Conference season has ended for everyone and a few teams have already punched their tickets to the Dance. Congrats to Cornell (Ivy), East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun), Northern Iowa (Missouri Valley), Radford (Big South), and Morehead State (Ohio Valley). The remainder of the conference tournaments will all end this week with the bracket announcement at 5 pm on Sunday being the cherry on top of fantastic week of basketball.
The big conference tournaments are as follows:
Big East: Tuesday – Saturday (New York City)
Big XII: Wednesday – Saturday (Oklahoma City)
Pac 10: Wednesday – Saturday (Los Angeles)
SEC: Thursday – Sunday (Tampa)
Big 10: Thursday – Sunday (Indianapolis)
ACC: Thursday – Sunday (Atlanta)
Here is my list of bubble teams by conference. With the strong finishes by Oklahoma State and Texas A&M, the Big XII is in great shape to land six teams in the dance. A few losses by the teams listed below wouldn’t hurt either.
Big East: Providence, Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Georgetown
ACC: Boston College, Maryland, Miami, Virginia Tech
Big Ten: Minnesota, Penn State, Michigan, Northwestern
SEC: Florida, Kentucky
Pac 10: Arizona, USC
Atlantic 10: Dayton, Rhode Island, Temple
Mtn West: UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State
Here are my ‘educated’ guesses at the top 16 teams in the NCAA tournament.
These are if the season ended today. They are listed by strength within each seed as well.
No. 1: Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Connecticut, Oklahoma
No 2: Michigan State, Louisville, Memphis, Duke
No 3: Wake Forest, Kansas, Washington, Villanova
No 4: UCLA, Xavier, Clemson, Missouri
Next Four: Syracuse, Gonzaga, Illinois, Marquette
Big 12 Bids (6)
Lock: Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Texas
Likely: Oklahoma State, Texas A&M
Bubble: Kansas State
Thoughts?