Folks, it’s the most glorious time of the year.
I say it all the time, conference tournament week is my favorite week of the season.
Just every single team in action, millions of games, win or go home.
So with that in mind let’s get into it.
No way to put it.
There’s not a national title contender team here.
I like Miami a lot but they can’t defend anyone.
They need to combine with Virginia somehow.
Let Virginia play defense and Miami play offense and they may be onto something.
Obviously UNC is the story here.
It sucks that the intrigue for the ACC Tournament is at an all-time low.
Maybe Boeheim will piss off Greensboro again.
The Big East Tournament at MSG is always awesome.
Then you look and see UConn vs Providence tomorrow?
That’s going to be mayhem.
That crowd is going to be unreal.
I already know what everyone is talking about here.
Can they make a run with Justin Moore back and looking better because of that?
I don’t know.
They have a brutal draw having to play Creighton and then Xavier if seeds hold.
They are on the better side because UConn is hot + at the Garden.
Marquette is still somehow underrated despite winning the conference.
Providence needs to win.
People started talking about them missing the Tournament and I don’t see it.
They are currently a 10 seed in Bracket Matrix.
But a win over UConn seals them in.
The conference is loaded top to bottom.
There’s not a bad team.
Every team here can win.
I’m not even lying.
Oklahoma can get hot.
TCU and Kansas State are two of the most fun teams in the country.
Baylor’s guards are as elite as elite gets.
Kansas is still Kansas.
If there’s one tournament to watch, watch this one.
Basically Purdue and then a bunch of teams.
That’s how it looked all year and it’s starting to look even more like that.
You think Illinois is figuring it out and then they do something stupid.
But here it’s Rutgers, Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Four teams between 11 seeds and first four out.
Some has to win and that Rutgers/Michigan game is basically a play-in.
I don’t think that will happen this year from the 8/9 game but Alabama is suspect right now.
Kentucky isn’t healthy and the question is what happens with Cason Wallace here.
A&M is figuring shit out and has probably the best guards in the conference right now.
No one gives a shit about this tournament outside of that.
Now that said, I want to see how UCLA looks without Jaylen Clark.
He got hurt Saturday night and that is massive.
He’s one of the best defenders in the country and a real catalyst to UCLA being national champs.
They make look a little disjointed over this tournament as they figure out roles and minute allocation without him.
Other than that, again, who gives a shit?
FAU is going to be an at-large team even if they lose.
Now they could very well lose.
You have UAB and North Texas there.
But now is when we start looking for bid stealers.
This is the one where you could turn a one bid league quickly into two.
Weird conference tournaments
This is basically the AAC and A-10.
They aren’t mid-majors but they aren’t high majors.
The AAC should be Houston running through.
This is another one where you just want Houston to run through if you’re a bubble team.
The A-10 though is intriguing.
It’s a one-bid league because it grossly underachieved - most notably Dayton.
It’s also one where I could see 5 teams winning.
Sneaky fun tournament
Picks:
We already cashed: Kennesaw State (+275) and Louisiana (+300).
Lost Indiana State (+700) and Youngstown State (+155).
