One Big Thing In Every NCAA WBB Conference Tournament: Monday, March 10th
While the high major conference tournaments are over, we still have a massive slate of mid-major brackets that will decide multiple March Madness bids. We've got your daily watch guide up and ready!
Hello, friends! We have officially made it to March Madness, Part One. Conference Tournaments kick off this week and, while there are few that take place a bit later in the month, most of the mid-major action is centered around the next half-dozen days. The high-majors also dominate the week with the SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Big Ten starting Tuesday as well.
Instead of giving you viewer guides to preview the entirety of the Tournament, we’ll be giving you daily content outlining what we think is the biggest storyline, game or player to watch in every bracket across women’s basketball. Think of it as a combination of a preview and a watch guide.
Best of all, this content is 100% free for everyone in service of growing the game and giving you a chance to find the best hoops the sport has to offer. Let’s get to it!
Apologies for not getting a Sunday guide up you folks. Sometimes, the weekend gets the better of you. If you want to see or hear a wrap up of the Sunday slate of conference tournament championships, check out our YouTube Live below. Otherwise, let’s get into Monday’s slate!
One Big Thing In The…
America East Playoffs - Semifinal
It feels like the America East bracket is headed towards a Vermont vs. Albany final that will be one heck of a game. But I’m really interested in whether or not Bryant or Maine will be able to make things somewhat interesting. The Black Bears, in particular, have usually been the third team in the conference that makes a run in some way. Last year, Maine beat Albany in the regular season finale to win the conference title and then defeated Vermont to win the tournament championship. This season has gone a bit different but even with that in mind, they’ve competed well against the Great Danes, only losing by five when these teams played in New York. They also split the series with Vermont this year. I still anticipate we get an Albany vs. UVM final here but if there is a team that is able to swing something based on their experience in big games, it’s Maine. It’s a heavily defensive league so don’t expect some fireworks but maybe keep an eye on whether or not we get a good finish.
AAC Championship - Quarterfinal
The one big thing in the AAC Quarterfinals is the potential coaching revolution happening in a league that hasn’t necessarily been the strongest in recent years. Tomekia Reed’s Charlotte 49ers upset Tulsa yesterday to really give fans a nice proof of concept in a from-the-ground-up program build. Then you add in Ashley Langford’s Tulane crew who have a major chance to upset South Florida and advance to the semifinal. Past the two up-and-coming black women in the AAC, you also have one of the better rebuild and revitalization stories in coaching this year. Karen Aston had a pretty successful Texas run but was unceremoniously fired in April of 2020, paving the way for Vic Schaefer’s move to Austin. So Aston headed to UTSA to build the team up from scratch. Within four years, the Roadrunners are 26-3 and 17-1 in AAC play. I anticipate that they’ll meet USF in the final here but I love the coaching stories happening in the conference. It feels like in the long term, the American is in good hands.
Big East Tournament - Final
Will Creighton be able to keep this thing close? That’s the biggest question of the day. The Bluejays are underrated in the national conversation, at least in my opinion. Jim Flanery’s group went to the Elite Eight just a couple years ago, upsetting Caitlin Clark’s second seeded Iowa Hawkeyes in the process. This season, they’ve won a good chunk of non-con games against top end competition. Nebraska is an NCAA Tournament team, Green Bay is the Horizon League regular season champion while Northern Iowa and Drake are competing to win the MVC. Wyoming may also be a Mountain West dark horse (more on that in a minute). But all of that is a moot point if you get blown out by UConn again. The tough thing with the Huskies is we can’t really get a good read on how good they are relative to their conference. In past seasons, they’ve had a deeper league that gives us better data points. But if they smoke the Bluejays today, what does that mean really? On ceiling alone, I think the Huskies could be a one seed but I wonder if they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t in terms of what the result will be.
