One of the greatest times of the year is finally upon us. For some of you out there, March brings hope of warmer weather and a break from school; for us basketball fans we get the true madness before the madness–conference tournaments. These next 2 weeks before the tournament are usually more crazy than the actual tournament itself. We’ll break down EVERY conference and go through the contenders and dark horses. There’s always one sub .500 team that punches their ticket to the dance this time of year, let’s find them sum bitches.
Missouri Valley
The top 4-5 teams in this conference played really good basketball all season and all of them should make it to a post-season tournament. Loyola Chicago looked like an at-large bid regardless of if they won the conference, but with late slip ups to Bradley, Drake and Northern Iowa, its looking more like a 1-bid conference. With Loyola Chicago leaving for the A-10 next year, this will be their last shot at a MVC championship. They’re +130 to win the conference, but a good value play would be the #3 seed, Drake. They have a couple frisky teams with the Southern Illinois Salukis and Missouri State, but they’ll avoid top dogs NIU and Loyola Chicago until the finals. It’s worth mentioning they (barely) swept Southern Illinois and were swept by Missouri State, but with Drake at +650, I like the value. I don’t love the sub-.500 teams in this conference because it’s so top heavy, but Illinois State and Valparaiso have some tradition. Valpo could have an interesting draw through Missouri State and Drake to a final if they get past Evansville.
Southern
Surprisingly, as of Wednesday night, Chattanooga was not the favorites to win this conference. There are some frisky teams in the middle, but Furman and Chattanooga are the best teams in this conference. You can get the Chattanooga Mocs at +200 right now. Buy stock now. Mercer, the school who beat Duke in 2014, is a sub-.500 team who could be a pain in the ass.
Colonial
Ask me a month and a half ago who is winning this conference, I’d tell you UNC Wilmington hands down, but Towson has been absolutely shitpumping teams, including UNC Wilmington, to get a one seed in this tournament. They’re the odds-on favorite and the best team heading into this tourney, but we all know the best teams don’t always win these things, and you certainly can’t get good value with them. Hofstra is an interesting team at the number 3 seed in this conference and they’re at +350. They’ve played in some tight games and have a pretty good 1-2 punch backcourt in Aaron Estrada and Darlinstone Dubar. If you’re looking for better value and a diamond in the rough Charleston is at +1000 and has what every team needs in March–Senior guard play in Dimitrius Underwood.
Summit
There are some great teams in this conference who are being overshadowed by how absolutely dominant South Dakota State is. The next three are North Dakota State, Oral Roberts and Kansas City, all of which would be 14 seeds in the NCAA tournament if they find a way to beat the bully on the block. The Jackrabbits are the clear favorites, but with Oral Roberts being a 3 seed heading into this tournament, they could avoid SDSU until the final and hope for an upset. Oral (lol) Roberts is at +500, so a sprinkle is well worth it. If you want even more value, I like Kansas City at +1200, but they would almost certainly play SDSU in the semis and face a frisky South Dakota team in the quarters. No sub-.500 teams catch my eye here.
Some great games ahead of us and we can expect to be watching basketball all day long with some of these smaller conferences. Love you, bye.
The Morning Flush 