March Madness arrives early, as there’s plenty of hardwood championship intrigue on the men’s mid-major brackets.
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The march to March has officially begun and everyone’s getting involved.
The ball is tipped and the calendar is flipped, giving way to just over a month of hardwood heroics manifesting on the brackets of the NCAA Basketball Tournaments.
Exhilarating preludes are already underway across the country in the form of the 31 NCAA Division I conferences staging their tournaments. Obvious attention will be afforded to the dramatic mainstays (i.e. ACC, Big East) but the truly devoted viewers of the sport often prefer to focus on the lesser-heralded entrants …many of whom are in a major dogfight over a single invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
With that in mind, certain mid-major men’s tournaments will offer a unique brand of intrigue that simply can’t be missed …
MAC
March 12-14, Cleveland, OH
Current Top Seed: Miami (OH)
Defending Champion: Akron
MACtion goes far beyond Tuesday and Wednesday on the hardwood, with all eyes on a different brand of “The U.” Miami University’s bid for a perfect season features two more tests before descending upon Cleveland, but the fact that Travis Steele‘s bunch has mustered nearly 30 wins without a misstep as a mid-major is fairly impressive no matter what happens.
But even with such an impressive start (and seven men averaging double-figures in scoring), the RedHawks have yet to fully seal their fate among some major bracketologists. The dramatics against the MAC attack could play a factor: more than half of their conference triumphs to date have come by 10 points or less, including consecutive overtime decisions against Buffalo and Kent State shortly after they made their polled entry.
It’s perhaps also fortunate that the RedHawks faced two-time defending champion Akron but once this season, a 76-73 home win that tipped off the new year. The Zips earned the latter of two titles, and third in the last four years, with a thriller against Miami last spring, denying the RedHawks the end of a NCAA Tournament drought dating back to 2007.
Mountain West
March 7-14, Las Vegas, NV
Current Top Seed: Utah State
Defending Champion: Colorado State
The world has gotten a little used to seeing multiple MWC teams on the NCAA bracket, but there’s still plenty of potential packed onto the bracket: of note, the MWC is the only non-power conference to place three teams (Utah State, New Mexico, San Diego State) in the top 50 of the men’s NET rankings entering Monday play.
Having fallen victim to Colorado State’s title run last time around, Utah State returned with a vengeance this year: behind the efforts of collegiate mainstay Mason Falslev, the Aggies will be among the most relaxed in Sin City during the tenuous tournament tenure. Their fellow Mountain toppers won’t be as cool: New Mexico’s quest for a rare trio of consecutive NCAA Tournament berths hit a bump in the form of February home losses to USU and Boise State. The Aztecs are even more desperate, dropping three of their last four to enter the magic of March.
The defending champions have transitioned into dark horses: with March Madness hero Ali Farokhmanesh leading the way after last season’s near-run to the Sweet 16, Colorado State posted a perfect February, which featured a noticeable home win over SDSU. The Rams are seeded sixth on the bracket entering this week, one game behind the fourth-place holders Nevada and Grand Canyon.
Southland
March 8-11, Lake Charles, LA
Top Seed: Stephen F. Austin
Defending Champion: McNeese
Another tournament taking advantage of double-byes, the Southland will have its undisputed top-pairing in place for the semifinals, which many view as a prelude to an epic showdown between the Cowboys and Lumberjacks, both of whom are working with first-year head coaches.
It’s hardly a Stone Cold stunner, but Stephen F. Austin is back atop the Southland bracket for the first time since 2018 (not counting the cancelled 2020 edition). Long viewed as March darlings with a memorable names and a propensity for chaos (being two seconds away from a Sweet 16 trip in 2016), the Lumberjacks are led by Matt Braeuer, formerly a Grant McCasland disciple at Texas Tech.
The hosting Cowboys are looking to reprise their role as Southland champions, which led to them developing a strong March following that was rewarded with an upset win over Clemson in the chaotic first weekend. That triumph (the first NCAA Tournament win for the McNesse program) eventually led head coach Will Wade to North Carolina State but former Link Academy boss Bill Armstrong has slid in nicely.
Sun Belt
March 3-9, Pensacola, FL
Top Seed: Troy
Defending Champion: Troy
The SBC’s unconventional tournament format is made for March maladies: all but four of the 14 participants receive some sort of bye and that unlikely quartet must go through a week of non-stop action to earn its one shining moment.
Defending champion Troy (led by Thomas Dowd and his averaged double-double with an SBC-best 10.1 boards) narrowly avoided a tropical logjam: six teams shared the runner-up spot with 11-7 records, but one game behind the Trojans. Multi-pronged tiebreakers gave Marshall the edge among the equal while Arkansas State’s reward for a third consecutive 20-win season is a quarterfinal date that situates the Red Wolves closer to the opening round rather than the championship game.
The Trojans and Thundering Herd, on the other hand, get to put their feet and hooves up as the chaos erupts. Normally no one’s complaining about spending some extra days in Florida in late winter. When an invitation to the Big Dance is on the line, however, the reception gets real cold real quick.
West Coast
March 5-10, Las Vegas, NV
Top Seed: Gonzaga
Defending Champion: Gonzaga
It’s the end of an era in the WCC, which will bid farewell to 22-time champion Gonzaga as it makes tracks for the rebooted Pac-12. Every edition of the tournament since 2009 has been won by either the Bulldogs or St. Mary’s, who staged the final edition of their long-running regular season rivalry last weekend.
Conventional wisdom suggests that one more championship showdown awaits in Sin City (Gonzaga took a 58-51 decision en route to its 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance) but horseplay could be a factor: the Santa Clara Broncos, having gone three decades without an NCAA Tournament bid and even longer without a WCC championship, have formed one of the top resumes among mid-majors with a program-record 15 conference triumphs.
Three bids from the WCC isn’t unheard of—it has happened as recently as 2022—but it feels like they’ll have to spoil the Zags-Gaels party to finally end the wait.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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