General Sports Water Cooler

Really? They have 10 wins in the BE, but they have done it beating the lower tier teams. Cincy is really the only good win they have all year.

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Tournaments are starting! Since I have wayyyyy too much time on my hands, I'm going to preview all the conference tournaments, even though there's no chance that anyone outside of me and Spike will watch the Big South title game (and I'm not so sure about Spike watching). Here are the five tournaments starting in the next three days.

Big South Tournament (1st round tonight @ campus sites, QF/SF Wed/Thurs at Asheville, championshp Saturday at higher seed)
Format: Traditional bracket. All ten full DI teams qualified.
TV: Semis are on ESPNU for some reason; tournament finals are noon on Saturday on ESPN2.
At-Large potential: None. The winner is almost certainly headed for a 16 seed.
Who to Watch: UNC-Asheville won the conference by 4 games at 16-2. If an upset happens it's probably by the #2 seed Coastal Carolina which beat LSU and Clemson to start the season.

Horizon League Tournament (1st round tomorrow @ campus sites, QF/SF Fri/Sat at Valpo, championship Tuesday at higher seed)
Format: All ten teams qualify. The top two get a bye in the first two rounds while the other eight have to play an extra two games just to make it to the semis.
TV: Semis on are on the U; Championship is at 9PM on ESPN.
At-Large Potential: None. Cleveland State was 20-4 with a win over Vandy before a late five game skid.
Who to Watch: Valpo gets the benefit of only playing two games, both at home. Cleveland State is probably the best team (see: win over Vandy). Butler is, of course, the dark horse. They're the fifth seed, although they finished tied for third, but I think Brad Stevens has proven himself in a single elimination format. 7 teams finished above .500 (both overall and in conference games) so this may be one of the more open tournaments.

Atlantic Sun Tournament. (Wed-Sat at Mercer)
Format: The top eight teams qualified for a regular eight team bracket. Sadly, 0-18 Kennesaw State did not get a chance to win the league's bid.
TV: The title game is on the deuce at 7.
At-Large Potential: None. Belmont is #22 in the kenpom ratings, but I'm thinking that a 7 loss A-Sun team doesn't have much of a shot.
Who to Watch: Belmont and Mercer should make the championship. The Bruins are the better team, losing in Cameron by a point in their opener, but Mercer isn't bad (they did the impossible and won at Georgia Tech) and they have home court.

Ohio Valley Tourmanet (Wed-Sat in Nashville)
Format: Eight of the ten eligible teams qualified. The top four get byes into the QF and the top two get an additional bye into the SF.
TV: Murray State's first game will be on ESPNU Friday night, and the title game is at 2 the next day on ESPN2.
At-Large Potential: Murray State is in. They should be a protected seed with a tournament title, but they're still probably in the 8/9 game at worst if they lose their first, more likely in the 7 range.
Who to Watch: Anyone that watches basketball knows about Murray State and Isaiah Cannan leading his people to the promised land. Tennessee State is the number two seed and beat the Racers at home a few weeks back so they're you're upset pick, but in reality no one should be able to touch Murray.

West Coast Conference Tournament (Wed-Sat. Monday in Vegas)
Format: Somehow the WCC manages to drag a nine team tournament out for FIVE rounds. There's a Les Robinson game to start with while seven teams get a bye. Four more teams get a second bye, and two of those teams get an unprecedented third bye meaning that if 0-16 Santa Clara goes on a miracle run they'll be playing their FOURTH game in as many days while St Mary's will be fresh. At least everyone in the league gets a trip to Vegas. Brandon Davies may get suspended again.
TV: Plenty of action. The quarters are on the U, ESPN2 has the semis, and ESPN has the title game Monday at 9.
At-Large Potential: BYU, St Mary's, and Gonzaga are all pretty set, although I'm not sure why. BYU in particular went 1-3 against the top two in the league and had two more wins against non DI teams (2) than they did against tournament teams otuside of conference, unless you think Oregon makes a run this next couple of weeks.
Who to Watch: Dellevadova! Brandon Davies! Robert Sacre! It should be a great tournament even if Omar Samhan and Blake Steppe aren't walking through that door. Gonzaga snapped an incredible 11 straight regular season title stretch, but they've been in 14 straight WCC title games and 16 in 17 years. It's probably them or St Mary's if only because BYU plays an extra game, but it would be the greatest story ever if 0-16 Santa Clara won 5 games in a row to take it - sweet loss to them, Jay Wright!

The city of Asheville is Basketball USA this week, as UNC-Asheville will host the Big South men's quarterfinals and semis (and the final, if UNCA advances that far). Asheville (the city) is also hosting the SoCon men's and women's tournaments at the same time.

BYU has a really good road record, which will help it in comparison to some other bubble teams. It better not lose in the quarterfinals, though. The sleeper team in the WCC tournament is LMU.

I'm not sure Murray State is going to be a protected seed if it wins out. The most similar comps are the Princeton team of a decade or so ago (which got a 5 seed) and GW from a few years back (which got an 8). The Racers are a lot closer in quality (and perception of said quality) to Princeton than GW, but a 5 may be a bit high. I could see it, though.

I'm not sure I'll be watching the Big South title game, actually. It's at noon on Saturday (Justin Kutcher & LaPhonso Ellis are your announcers), and I may be in Charleston for a baseball doubleheader. There is also the issue of my team playing on Friday afternoon in the SoCon tourney. If it pulls a stunning upset, I may wander up to Asheville to watch the SoCon quarterfinals instead.

Greg Whittington and Henry Sims are so much better than I thought they'd be. Sims was poo his first few years and now he's a pro.

Are we talking about the same guy? He hasn't been very good although he's had a couple good games recently.

Im having trouble seeing Davidson upset in the SoConn tourney this year. Maybe Wofford if Kevin Giltner carries the team on his own. Mike Young is a top 3 coach in the league.

That's a couple more good games then I thought he'd have in his entire career

Davidson is the heavy favorite in the SoCon. Also, most of the teams that conceivably could give it a game are on the other side of the bracket (Wofford, CofC).

VMI wins. Radford's national title dreams are over. The Keydets move on to play Coastal Carolina in the Big South quarterfinals.

Jeff Withey dominates Big Monday like none other.

Random O's fan sighting in Stillwater.

I'd watch the Big South (go Liberty) but I have a job fair I have to go to on Saturday afternoon. I'll be checking up on it during lunch and between interviews.

Damn. Big Jelly would look skinny next to him.

Eh, not that ridculous. I don't really agree, but if you can't do better than 7-9 or 8-10, tough.