The hardest league to win on the road in will live up to its reputation (aka UNLV will win MWC Tourney)

Thursday – First Round

1 San Diego St. vs 8 Boise St. - Boise St. has been rather bad away from home this season. On a neutral floor, this won't be pretty.

4 Colorado St. vs 5 TCU – TCU has been a pest all season at home. They aren't at home and Colorado St. desperately needs a win, at least in this game for its NCAA Tournament hopes.

2 New Mexico vs 7 Air Force – Replace Boise St. from the first game with Air Force and that will be the result.

3 UNLV vs 6 Wyoming – We just saw this game in the same building last weekend. And it didn't end well for Wyoming, just as this one will not.

Friday – Semifinals

1 San Diego St. vs 4 Colorado St. - San Diego St. is safely in the NCAA Tournament field. Colorado St. is not. The Rams will have more motivation and will get the upset win against an Aztec team looking ahead a little bit.

2 New Mexico vs 3 UNLV – Nobody beats UNLV in Vegas this year. Though the ugly blowout New Mexico laid on the Rebels in the The Pit makes me at least pause, I don't think New Mexico can replicate that in Las Vegas.

Saturday – Final

3 UNLV vs 4 Colorado St. - Colorado St. will be playing with house money if it indeed is in the final on Saturday. Good thing because if they are in this game and UNLV is indeed the opponent, I expect the Rams to get run off the floor, especially after what happened in Fort Collins last week.

Questions for the Mountain West Tournament

Any potential bid thieves?

Colorado St. is a bubble team capable of winning this thing. Further down, virtually everyone except Boise St. beat everyone at home. That confidence means anyone below the locks is a potential bid thief, if somebody can knock UNLV out of this thing.

Should the tournament be held on a team's home floor?

Absolutely. Is it an advantage for UNLV? Yes. That said, doubling the attendance throughout the tournament compared to when it was in Denver is a nice thing and its not like the other schools are shut out of tickets. When BYU was still in this league it traditionally brought a ton of fans. Heck, the 2007 final was only about a 60/40 split between UNLV and BYU fans.

How many bids for the league?

Four. If Colorado St. beats San Diego St. that will lock a fourth team in whether that be the Rams themselves or a bid thief from the other side of the bracket.

Welcome to the Kentucky Invitational. Hope you have you're at-large bid ready if you're not UK.

SEC is up next on the conference tournament previews and there's no sense in burying the lead here. Kentucky is going to win the tournament. Hope I didn't spoil it already. For everyone else, there is still NCAA seeding and the bubble to play for.

Thursday – First Round

8 LSU vs 9 Arkansas – Arkansas has won all of one game away from home all season. It doesn't really matter who the Razorbacks are playing, I'm not picking them on a neutral court.

5 Alabama vs 12 South Carolina – A classic don't lose game and Alabama won't lose.

7 Ole Miss vs 10 Auburn – Pretty much every tournament needs to have a first round upset and this is the most likely one, especially since there really isn't much to play for unless you are one of the fools who thinks Ole Miss is still on the bubble (they aren't, their RPI just makes it appear so because Andy Kennedy is a smart scheduler).

6 Mississippi St. vs 11 Georgia – Mississippi St. lost to Georgia not long ago. They would be advised to not repeat the mistake. They won't, even if the chemistry issues around this team start flaring... again

Friday – Second Round

1 Kentucky vs 8 LSU – Anyone in this league is just a sacrifice for Kentucky. Wildcats roll.

4 Florida vs 5 Alabama – Florida is the most overrated team in all of college basketball this season. Alabama is pretty average. Makes for a good game, especially when one team is trying to avoid the 8-9 game and the other is trying to avoid the First Four. When in doubt, go with the guards in tournament play. Sadly, that means Florida.

2 Tennessee vs 10 Auburn – Tennessee desperately needs this game. Auburn will just be happy to have gotten the win needed to ensure a .500 finish at this point.

3 Vanderbilt vs 6 Mississippi St. - The Mississippi St. pinhead complex is going to show up at some point in this tournament. And is won't be at the end either. Well, maybe the Bulldogs end which will come right here against Vandy's experienced playmakers.

Saturday – Semifinals

1 Kentucky vs 4 Florida – Anyone in this league is just a sacrifice for Kentucky. Wildcats roll. Also, notice that these matchups consist entirely of teams from the old SEC East, as usual.

