The College Basketball regular season wrapped up this weekend. With March Madness right around the corner, many teams will be looking to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament by winning their conference tournaments. In this article, we will go over our predictions for the 6 major conference tournaments and our outlook heading into Selection Sunday this weekend.
ACC Tournament
Champion: #1 UNC
Sleeper: #6 Clemson
Tournament Teams: UNC, Duke, Clemson
Overview: UNC is easily the best team in this conference that is having a down year to the ACC’s standards. Many of the teams are on the outside looking in for the NCAA tournament and going deep in the ACC tournament would go a long way for them. With a trip to the championship game, Virginia or Wake Forest would likely be in the NCAA tournament. Clemson could go on a nice run during the tournament to improve their NCAA tournament seeding and win their first ACC tournament championship in the history of their program.
Big 12 Tournament
Champion: #1 Houston
Sleeper: #6 Kansas
Tournament Teams: Houston, Iowa State, Baylor, Kansas, BYU, Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma, TCU
Overview: Houston is the best team in the country as of right now and even though this conference is absolutely stacked, I believe the Cougars will have no trouble in winning the championship. Kansas is struggling right now without their 2 best players in Kevin McCullar and Hunter Dickinson. Iowa State is elite defensively and could easily win this whole thing also. The winner of the TCU and Oklahoma game will likely be a lock into the NCAA tournament.
SEC Tournament
Champion: #2 Kentucky
Sleeper: #4 Auburn
Tournament Teams: Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi State
Overview: I think Kentucky’s high powered offense favors a tournament styled setting and they will be able to win 3 games in a row simply by outsourcing their opponent. Auburn is a team that can also win this whole tournament led by Johni Broome and Aden Holloway led by a coach with a lot of experience in March like Bruce Pearl. Texas A&M is currently on the bubble and a win over Ole Miss and Kentucky would go a long way for their NCAA tournament hopes.
Big East Tournament
Champion: #3 Marquette
Sleeper: #7 Providence
Tournament Teams: UConn, Creighton, Marquette, Seton Hall
Overview: This conference is very top-heavy with the top 3 teams being national championship contenders and after that they might have 2 tournament teams. UConn has looked unbeatable for most of this season but I think Marquette who is led by Tyler Kolek will get hot and win this tournament. This conference will be deadly in March with these well balanced teams led by veteran players. Providence is a sleeper team, they are led by Big East player of the year in Devin Carter who is averaging 19.4 points PPG. If he gets hot, he could led the Friars on a deep run this week.
Big 10 Tournament
Champion: #1 Purdue
Sleeper: #10 Ohio State
Tournament Teams: Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Michigan State
Overview: This has been a down year for the Big 10 as Purdue is the obvious juggernaut and then the other teams just fall behind. I think Zach Edey, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer will be too much for anyone else to handle and they will win the tournament. Ohio State is a sleeper team that could go on a nice run. They have won their last 4 games after firing their head coach. If they make it to the championship game, they have a very likely chance to end up making it into the NCAA tournament which they previously had no chance of.
Pac 12 Tournament
Champion: Arizona
Sleeper: Oregon
Tournament Teams: Arizona, Washington State, Colorado
Overview: This is a very underrated conference but I think has some top contenders heading into March. With the favorite being Arizona they were an early 1 seed in the country before getting knocked off by Purdue. They have the Pac 12 Player of the Year in Caleb Love who is paired in a lethal backcourt with Kylan Boswell. UCLA is a team that is known to have some to make deep playoff runs. They haven’t had the best year so far but I would never underestimate this college powerhouse. Washington St. and Oregon I believe are two underrated teams who have a great talent and are looking to put the pieces together coming to the end of the season.
