Conference Tournament Time!

             It’s getting closer and closer to the beginning of March Madness. In just a week and a half 68 teams will be selected to participate in one of the most exciting tournaments on the planet. Before all that begins, there are 21 conference tournaments that have to be played. These conference tourney’s are important because any time that wins one gets an automatic bid for the NCAA Tourney. They are also important because it allows bubble teams to bolster their resume.

            
            Usually when I write about college basketball I list the teams in order from best to worst. In this post, I’m just gonna start with the conference tournament that starts first. The numbers next to each team represents their seeding in each tournament.

Missouri Valley Conference

When: March 1^st- March 4^th

Where: Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri

Indiana teams: #3 Evansville Purple Aces, #8 Indiana State Sycamores

Neither team will make the NCAA Tournament without winning this tournament. The Sycamores play Southern Illinois tomorrow evening. If they win that game they have to go up against #1 Wichita State. The Aces face #6 Missouri State Friday night. If they win they will most likely take on #2 Creighton. It’s possible both teams could face each other in the championship game but I seriously doubt either team will make it that far.
UPDATE: Evansville won their quarterfinal game and now face #2 Creighton in the semi-final game today.

Horizon League

When: March 2^nd - March 6^th

Where: Athletics-Recreation Center at Valparaiso University

Indiana teams: #1 Valparaiso Crusaders, #5 Butler Bulldogs

Valpo won the regular season title but that means little if they can’t at least get to the conference championship game. They finished the regular season 21-10. That’s actually worse than second-place team Cleveland State who finished 22-9. Valpo will face either #5 Butler or #4 Milwaukee on Saturday. The game between Butler and Milwaukee is Friday night.

How epic would a Butler-Valpo showdown be? I’m excited just thinking about it. Not only would the winner of the game play for the Horizon Championship, but the loser would most likely not be selected for the NCAA Tournament.

UPDATE: Butler and Valpo will play each other today but it will NOT be for the Championship. The winner of the game will then play for the Championship. Either way, it will be a great game.

Summit League

When: March 3^rd- March 6^th

Where: Sioux Falls Arena in Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Indiana teams: #7 IUPUI Jaguars, #8 IPFW Mastodons

The two schools representing the Hoosier State are the lowest two seeds in the Summit League Tournament. The Mastodons face the #1 Oral Roberts Golden Eagles Saturday at 6:00 p.m. The Jaguars go up against #2 South Dakota State on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. It will be a miracle if either team win their games.

Ball State, Purdue, Indiana, and Notre Dame still have a couple of games left before their conference tournaments start next week. I will post their tourney info here when the seeds are finalized.