97.1 The Ticket -- The madness is almost here.
The NCAA Tournament field will be revealed on Sunday, March 17 -- less than two weeks away.
There's nothing in sports like the excitement surrounding the first week of the Big Dance.
The Selection Show ends and you immediately start working on your bracket. First you analyze the brackets, criticize the committee for a team being too high or too low. Then you do some research to find that sleeper team that will make an unexpected run. You carefully select your giant killers -- surely, you'll be the one who sees the crazy upset coming. And of course you find that one team who just can't be beaten. There it is. You're sure you've just picked the first-ever perfect bracket.
And usually by late Friday afternoon -- or earlier -- you're saying, "I'm just rooting for upsets at this point because my bracket is trash. I just want it to be a crazy tournament."
Maybe you take Thursday or Friday off work to indulge in the wall-to-wall basketball glory that is March Madness. Perhaps you have that group of friends or family you watch games with every single year; or maybe you watch in solitude because that's how you've watched your team all season and the only games they've lost have been when you watched the game with someone else.
We're almost there...
But the week and a half chock full of conference tournament action leading up to Selection Sunday isn't too bad either. There's drama, buzzer beaters and upsets. There are storylines, dominant performances and college players just playing some downright hard basketball.
Sure, it's not the Big Dance, but it's a perfect appetizer to the main course. If nothing else, it's good to get a scouting report for your bracket and get a feel for wat teams and which players you might want to go with next week.
Here's a look at some of the best games and potential matchups during the first week of conference tournaments that you should watch, most of which are in the low-major conferences.
First, here's a little local flavor:
Horizon League
No. 3 Oakland University vs. No. 6 Youngstown State -- Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
The Grizzlies, led by 18.8 PPG from Xavier Hill-Mais, ended the regular season on a four-game win streak and get to host their first round game before the tournament shifts to Little Caesars Arena.
No. 7 Detroit Mercy @ No. 2 Northern Kentucky -- Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
Antoine Davis, who recently broke Steph Curry's freshman 3-point record, and the Titans fight for their tournament lives against the Norse, who were in first place in the league much of the year.
Should both Oakland and Detroit Mercy win their first round games, they would face each other in the Horizon League semifinals at LCA next Monday night.
Potential matchups you should want to see:- OVC Championship: No. 1 Belmont vs. No. 2 Murray State (Saturday, 8 p.m. -- ESPN)
- By now you've heard of Ja Morant and Murray State. Here's possibly your last chance to watch him do his thing. Despite Morant on the verge of becoming the first player to average 20 points and 10 assists per game for the first time ever, the Racers would probably be left on the wrong side of the bubble at this point in time. So they probably need to win the OVC title to get a bid. They'll most likely play Belmont, who is no slouch, ranking 45th in the NET.
- SoCon Championship: No. 1 Wofford vs. No. 3 Furman (Monday, 7 p.m. -- ESPN)
- The Wofford Terriers have all but locked up a bid -- a single-digit seed in all likelihood, especially if they win the SoCon tourney. Furman is fighting for an at-large bid but would probably end up on the outside looking in if they don't get the auto-bid. This game will feature some dead-eye three-point shooting on both sides. If you're in the camp of wanting mid-majors in the field over power conference schools with sub-.500 league records, you should want this matchup to happen and you should be pulling for the Paladins. The SoCon tourney gets underway Friday and these two teams have quarterfinal games Saturday. P.S. 2-seed UNC Greensboro and 4-seed East Tennessee State are also quietly good teams that make this an enticing tournament overall.
- Atlantic Sun Championship: No. 1 Lipscomb vs. No. 2 Liberty (Sunday, 3 p.m. -- ESPN)
- Lipscomb and Liberty have been two of the country's top mid-majors all season. The Bisons could possibly be in play for an at-large bid with the right kind of chaos, but will probably need to snare that all-important auto-bid. Both teams rank inside the top 100 for KenPom's adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency, as well as inside the top-70 in effective field goal percentage, a formula that rewards teams for shooting better from 3-point range. Both teams play semifinals on Thursday on ESPN+.
Other teams to watch this weekend:
- Gonzaga
- The No. 1 team in the country has rattled off 20 straight wins and rates as the most efficient offensive team at KenPom. They rolled through the WCC with an average margin of victory of 28.8 points, so they might not be tested all that much in Las Vegas, but the Zags are for real. If you're still a doubter, make sure to watch them this week. They might just change your mind.
- Vermont
- The Catamounts were supposed to be a dangerous Cinderella team last year, but fell to a little-known UMBC team that would soon become etched in NCAA Tournament history. Vermont still has Anthony Lamb and Ernie Duncan, who combine for 35 PPG and can light it up from deep. The Mounts play a quarterfinal against Maine on Saturday and wouldn't be on ESPN 2 until next Saturday for the America East championship, which is always one of the most exciting final games of champ week.
- Campbell
- The Camels got hot at the end of the season, winning six of seven, thanks in large part to Chris Clemons, one of two players to reach the career 3,000-point mark this season (more on that in a second). The 5-foot-9 Clemons leads the nation in scoring (30.1 PPG) and he is an absolute must-watch and like Morant, would be a blast to see play in the NCAA Tournament.
Players to watch:
- Mike Daum, South Dakota State
- Daum was the other player to reach 3,000 this season. The 6-foot-9 forward has the ability to bang down low, as well as stroke the 3-pointer. He, too, is a must-watch guy.
- Justin Wright-Foreman, Hofstra
- The senior sharpshooter is the country's second leading scorer at 26.8 PPG. Hofstra begins the CAA tournament Sunday at noon. Should they win, you'll be able to catch Wright-Foreman on CBS Sports Network Monday and possibly Tuesday night.
So there it is. Teams and players you need to keep an eye on this week into early next week. Check back down the road for more coverage of champ week, and be sure to check out Ticket Bracketology.