2 Tennessee vs 3 Vanderbilt – Tennessee may have beaten Vandy at home last Saturday, but I still think the Commodores are a better team and this game will show it.

Sunday – Final

1 Kentucky vs 3 Vanderbilt – Vandy is the only team in the SEC that can even harbor thoughts of beating Kentucky. That said, they will still be sacrificed for the 3^rd time this season, just not in as gruesome a manner as the rest of the league.

SEC Tournament Questions

Any bid-thieves?

None, at least of the auto-bid variety. Can anyone out there envision a scenario where anyone other than Kentucky or maybe fellow tourney-lock Vanderbilt wins this event? I didn't think so.

Most likely flame-out

Mississippi St. The obvious character and chemistry issues on this team could blow up at basically any time, including the first round.

How many bids for the SEC?

Kentucky, Florida and Vanderbilt are all going for sure. Alabama only needs to not lose to South Carolina. Beyond that, I think Tennessee and Mississippi St. fall one win short, leaving us with four SEC teams.

Picking against Kansas in the Big 12 is foolhardy, but I'm doing it anyway

Round 3 of my conference tournament previews hits on the Big 12 today.

Wednesday – First Round

8 Oklahoma vs 9 Texas A&M – How did the punditry at large miss so badly on Texas A&M in the preseason. The Aggies were a preseason top 25 team that was just awful, even from early on. Meanwhile, year 1 of the next Lon Kruger rebuild is ahead of schedule. That Oklahoma is ahead of schedule with an 8^th place finish should so everyone how far they have to go. That will be shown here too, even if Texas A&M still can't score.

7 Oklahoma St. vs 10 Texas Tech – This won't be pretty. Bad though they were at times, Oklahoma St. beat Missouri and Texas this season. Texas Tech probably couldn't beat the bottom of the Pac-12.

Thursday – Second Round

4 Baylor vs 5 Kansas St. - Baylor has been slumping. Kansas St. has been up and down. Given that I think I will go with the up and down team and pick the up, especially in an even matchup.

1 Kansas vs 9 Texas A&M – A&M can't score. Blowout awaits.

2 Missouri vs 7 Oklahoma St. - Yes, Oklahoma St. did beat Missouri in Stillwater. That game means nothing here. Missouri is going to be highly motivated to get a rematch with Kansas and also motivated to put the poor Cowboys in their place, again.

3 Iowa St. vs 6 Texas – For all the talent and thoughts about anything, there is a convenient explanation for how this game is going to go: Iowa St. has more talent than Texas, at least this season.

Friday – Semifinals

1 Kansas vs 5 Kansas St. - Commencing next round of Kansas voodoo hex over Kst. In 3-2-1...

2 Missouri vs 3 Iowa St. - This is just a bad matchup for Iowa St. The Cyclones just can't stop Missouri from scoring.

Saturday – Final

1 Kansas vs 2 Missouri – These two have played two absolute classics with both blowing what should have been sure wins on the other's home floor. This isn't a home floor. In fact, it is going to be about as neutral as it gets. Given that, go with the better team and I think Missouri is the better team.

Questions for the Big 12

Any possible bid thieves bubble teams should be worried about?

No way, no how. There are five locks in this league and while Texas may win a game or two, it won't win three. All of the teams playing on day 1 have no chance whatsoever of getting through this thing.

Most likely flame-out

Baylor has been struggling since the beginning of February (also coinciding with most talented played Perry Jones basically becoming invisible on offense). That won't change here, even if the Bears beat Kansas St. on Thursday.

How many NCAA bids for this league?

Five bids. The top five are all locks and the sixth team isn't getting in without some sort of run here. Considering I think Texas will lose its first game against Iowa St., I think the Longhorns are not getting in.

Conference Tournament Primer

Conference Tournaments. Some love them. Some hate them (me, me, me). Regardless, they are important, given they will give us a large chunk of the NCAA Tournament field. Some are more important than others though and given most fans are fans of power conference teams, I am going to give you the teams to root for and against in many upcoming tournaments. Tournament by tournament.

Power Conferences

ACC – March 8-11

Protected Seeds Rooting for: Favorites. A surprise winner here would certainly be seeded around 13 and could send a quality mid-major champion further down the bracket. No 3-seed wants to see a team like the MAC champion drawn across from them like Georgetown did as a three a few years ago (the Hoyas were stomped, badly).

