this was another thing that jumped out to me during the contest. The Titans ended up with 14 offensive rebounds in the contest (including the aforementioned eight by Huber). Ultimately this didn't end up harming the Cardinals too badly, as they only gave up 12 second chance points, but it kept the ball in Titan hands and didn't allow the Cardinals to try to cut into the deficit.

CCIW Scoreboard Watch

• @ ELM 75 (15-8, 7-8), CAR 67 (16-8, 8-7)
• @ WHE 64 (13-11, 8-7), MIL 53 (8-16, 7-8)
• WHE clinches a CCIW Tournament berth
• CRL 97 (17-7, 12-3), @ NPU 51 (3-22, 0-16)
• BYE: AUG (10-14, 6-9)
• MBK: NCC 80 (14-10, 7-8), @ CRL 76 (8-16, 4-11)
• NCC clinches a CCIW Tournament berth

Final Thoughts

I came into the game with tempered expectations; the Cardinals had lost to the Titans down at the Shirk Center a little over a month before, but the margin was single digits. I figured the Cardinals could give the Titans a game. That was true for about four minutes, and then the Titans showed why they're one of the best teams in the country. This is a team with legitimate national title aspirations, and if they play the way they did on Wednesday, they can beat absolutely anyone.

Meanwhile for the Cardinals, Wednesday was about the worst case scenario we could have seen. While the loss wasn't unexpected, it was what happened elsewhere that poses a problem. Elmhurst's victory puts the Blue Jays in the drivers' seat for a tournament bid, and Millikin has a head to head sweep over the Cardinals that would get the Big Blue in ahead of them. Needless to say, Saturday is win-or-go-home for the Cardinals, but they need a ton of help, in particular from Illinois Wesleyan and Carroll (and possibly from Carthage depending on exactly how three-way tiebreakers play out), to play a 26th game.

All told, it's been somewhat of a disappointing season for North Central. They started fairly strong, but lost some games they probably shouldn't have over the course of the season. Nonetheless, there's still some good pieces in place, and Maggie McCloskey-Bax has done a good job reloading talent. This group will be in the mix again next year. But for now, my eyes shift to Wheaton on Saturday and hope for an extended season.