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.
America East
It’s Vermont, then everyone else in this conference and it’s not even close. They’ve been pissing on teams by 30 all year long. I gotta humor you with a decent sub-.500 pick, so we’ll go with Hartford, who has been playing decent ball as of late and actually beat Vermont earlier this year. For a 6 seed, they have a decent draw to a final and could pull off a miracle bid if Vermont gets upset.
ACC
I’ve been saying it feels like a Cal year, but Duke is just as good and are motivated to get scumbag Coach K a ship before he retires. An interesting dark horse could be Virginia or Va. Tech who need a conference title to get in. Virginia Tech has been on and off the bubble all year, so they could be a decent sprinkle. It’s unlikely we’ll see a sub-.500 team from these large conferences, but the best draw right now would be Louisville. They’ve been frisky all year and have a relatively easy path with Virginia and North Carolina to the semis. From there it would be a matchup with Notre Dame or Va. Tech before a matchup with Duke. Just sayin’… shit happens.
Big West
This conference is a fuckin’ mess. Every time I take a look at the standings there’s a new leader with some Cali bro name. I don’t hate Hawaii, but they have a pretty tough quarterfinal matchup with UC Irvine. Honestly just spin a spinner 1-6, and whatever it lands on, pick them to win the conference. I’m at a loss.
Conference USA
The top 4 teams in this conference are really good between North Texas, Middle Tennessee (even though they fucked us), UAB, and Louisiana Tech. North Texas is the odds-on favorite, but you should definitely sprinkle a couple of the other 3 teams. UAB has looked like an at-large bid at times and Louisiana Tech was the best team in the conference for most of the early part of the season.
Tonight is not a great card, we’re already 1-1 today after Longwood screwed the pooch and took us to overtime against a downtrodden NC A&T team, so I’m even more confident in Winthrop to win the Big South. Big card tomorrow, love you, bye.
The Morning Flush 