Bubble Teams Rooting for: Favorites. There are bubble teams all over the place in this league. Other bubble teams understandably don't want those teams like Miami to win a game in the conference tournament.

Big East – March 6-10

Protected Seeds Rooting for: Any of the collection of middling bubble teams on the low end of the conference bracket. Those teams have tons of bad losses, but also good wins. Better to see them seeded as high as possible to get the teams full attention.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: West Virginia, Cincinnati and UConn to crash out early. Let's be realistic. The worst teams that have any prayer here are at the least on the bubble, but those same bubble teams will have difficult early matchups that could be quite costly if they become losses.

Big 12 – March 7-10

Protected Seeds Rooting For: Baylor to crash out early. Baylor crashing out could open a protected seed for somebody else. Other than that, the top of the bracket doesn't really care here (assuming Texas isn't winning this thing).

Bubble Teams Rooting For: Kansas-Missouri 3. Everybody wants to see this game and this would also eliminate a bid thief (say Oklahoma St. who has looked decent and beat both Missouri and Texas this season).

SEC – March 8-11

Protected Seeds Rooting For: Kentucky to dispatch of Florida and Vandy. The other teams up top don't want Florida and Vandy making a run at a top four seed and they prefer Kentucky go into the tournament as the heavy favorite. Flying under the radar is good.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: A tournament that actually goes to form. Remember this is the league that produced a bid thieving Georgia team not too long ago and nearly had Mississippi St. steal a bid a couple of seasons ago, falling in the final.

Big Ten – March 8-11

Protected Seeds Rooting For: Ohio St. The Buckeyes have been asleep at the wheel the last few weeks and have hurt their seeding. That said, nobody wants to play them so the higher seeds would prefer them be seeded higher in the bracket.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: An early Northwestern defeat. That happens, strike one team from the list.

Pac-12 – March 7-10

Protected Seeds Rooting For: Cal, Washington or Arizona. The rest of the league would be seeded in the 13-15 range and protected seeds really don't want a power conference team in the first round, even a bad one.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: Total chaos. Total chaos means we get a Pac-12 Tourney like a few years ago when only one of the top four seeds wins its first game. We get that this season and it could mean one-bid for this league.

Multi-bid leagues

Mountain West – March 8-10

Protected Seeds Rooting For: A Bid-Thief. The rest are threats to steal a protected seed still.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: UNLV to protect its home court. This should be self-explanatory. Also, an early Colorado St. loss wouldn't hurt.

Atlantic-10 – March 6-11

Protected Seeds Rooting For: An early Temple defeat. Temple is on pace for a protected top four seed as of now. Teams like Vandy, Florida and the Mountain West teams that want that top four seed want a Temple loss.

Bubble Teams Rooting for: A Temple sweep and mayhem other than that. This league is a mess. Someone other than Temple is going to get in, but nobody knows who. For that matter, if everything breaks right here lots of other somebodies could get in and no bubble team outside of this league wants that.

Missouri Valley – March 1-4

Protected Seeds Rooting For: Wichita St. vs Creighton 3 in the final. This would keep the Missouri Valley far, far away in the first round of the tournament. A bid thief would not.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: Ditto. There are two locks in this league and everyone else is a potential bid thief.

WCC – Feb 29-March 5

Protected Seeds Rooting For: They don't really care. Everyone from this league is likely to be seeded in an area where protected seeds will see them in round two if they are still around.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: Gonzaga vs St. Mary's 3. Once again, there are two locks. There is also a bubble team though, so an early loss for BYU wouldn't hurt.

Conference USA – March 7-10

Protected Seeds Rooting For: A Bid Thief (non-bubble). A thief would likely be around a 13 or 14 and be easy pickings for some 3 or 4 seed.

Bubble Teams Rooting For: A Bid Thief (non-bubble). A bid thief would also mean bad losses for the bubble teams in this league.

Everybody else should be fairly self explanatory.

The top teams want the worst team humanly possible to win the conference tournaments while the bubble teams want the best teams to win to remove them from the at-large pool.

Mountain West Conference Tournament Preview

This one will be a little more in-depth than the others in part because I have followed this league closer than the others over the course of the season.

Opening Round

Wyoming vs TCU – Both of these teams are awful. Wyoming has already fired its coach while TCU can't win in this league meaning it will be even worse once they are in the Big East in two years. I pick Wyoming but it doesn't really matter one way or the other with both teams already carrying 20 losses entering tonight’s game.

