Some of the things that caught my eye on Thursday during the conference tournaments:

• I hate to admit it because I really don’t like them, but Georgetown impressed me. They beat up on Villanova by shooting the lights out and by absolutely smothering Villanova’s offense, and that did it despite not getting a single point out of Roy Hibbert. They are now the top team in the Big East in my mind based on how they have played their last two big games, and on how lousy Louisville looked in their overtime loss to Pittsburgh. On the other hand, UCLA went into the tournament last year just like Louisville will this year – with two straight losses – and it turned out pretty well for the Bruins.

Continue reading “Friday’s Quick Conference Tournament Notes” →

This time of year, when the conference tournaments are on and we are all waiting to see the brackets, is when I drive myself crazy. Or at least one of the many times throughout the year that I do so. Before I have an actual bracket to handicap I spend much more time than is healthy going blind over every kind of stat I can think of. Partly I am looking for angles and insights that will give me an edge when the tournament starts, and partly I am just keeping myself busy so that the time will pass quicker.

As I was looking back at last year’s tournament to find anything interesting something popped out at me. The winners of all six major conference tournaments made the Elite Eight. Florida won it from the SEC, the Big Ten’s Ohio State was the runner-up, Georgetown won the Big East before losing in the final four, and the Pac-10’s Oregon, the ACC’s North Carolina, and Kansas from the Big 12 all lost in the Elite Eight. On top of that, Memphis won the CUSA tournament before losing in the Eight. Only UCLA, which was upset in the first round of their tournament, made the Eight without a conference title. That’s pretty compelling. Handicapping can’t be that easy, can it? Of course not.

Here’s the breakdown of the four tournaments before last year and the fate of the six conference champions:

Continue reading “Do Conference Tournament Winners Have a Lead in the Race to the Final Four?” →

I was just reading yet another ‘expert’ bashing Memphis. You’ve heard it all – they play in a weak conference and they lost to Tennessee so they are a weak number one seed. There is even lots of talk that they will lose that number one seed unless they win the conference title, or at least make the final. That’s all absolutely ridiculous. I’ll admit I am a big fan of this team, and that I have been for years (ever since John Calipari, one of the few top coaches in the country, showed up), but I don’t think that they are getting nearly enough respect. Here are ten reasons that you should agree with me:

Continue reading “In Defense of Memphis” →

The San Diego Toreros ripped the heart out of all the teams poised on the bubble on Monday night when they won the West Coast Conference tournament. There were two teams that were pretty much guaranteed to go to the tournament from the WCC, but San Diego wasn’t one of them. Now the WCC is a very unlikely a three bid conference, with San Diego joining Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga. The spot that San Diego will take up in the field is one that would have belonged to a deserving at-large team.

Continue reading “Know Your Tournament Field – San Diego” →

Drake. Wow. What else is there to say, really. There was every expectation going into the MVC tournament final that the Bulldogs were in for a tough fight against the Redbirds of Illinois State. For a few minutes at the start of the game, when Illinois State got out to a strong start, it even looked like they could be in trouble. But then the Bulldogs put their feet on the throats of the Redbirds and it got ugly. They couldn’t miss a shot for much of the game. They would steal the ball whenever they felt like having it. Their defense was smothering and their offense was relentless, and they cruised to a 30 point win despite only being favored by 2.5. It was as complete and impressive as a game can be.

Continue reading “That Sound Your Hear is Drake’s Line Being Inflated” →

I’m not going to attempt to profile every tournament team, but Winthrop is a team that deserves some attention. They are a program that loves to dance. They won the Big South title on Saturday to earn their fourth straight tournament bid, and their eighth in the last ten years. This is their first bid under new coach Randy Peele, who was an assistant under Gregg Marshall before Marshall left for Wichita State.

Continue reading “Know Your Tournament Field – Winthrop” →

The regular season comes to and end this weekend, but not before some truly spectacular games are played. There are a staggering number of games worth paying close attention to, watching with rapt interest, and of course betting on. Many of the games will tell us how teams are feeling heading into back-to-back tournaments. Here, in order, are my picks for the 10 best games of the weekend:

Continue reading “College Basketball Games to Watch This Weekend” →

Arch Madness got underway Thursday afternoon. And no, that’s not a misprint. It’s the Missouri Valley Conference tournament, and it is called Arch Madness because it is played under the arch in St. Louis and the MVC is incredibly clever like that. The conference matters because it gets all sorts of buzz, and because teams from the conference have had a habit recently of making a lot of noise in March. Since that’s the case, it is obviously worthwhile spending a few minutes getting to know the conference heading into their tournament.

Continue reading “Arch Madness is here! Arch Madness is here!” →

I’m tired of reading and hearing of how great the Missouri Valley and A-10 conferences are while no one is saying the same kind of things about the Mountain West. Don’t get me wrong – I love Xavier, and Drake is a great story. It’s just that the MWC is as impressive as those conferences in a lot of ways, yet not nearly as much ink is spilled over it. The conference struggles for attention because it is located away from the east coast media markets (or in the case of teams like Wyoming, away from any media market at all). The east coast snobs are missing out. Just look at the facts: Continue reading “In Praise of the Mountain West Conference” →