With less than a month to go until conference tournament action, I decided to take a quick glance at what we are to expect in the first two weeks of March.\u00a0 Ina, Doogan, Stri, Jay, Waters,\u00a0and Alexi (and anyone else interested) better start thinking about how you’re going to knock off the defending Conference Tourney Challenge champion this year.\u00a0 It won’t be easy…<\/p>\n
If the seasons ended today, here would be the matchups for the Big 7 conferences:<\/p>\n
ACC: #8 Miami vs #9 Maryland #5 Wake Forest vs #12 Virginia #6 Virginia Tech vs #11 Georgia Tech #7 Florida St. vs #10 N.C. State ATLANTIC 10: #8 LaSalle vs #9 Richmond #5 Duquesne vs #12 Charlotte #6 Rhode Island vs #11 St. Bonaventure #7 St. Louis vs #10 UMass OUT:\u00a0 Fordham, George Washington<\/p>\n BIG EAST: #9 West Virginia vs #16 DePaul #12 Notre Dame vs #13 Seton Hall #11 St. John’s vs #14 S. Florida #10 Georgetown vs #15 Rutgers BIG XII: #8 Texas A&M vs #9 Baylor #5 Kansas St vs #12 Colorado #6 Nebraska vs #11 Texas Tech #7 Oklahoma St. vs #10 Iowa St. BIG TEN: #8 Michigan vs #9 Wisconsin #4 Purdue vs #5 Minnesota<\/p>\n #6 Ohio St vs #11 Indiana #7 Northwestern vs #10 Iowa PAC 10: #8 Oregon St. vs #9 Stanford #4 Arizona St. vs #5 California<\/p>\n #3 USC vs #6 Arizona<\/p>\n #7 Washington St. vs #10 Oregon SEC: #4W Alabama vs #5E Vanderbilt #3E S.Carolina vs #6W Arkansas #3W Ole Miss vs #6E Georgia #4E Kentucky vs #5W Auburn With less than a month to go until conference tournament action, I decided to take a quick glance at what we are to expect in the first two weeks of March.\u00a0 Ina, Doogan, Stri, Jay, Waters,\u00a0and Alexi (and anyone else … Continue reading
\n<\/strong>With four teams in the top 10, the ACC may be a bit top-heavy this year.\u00a0 Though, as of now, Wake Forest is the 5-seed–which forces them to play an opening round game.\u00a0 BC is the surprise #4 right now, but expect the Big 4 (UNC, Duke, Clemson, and Wake) to get the byes.\u00a0 Potential sleepers in this tournament include an athletic and gritty Va Tech team and a Miami team that, right now, is #8, but has the talent to maybe give this conference a “Big 5” instead of the Big 4.\u00a0 Don’t believe me?\u00a0 Check out what they did to Wake Forest last night.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #1 UNC<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #4 Boston College<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #3 Clemson<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #2 Duke<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Probably the best two teams in this conference–Xavier and Temple–face off tonight on ESPN.\u00a0 A Temple win could open up this conference.\u00a0 Xavier is the clear favorite to win this thing, but I’m sure that they are hoping to see teams like St. Joe’s, Rhode Island and UMass on the other side of the bracket.\u00a0 Also, the interesting matchup, as it stands now (which I’m sure will change) is the first-round matchup between St. Louis and UMass–two dangerous teams if allowed to play their styles.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #1 Xavier<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #4 Temple<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #3 St. Joe’s<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #2 Dayton<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The best conference I have ever seen has expanded their conference tournament this year, for the first time, to include all 16 teams.\u00a0 The tournament will start on Tuesday and finish Saturday night at The Garden.\u00a0 Therefore, the regular season has become ultra-important because it will take a near miracle for a team to win five games in five consecutive nights against this type of competition.\u00a0 Therefore, to win this tournament, a team probably has to finish in the top 8, to avoid playing on Tuesday.\u00a0 Also, there is a pretty big advantage to finishing in the top 4, also, since those teams will get two byes, and not have to play until Thursday, in the quarterfinals.\u00a0 Right now, it looks dangerous for teams like West Virginia, Georgetown and Notre Dame–all very talented teams that currently find themselves in jeopardy of playing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #8 Cincinnati
\nwinner vs #1 Marquette<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #5 Villanova
\nwinner vs #4 Pittsburgh<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #6 Syracuse
\nwinner vs #3 Louisville<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #7 Providence
\nwinner vs #2 UConn<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>This league is even more of a top-heavy league because the bottom is pretty bad.\u00a0 In fact, if the season ended today, the Big XII may only be looking at three bids (Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas).\u00a0 Missouri, right now, is in place for the 4th bye in this tournament and, even more importantly, will avoid having to face one of those three teams until the semis, at the earliest.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #1 Oklahoma<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #4 Texas<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #3 Missouri<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #2 Kansas<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>This conference has been MUCH better than expected.\u00a0 The top six are all very solid teams that should vie for tournament position.\u00a0 The biggest surprises this year have been Penn St. and Northwestern.\u00a0 Normally, the two doormats of this league, they have both played themselves into NCAA consideration (Northwestern is the only team in one of the top 6 conferences to never make the NCAA tournament).\u00a0 Penn St. is probably even going to get a bye in the first round of the tournament this year.\u00a0 Illinois has also been a big surprise this year, as they have cracked the national rankings.\u00a0 The biggest disappointments this year are the two set to match up in the 8-9 game.\u00a0 Michigan got off to a fast start, but has stalled in conference play, and Wisconsin almost never finds themselves in 9th place in the Big Ten–at least under Bo Ryan.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #1 Michigan St.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #3 Penn St.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #2 Illinois<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Not quite the Pac-10 of last year, but still quite the difficult conference.\u00a0 The down years of Stanford and Oregon are pretty bad, but Arizona St. and Cal have been very good.\u00a0 This tournament should be pretty competitive–as always–starting in the quarterfinals.\u00a0 With no truly dominant team, there may be some “madness” in the Staples Center.\u00a0 The big surprise has been the Washington Huskies, so we’ll see how they hold up down the stretch.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #1 UCLA<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs Washington<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Talk about a down year?\u00a0 Let’s talk SEC.\u00a0 I heard one analyst say that he didn’t think any SEC team would crack the TOP EIGHT in the Big East.\u00a0 I’m not saying I agree, but I’m also not saying that I disagree.\u00a0 Tennessee is struggling, Kentucky and Arkansas are young, and Alabama and Vandy have been flat-out disappointing.\u00a0 The two Mississippi schools and South Carolina have been playing pretty well, as well as the division leaders, Florida and LSU.\u00a0 This tournament should be interesting, though, because as of now, there are no ranked teams.\u00a0 Let me say that again, THERE ARE NO RANKED TEAMS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #1E Florida<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #2W Mississippi St.<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #2E Tennessee<\/p>\n
\nwinner vs #1W LSU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"