Quarterfinals

BYU vs Wyoming – Wyoming has no ability to exploit the Brandon Davies absence. We already saw that last Saturday. Combine that fact with the Cowboys being good and BYU being so much better that Jimmer might not even have to play and you get an ugly blowout.

Colorado St. vs New Mexico – I don't understand why either of these teams are even being talked about for NCAA bids. 9-7 in this league has never gotten a team an at-large so what makes anyone think 9-7 in Colorado St.'s case or 8-8 in New Mexico's case is getting either of these teams in the field without the automatic bid. As for that automatic bid, New Mexico has a much better chance to get it than Colorado St. because of whatever mojo they seem to have against BYU over the last few seasons. Too bad for the Lobos that they have underachieved, especially since Drew Gordon and his nightly double-double became eligible (note that UCLA seems to be just fine without their walking chemistry issue). They will continue to underachieve here making life much easier for BYU in the next round.

UNLV vs Air Force – Tre'von Willis and the rest of the UNLV roster is starting to get hot again like they were early in the season. That is bad news for Air Force and whoever else might draw the Rebels in this tournament being played on UNLV's home court.

San Diego St. vs Utah – Utah is awful and has nobody to send at San Diego St's second-tier starts, let alone at Kawhi Leonard. This could be very ugly if San Diego St. is properly motivated.

Semifinals

BYU vs Colorado St. - One post player is not enough to beat BYU even without Brandon Davies unless everyone shoots lights out. Colorado St. won't shoot lights out and while they have one very good post player in Andy Ogide, they don't have the depth needed to really take advantage. Combine that with BYU seemingly having its focus back after the blowout loss to New Mexico last week and you have a recipe for trouble.

San Diego St. vs UNLV – Expect another knockdown-drag out fight between these two reminiscent of the last few games in this series. When the teams are evenly matched as these teams are (all the games have been close into the final minutes for three years), the lucky bounces are bound to fall the other way eventually. Considering San Diego St. has been winning this game for four years without a blowout among them, the Rebels are due, particularly if the recent hot shooting streak continues.

Final

BYU vs UNLV – Here is where the absence of Brandon Davies will kill BYU. Not because UNLV has depth in the post to throw at BYU though. It's because UNLV has NO depth in the post and Davies will no longer be there to exploit it. In the first game this season in Las Vegas, Davies had his way with the Rebels early opening things up for Jimmer and Jackson Emery to light UNLV up from the outside. Without Davies in the lineup, there is no inside go-to guy to take the pressure off the shooters against UNLV's aggressive man-to-man defense. At the same time, UNLV, if in fact they are in this game will have shot well. If UNLV shoots well early, teams have to switch away from zone defense. When teams in this league play man-to-man against UNLV, they get destroyed because UNLV is more athletic than anyone in the league (except possibly San Diego St.). Both problems will surface here with UNLV finally getting past BYU again after losing both games in the regular season.

Big Ten Tournament Preview and Predictions

After five of these over the last few days, everyone should know what is coming here.

First Round
Northwestern vs Minnesota – Minnesota is in free fall. Northwestern, while nothing great, can at least shoot the ball from long range decently. That should be enough against the imploding Gophers.

Michigan St. vs Iowa – While I would for Iowa to win so we can be rid of Michigan St. as the story, it won't happen here. That would only happen if Michigan St. overlooked the Hawkeyes and after losing to them by over 20 last month and watching them beat Purdue on Saturday as a reminder, Sparty will be focused.

Penn St. vs Indiana – Penn St. has Talor Battle. The few players Indiana does have are all hurt. Nittany Lions win easily (or as easily as they are capable of winning).

Second Round
Ohio St. vs Northwestern – If Northwestern shoots well, they have a chance to pull the upset (they were close in Evanston). I don't think they will, especially with how hot Ohio St.'s shooters have been the last couple of weeks, but it's possible.

Michigan vs Illinois – Michigan is going to win since Illinois continues to be intent on underachieving and trying to play its way out of the NCAA Tournament.

Purdue vs Michigan St. - Poor Sparty. They are going to get an angry set of Boilermakers after Purdue's ugly loss to Iowa last Saturday. Even with Kalin Lucas continuing to get better after his achilles injury in last year's NCAA Tournament, Michigan St. has little chance here.

Wisconsin vs Penn St. - Wisconsin's offense, while slow paced, is way too good for Penn St. The efficiency will carry the Badgers to an easy win behind their two star players (Jordan Taylor and the semi-forgotten Jon Leuer.

