MISSOURI VALLEY: Who are we fooling here? There’s only one real choice and that’s Wichita St. The Shockers are the nation’s lone undefeated team and there’s nothing that says they’ll lose in St. Louis this week. Out of 18 conference games, only three were decided by single-digits. On a neutral floor, this is the Shockers’ tournament to lose.
WEST COAST: This should be one of the more intriguing tournaments early in championship week. The WCC has gone back to a traditional bracket and away from a system that protected the top two seeds until the semifinals. That evens the playing field with no one team having a real advantage in Vegas. With four teams in the top-70 of the RPI, this will be a fun tournament to watch. I expect BYU to be up to the challenge and go to the Big Dance.
COLONIAL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION: This should be another barnburner of a tournament. The CAA has held its tournament in Richmond since the beginning of time, but since many of it’s heavy-hitting Virginia teams have left the league, the conference decided to move the tournament to Baltimore. At one point it looked like Delaware would run the table, but they’ve lost a couple down the stretch. One of those losses was to Towson – a team that finished a game behind Delaware and should have plenty of fans in attendance. I expect the Tigers to ride that advantage and Jerrelle Benimon to the NCAA tournament.
METRO ATLANTIC ATHLETIC: This is a league filled with teams that are fun to watch. However there is one team that seems to stay in the upper echelon of the league year after year. Iona won the regular season title outright this year and seems poised to return to the Big Dance. It would be their third consecutive trip. The Gaels will get strong challenges from Manhattan, Quinnipiac, and Canisius, but they’re up-and-down style of play should propel them this week.
SOUTHERN: On it’s way out of the conference, Davidson decided to let the SoCon know just what it’ll be missing next season. The Wildcats ran away with the regular season title with a 15-1 record. They are the class of league and it’ll be sad to see them in the Atlantic 10 next season. For this season though, the Wildcats will remind everyone why they were the dominant team in the league.
Bracketville USA 