Previewing Friday's Conference Tournament Games
Going to be doing this daily since we’re now in March and it’s just a cleaner look. We’ll take a look at conference tournament games going on each day and put conference championship games in their own blog. This will have updated brackets, what’s going on, etc. I’ll be talking about the games all day @barstoolreags, so join me there and let’s get right into it.
AAC Tournament – Orlando
Quarterfinals
The American gets to the quarterfinals today and there’s not a whole lot here. Shake Milton is ruled out for SMU, which means they are all but out of it. Memphis is reportedly firing Tubby Smith to hire Penny Hardaway (I blogged about that Tuesday night if you want to read my thoughts on it). Temple is maybe the one team that can surprise someone just because they already beat Wichita State once this year and played them close in the other game. That said, a Wichita State/Houston semifinal would be entertaining as Rob Gray continues to be an under the radar star in college basketball. But, what we all want to see is Cincinnati vs Wichita State pt. 3. Both games were highly entertaining but played at 2 different levels. The game in Cincinnati was played at a faster pace while the game in Wichita was efficient, but extremely slow.
ACC Tournament – Brooklyn
Semifinals
Pretty entertaining semifinals in the ACC tonight. I’ll be honest, I’m a little surprised to see Clemson here, despite being the 4 seed. They are a little banged up and still were able to hold off a hot Boston College team. Now they have to shoot the ball well against Virginia’s pack line defense who continues to just dominate games. As I mentioned, I’m always curious to see what Virginia does if it needs a bucket. In the past they were able to have a guy like Brogdon/Harris/Anderson be able to create for themselves if needed. This year it’s running someone like Kyle Guy or Devon Hall off a down screen. Just a different set up. Then we have Duke/UNC in the bottom half. There’s been two awesome games between them already and the real story here is Duke’s defense. Since moving to the 2-3 zone, they’ve turned into a top-15 defense in the country. UNC needs Joel Berry to have a good game. He’s struggled shooting the last 4 games or so but against this zone, he needs to hit shots.
Big 12 – Kansas City
Semifinals
I can’t believe this tournament is chalk right now. The Big 12 was quite competitive this year and somehow there hasn’t been an upset based on seeds. That Kansas State/TCU game was incredibly fun to watch despite the offenses struggling. Now, Dean Wade has a chance to really cause Kansas some problems. He has good size and can really stretch the court against a Kansas team without Udoka Azubuike. We saw Oklahoma State hit a bunch of shots early against Kansas and then run out of legs. In the bottom half I can’t wait to watch Jevon Carter vs Keenan Evans. These two of the top 4 point guards in the conference and 2 of the top 10 point guards in the country. Texas Tech got out to a big lead against Texas yesterday before letting them come back. Both teams thrive on defense but can get stagnant offensively. While I feel like you know what you’re getting out of Evans/Carter the question will be what role player steps up? Can Culver/Smith have a game for Tech or can Miles/Ahmad win it for WVU? Those are the matchups I’m most interested in here.
Big East – Madison Square Garden
Semifinals
Top two teams held serve yesterday while the other two teams played awesome games. Providence and Ky Cartwright was impressive in that win against Creighton as Cartwright continued to hit big shots. In the late game it was Kamar Baldwin. Seton Hall should have won that game but Baldwin continued to keep Butler hanging around and hanging around. He hit a couple of big shots to match Carrington. We have semifinals in which the regular season series were both split. Providence and Butler both won at home and vice versa. For X/PC it will be can you slow down Bluiett. In the win at Providence, PC was able to really bother Bluiett and make him ineffective. If you let him go get 20+, X is going to win most games. They also need to be patient in running their offense. X wants to get up and down the court. Run the flex, slow down tempo and that’s the key.
Big Sky – Reno, Nevada
Semifinals
Montana is the heavy favorite here and remember the names Ahmaad Rorie and Jamar Akoh. They did an excellent job in the second half yesterday of getting to the line and taking a tie game at half to an 8 point lead. There was a huge upset yesterday with Southern Utah catching Idaho, but Idaho was also playing without Perrion Callandret, who suffered another injury. I think you see both favorites advance today.
Big West – Anaheim, California
Semifinals
All the top seeds won yesterday with 3 really good games. As we head into the semifinals, UC-Davis beat UC-Santa Barbara for the league title on the last game of the regular season. Really though, it’s a toss-up between the top three seeds for who is the true favorite here. UC-Davis has TJ Shorts. who is a name to know. Don’t be surprised to see UC-Irvine catch UC-Santa Barabara today. These teams were bunched up all regular season and Irvine did win by 20 at home.
Conference-USA – Frisco, Texas
Semifinals
So, something happened last night here. Southern Miss caught Middle Tennessee sleeping and it could ultimately cost them a NCAA Tournament bid. I personally would have MTSU in (First Four games in Dayton), but they aren’t a major program so we could see them be left out for someone like Notre Dame. MTSU challenged itself in the nonconference playing the 13th toughest schedule in the country. They have the 88th toughest schedule overall in the country. They have 3 quadrant one wins. That’s enough for me. But, here we are now with an awesome game at 4 between ODU/WKU. Western swept ODU this season, including a recent 20-point win. Keep an eye on WKU, because they are a team that a lot of people were high on in the offseason with the likes of Darius Thompson and Dwight Colbey joining the roster.