Semifinals
Ohio St. vs Michigan – By this point, Ohio St. will be lacking motivation. It's time for a break before the tournament starts. Michigan will win because they have more motivation.

Purdue vs Wisconsin – Wisconsin doesn't beat equal or better teams on road or neutral courts. Purdue is pretty much equal and the court is neutral meaning a Wisconsin loss.

Final
Purdue vs Michigan – Michigan won't win three in a row here so the pick is Purdue with its two star players to ride into the tournament on a high.

SEC Tournament Preview and Predictions

Before I get on with the predictions, let me just say that I hate the blight of divisional seeding inflicted upon us by this league (yes, I know I went to school at a league school, I don't care). The matchups have been skewed by this insanity. If we had correct seeding, our order would go Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt (the last bye instead of Mississippi St.), Georgia, Mississippi St., Tennessee, Ole Miss, Arkansas, South Carolina, Auburn, LSU. Instead we have this ridiculousness as you can see below.

First Round

Georgia vs Auburn – Don't let the last two come from behind wins fool you. Auburn still stinks and Georgia will prove it.

Ole Miss vs South Carolina – Ole Miss stinks too (as does pretty much everyone except Alabama in the SEC West. While South Carolina isn't much better, I trust them more than any western teams at this point.

Arkansas vs Tennessee – Here comes a Vols special. They have been so up and down that there is no way they win this game. The team has been all over the place all season. Heck its been going on for two years now. The team is just a group of headcases. Razorbacks win.

Vanderbilt vs LSU – LSU is just miserable. They finished behind Auburn in the standings. That is hard to do. Meanwhile, Vandy can really play and looks like they could be a nice sleeper for a deep tourney run.

Second Round

Georgia vs Alabama – Alabama won this game a week ago and they will do so again. JaMychal Green will neutralize Trey Thompkins offensively again.

Kentucky vs South Carolina – There is no way South Carolina manages to win this game. Kentucky seems to be rounding into form (the road win proves that unless it was just Tennessee flakiness) and should pound the Gamecocks.

Arkansas vs Florida – Tennessee would have a much better chance of unseating the Gators here. The Razorbacks, not so much. Chandler Parsons is the best player on the court and unless there is talent to matchup with the others, the best player usually wins. Arkansas lacks that talent on its roster.

Mississippi St. vs Vanderbilt – The headcases against the brainiacs will go to the brainiacs. Vandy is much better than Mississippi St. and Mississippi St. could go back to imploding at any time. Commodores win easily.

Semifinals

Alabama vs Kentucky – I think Kentucky is rounding into form and they will get some revenge for a bizarre road loss to Alabama earlier this season.

Florida vs Vanderbilt – Have to go with the chalk here. Florida is playing really good basketball right now for the first time in a long time.

Final

Kentucky vs Florida – Florida is rally good and is playing great basketball right now, but Kentucky has more talent and doesn't have to worry about a road crowd here. Wildcats take the tournament.

ACC Tournament Preview and Predictions

Continuing in the conference tournament prediction line, the ACC starts tomorrow and has three bubble teams that need wins along with its top two playing for potential number one seeds. Let's get to the predictions.

Thanks to the5thcorner.com for the bracket.

First Round

Virginia vs Miami – Neither team is really any good, but Miami has looked better throughout the season once you discount Virginia's wins over Virginia Tech where the Hokies looked totally spooked and out of it for some reason. Hurricanes win, but this game really lacks relevance.

Boston College vs Wake Forest – Boston College will win. Wake is awful (as in down with DePaul, LSU and Auburn bad among BCS conference teams). Even if they win I won't feel bad picking against them since it would be a huge upset.

Maryland vs NC State – The Terps have Jordan Williams and a host of wins over bad to awful teams. The Wolfpack have an overmatched coach and no wins of value all season long. Maryland wins if they care to show up.

Virginia Tech vs Georgia Tech – Seth Greenberg could easily find a way to lose this game and send his team to the wrong side of the bubble, again, but I think Georgia Tech has given up at this point and soon to be fired (as least I hope so because I am tired of reading every year that he is on the hotseat) coach Paul Hewitt may have as well. Hewitt has noticeably aged quite a bit the last three years. Hokies win and finally put Hewitt out of his coaching misery.

Second Round

North Carolina vs Miami – Hurricanes aren't ready for this type of game. Carolina won't care in this event, as usual, but it won't matter yet.

Clemson vs Boston College – Clemson is just a better team in my opinion despite no real evidence in either direction. Tigers win.

Duke vs Maryland – The Terps don't fear Duke, but they lack talent and Duke will be motivated after the season ending loss to North Carolina. Expect it to be Blue Devils, big.

Florida St. vs Virginia Tech – Florida St. has looked much better than expected since Chris Singleton's injury and those performances give confidence they can beat middling bubble teams like Virginia Tech.

Semifinals

North Carolina vs Clemson – Clemson never beats North Carolina on the road, but they have been better in recent years against the Tar Heels at home. At a neutral site, I bank on Roy Williams general dislike for conference tournaments to carry the first competent opponent past his Tar Heels unless he has a national title level team. The form holds here.

Duke vs Florida St. - The Seminoles barely beat Duke at home with Chris Singleton. No way they win on a neutral (leaning-Duke) court without Singleton in the lineup.

Final

Duke vs Clemson – This is a terrible matchup for this year's slower paced Clemson squad. Duke will run over the Tigers on the way to an undeserved top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Big 12 Tournament Preview

Third in my series of seven conference tournament previews. Big 12 is now (with cool bracket that the Pac-10 didn't have unless the women's bracket was included too).

First Round

Nebraska vs Oklahoma St. - Cornhuskers aren't very good away from home and I feel like they have overachieved whereas Oklahoma St. has underachieved. Regression to the mean is coming here. Oklahoma St. will win easily.

Colorado vs Iowa St. - Iowa St. beat Colorado last week, but that was in Ames. Colorado will be better on a neutral court and Alec Burks is the type of player that can carry a team in a tournament.

Baylor vs Oklahoma – Baylor is just so annoying to watch with all of its underachieving talent while Oklahoma finally shook off its headcase issues from last season. The problem is the method used was exiling all of the talent. Baylor will win on talent alone, but not because they actually do anything together.

Missouri vs Texas Tech – The Red Raiders really have nothing to play for. The coach has been fired, the record stinks and there is no way this team wins four straight games. Its pack-in time and an easy Missouri win.

Second Round

Kansas vs Oklahoma St. - We saw this matchup not to long ago. Its doesn't end well for Oklahoma St.

Kansas St. vs Colorado – The Wildcats will be motivated for revenge after losing to Colorado twice during the season. Too bad for Alec Burks that Jacob Pullen of Kansas St. is also the type of player who can carry a team through a short tournament like this.

Texas vs Baylor – We just saw this on Baylor's home floor. If desperation against a cold Texas team didn't save them then, it won't help now.

Texas A&M vs Missouri – This was one of the best games of the season and it showed Missouri is as good as A&M if not better. The game was on the road and Missouri was close. Bad omen for the Aggies.

Semifinals

Kansas vs Kansas St. - Neither matchup this season is particularly relevant here. They were both ugly blowouts in favor of the home team. Kansas St. is on fire though and will pull through here against a Kansas team that has already likely locked up a top seed.

Texas vs Missouri – Texas hasn't been playing well and still won't here. The Longhorns will only get this far because they play dysfunctional Baylor in their first game. Missouri will be out to prove that road woes don't mean neutral court woes to and they will here.

Final

Kansas St. vs Missouri – Kansas St. is just the better team. No 40 minute press will change that and if the game in Columbia was played again today, the Wildcats would win.

Pac-10 Conference Tournament Preview

Just as I did for the Big East yesterday, here is my game by game preview of the Pac-10 basketball tournament starting tomorrow night in Los Angeles (sorry no cool bracket like yesterday).

First Round

Stanford vs Oregon St. - Stanford isn't any good, but Oregon St. is awful unless on their home court. Mr. President's brother-in-law is going home early again at this event.

Oregon vs Arizona St. - It's the same deal for Oregon as with Oregon St. Arizona St. has been playing a little better the last couple of weeks. Sun Devils will pull the upset.

Second Round

USC vs Cal – USC has a lot of people on the bandwagon because of its hot play lately. In this inconsistent league, there is no way the chalk pick is winning when that chalk pick finished fourth in the league. That and Cal point guard Brandon Smith won't turn the ball over the way USC really needs a point guard to to win. Cal wins.

Arizona vs Stanford – Derrick Williams and Momo Jones will break the Cardinal, again.