MAC – Cleveland, Ohio
Semifinals
MEAC – Norfolk, Virginia
Semifinals
Morgan State was actually the preseason favorite to win the MEAC but fell to the 7 seed. Here they are now in the semifinals against NC Central with a chance to redeem themselves. We almost got a big time rivalry game in Hampton/Norfolk State in Norfolk, but NC A&T was able to hold on. I like Morgan State here and think they have a chance to win this whole thing. Tiwian Kendley is that good of a player.
Mountain West Conference – Las Vegas
Semifinals
Bubble teams across the country took a sigh of relief as Nevada erased a halftime deficit and held on against a UNLV team it just dominated a couple weeks ago. Boise State on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. The Broncos actually led at halftime and looked to be in control of the game. Ultimately, Chandler Hutchison was forced to the bench with foul trouble and could never find a real rhythm leading to a loss against Utah State – eliminating Boise State from the NCAA Tournament. San Diego State is a team that can cause havoc as well. The Aztecs haven’t been at full strength much at all this year, but they seem to be now. They are coming off a win over Nevada in which Trey Kell, Malik Pope and Kameron Rooks all played.
The Pac-12 continues to be boring yet entertaining basketball. This conference isn’t great and is really looking like a 2-3 bid max conference. I think USC and UCLA are both on the right side of the bubble with Arizona as a lock. Oregon continues to be interesting in the bottom half playing two close games that they won because of defense. Kenny Wooten continues to block shots as Troy Brown continues to fly under the radar. Arizona/UCLA should be a high-scoring affair as Arizona can’t seem to stop anyone lately and UCLA wants to push tempo. I still don’t think anyone in this conference has a legit shot at stopping Deandre Ayton though.
Collin Sexton did Collin Sexton things by hitting the game winner on a finger roll off the wrong foot from the free throw line yesterday. That win keeps Alabama on the right side of the NCAA Tournament. A second win over Auburn wouldn’t hurt though. It’s actually a good matchup for Alabama as they want to get points at the rim and with the loss of McElmore, Auburn doesn’t have great rim protection. If Sexton can beat his guy off the bounce he should be able to easily finish in the lane. Georgia spoiled the Michael Porter show as he came back and you can see the talent, but looked rusty – as expected when you miss that much time. Now, they get Kentucky who may be without Jarred Vanderbilt which means Yante Maten should touch the ball every possession. Mississippi State is continuing to fight for an NCAA Tournament berth as it inches closer to the bubble and the bottom game features awesome guard play. Macon/Barford/Hayes/Chiozza. Yes, please.
Southland – Katy, Texas
Semifinals
It’s somewhat weird set up for the Southland as the top two seeds get byes to the semifinals despite it being just an 8-team tournament. I think this makes a little bit of sense as you want to reward teams for strong regular seasons. During this time of the year we hear quite a bit about what can these low to mid majors do in order to make sure it sends their best teams? I’d like to see this set up for other mid major conferences. But, we do have all 4 teams playing here and that SFA/Nicholls State game should be entertaining. I think the winner of that wins this tournament.
SWAC – Houston, Texas
Semifinals
The best team in the SWAC isn’t in the SWAC Tournament. That’s due to Grambling being ineligible for the postseason. So we have an 8-team tournament with Pine-Bluff as the one seed now. Don’t be surprised to see some mayhem happen here. Arkansas-Pine Bluff ended the season 3-5 and Southern can really bother them in the semifinals. I’m going to down with Texas Southern, a team typically in the NCAA Tournament under Mike Davis. Not to mention Texas Southern does have Demontrae Jefferson, a 5’7? guard who just go gets buckets. He’s averaging 24 per game and has a sidekick in Donte Clark who is averaging 18 per game. Texas Southern also has the most experience out of this group as it typically schedules nothing but ridiculous road games in the nonconference. This year they played Gonzaga, Washington State, Ohio State, Syracuse, Kansas, Clemson, Oregon and TCU.
Sun Belt – New Orleans
Quarterfinals
The Fun Belt isn’t just for football, folks. This league has sent teams to the tournament and have gotten wins in the NCAA Tournament. Little Rock beat Purdue. Georgia State beat Baylor. Louisiana can absolutely win a game in the NCAA Tournament this year. UT-Arlington has a guy in Kevin Hervey who can play for any team in the country. Georgia Southern has Tookie Brown, an absolute dynamic point guard.
Grand Canyon avoided an upset in the first round coming back from 14 down early to set up the top-4 seeds in the WAC today. New Mexico State is the heavy favorite here and a team that is a top-60 KenPom team. However, I gotta rep my Grand Canyon Antelopes here. This is the first year they are eligible for the postseason and continue to finish in the top-3 in the conference. They are defending extremely well, they just need Joshua Braun to get his shot back. Braun’s ORtg has dropped below 114 for the first time in his career. If he can get going in this tournament, they are going to win this thing and make New Mexico State a bubble team.