UCLA vs Arizona St. - The Sun Devils aren't good enough to win multiple games in this tournament, especially against a team like UCLA trying to improve its NCAA seeding (that is avoiding the 8-9 game).

Washington vs Washington St. - We have seen twice already this season that this is a bad matchup for the Huskies. With Klay Thompson's suspension lifted for Washington St., it will happen a third time.

Semifinals

Arizona vs Cal – These two played one of the best games of the season at Cal going triple overtime before the aforementioned Brandon Smith blew a layup that allowed Arizona to escape with a win. With a lot more to play for, Cal will upset Arizona.

UCLA vs Washington St. - UCLA should have lost to Washington St. last Saturday. With Thompson back on the roster, the Cougars will win the game setting up a crazy bid-stealer matchup in the final.

Final

Cal vs Washington St. - The Cougars are the better team despite their lower finish in the standings, but Cal will win because Washington St. throws clunkers in at inopportune and unpredictable times. With that reputation, picking them to reach the final is a risk and there is no way I am predicting them to win the tournament. Cal will steal a bid from somebody.

Big East Conference Tournament Preview

The Big East Conference Tournament begins tomorrow in New York. It has a crazy format, at least for a major conference because of the size of the league (16 teams) and the desire to reward teams for strong play in the conference season. Hence, we have the double bye.

Here is the bracket in this crazy monstrosity along with predictions of every game.

First Round Games

Connecticut vs DePaul – UConn has struggled down the stretch but this is as close to a layup as any top team in the country will have in its first conference tournament game. UConn wins big,

Seton Hall vs Rutgers – Seton Hall has underachieved all season, but has come to life in the last week smashing both St. John's and Marquette. That momentum will carry them through this game against scrappy but generally untalented Rutgers.

Villanova vs South Florida – Villanova has been in free fall for awhile now, but even they aren't going to manage to blow this game. South Florida is just a bad basketball team.

Marquette vs Providence – Marquette is in desperation mode and can't afford a loss as the one Big East bubble team at this point. Despite what some say about teams and not conferences earning bids, Marquette may not want to test the limits of the committee by losing. Unfortunately for them, they are playing Marshawn Brooks and Providence. The Friars will defend just enough to pull the upset behind a huge game from their star (who set the conference record for points in a game a couple of weeks ago).

Second Round Games

Georgetown vs Connecticut – Georgetown is also in free fall though it is injury based. Without Chris Wright, the Hoyas aren't beating UConn here.

St. John's vs Seton Hall – St. John's will be ready here after getting stomped by Seton Hall last week. The Red Storm will play well and Seton Hall couldn't possibly shoot as well from 3-point land as they did last week.

Cincinnati vs Villanova – Cincinnati has rounded into form at the same time Villanova has collapsed. Those trends will continue here unless Villanova's guard finally break their shooting slump. They won't.

West Virginia vs Providence – Providence won't defend well enough to win two games in this tournament. Mountaineers win even though the offense still sometimes has issues.

Quarterfinal Games

Pittsburgh vs UConn – Pitt usually plays very well in this tournament and UConn will be playing its third game in three days. The fatigue will set in and Pitt will advance.

Syracuse vs St. John's – Syracuse had a mid-season bobble but has seemingly recovered. I think the Syracuse zone will suffocate St. John's and take the Orange to victory.

Notre Dame vs Cincinnati – Notre Dame is the more-veteran team, the better team, the more-talented team and the team with more to play for (number one seed). That should guide the Irish to an easy win.

Louisville vs West Virginia – A rematch of last weekend's Preston Knowles stupidity game will end with the same result. West Virginia will take confidence from the win last Saturday.

Semifinal Games

Pittsburgh vs Syracuse – This is just an awful matchup for Syracuse as we saw during the season. Pitt will break Syracuse, again.

Notre Dame vs West Virginia – Ditto here except West Virginia has the advantage and the confidence of having beaten Notre Dame a few weeks ago.

Final

Pittsburgh vs West Virginia – Don't mess with a streak. Pittsburgh is the better team but the top seed might be locked up by game time and teams with the double bye don't win this tournament.

Projected Postseason

Pittsburgh – 1 seed

Notre Dame – 2 seed

Louisville – 4 seed

Syracuse – 4 seed

St. John's – 5 seed

West Virginia – 5 seed

Cincinnati – 7 seed

Georgetown – 9 seed

Connecticut – 6 seed

Villanova – 9 seed

Marquette – First Four

Others will miss postseason