Big Sky Championship - Third Round
Are you familiar with the Big Sky Championship and the greatest nickname in college sports? It’s not March Madness in Boise. It’s STARCH MADNESS. That’s the good stuff. The best stuff, some might say. Today, I’m curious about the Idaho Vandals and Montana Grizzlies. The Lady Griz had run this conference for decades under Robin Selvig but things have been a little bit uneven since his retirement. This year has been particularly strange as head coach Brian Holsinger took a leave of absence in January and officially resigned on February 10th. Right now, there haven’t been any answers about what happened and why. In spite of that, they’ve been relatively stable in Big Sky play and now take on an 18-11 Idaho team that has, more or less, beaten the teams they’ve needed to beat and lost the games they haven’t been favored in. A win for UM would be a nice boost for the players that have existed in tumult for much of this year. Plus, it would be better for the league if the Lady Griz were good again especially considering the dominance of Montana State. Brawl of the Wild deserves a strong women’s basketball presence.
Horizon League Championship - Semifinal
All year, the Horizon has been a three team league with Green Bay, Purdue Forty Wayne and Cleveland State in contention for the conference title deep into February. I have a feeling that GB won’t have much trouble with Robert Morris so the attention goes to the other semifinal. Cleveland State and PFW split their series in the regular season this year and the Mastodons definitely want another chance at the Phoenix. For those unaware, Green Bay and PFW played for the Horizon title on the last day of their regular season with GB winning the title. Will we get a conference championship rematch between the two teams? That all comes down to whether or not Cleveland State wants to play spoiler. Based on non-cons this will probably be a one-bid league regardless which makes these games all the more important. So you have a good one at 2:30 PM ET on ESPN+ and then the final will be appointment viewing.
Mountain West Championship - Quarterfinal
One big thing in the Mountain West revolves around spoiler teams. UNLV is the clear favorite to win the conference tournament but they seem to be a little more ripe for upset than they have been in the past couple of years. Factor in the possibility of Lindy La Rocque, Rebs head coach, being a hot commodity on the coaching market and it’s entirely plausible that UNLV could get clipped here. Boise State is a veteran laden team that has played a lot of games in the Thomas & Mack Center. Then you factor in the two other conference dark horses in Wyoming and Colorado State. The Cowgirls beat UNLV to end the regular season and have arguably the MWC Player of the Year in Allyson Fertig. The Rams, as it so happens, also have a POTY contender in Emma Ronsiek. Every team in the quarterfinal has at least 18 wins and so there isn’t really a slouch left in the bracket. So if we have any upsets on the menu today, it’s very likely it comes out of the tournament in Las Vegas. But I like Wyoming and CSU as potential bid stealers here.
NEC Tournament - Quarterfinal
Can anyone catch Farleigh Dickinson in the NEC? I’m willing to say probably not. The Knights went a perfect 16-0 in conference play while the rest of the conference is hovering around .500 or below. I fully expect this one to be a one-bid, easy breeze of a tourney with FDU entering the NCAA Tournament as a 15 or 16 seed. There might be some interesting games in the quarterfinals before we get there but I’d say that it’s one of the weaker fields among the conference tournament slate this year. The issue I have with the watchability here is that Farleigh Dickinson has more or less crushed everyone in the league this year. So, maybe keep an eye on a game or two but, for the most part, it’s a score to check on the apps.
Patriot League Championship - Quarterfinal
The Patriot League is actually going to be pretty fun once we get to the semifinals. Lehigh, Army and Colgate are all 22 win+ teams and their matchups in the quarters are looking like probable wins. So the one matchup I’ve got my eye on concerns the Naval Academy. The 19-10 Midshipmen take on the 18-11 Holy Cross Crusaders in what is the most evenly matched game of the day in the Patriot. Navy won both of these games in the regular season but as we’ve seen in many other conference tournaments this past week, it’s really hard to win three games in a row in one season. If you’re trying to see a singular player today, give Zanai Barnett-Gay a watch. The 5’8 sophomore is a Patriot League Player of the Year contender, averaging 18.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists and 2.4 steals per game, leaving the team in all categories. She’s put up a slew of 25+ point games this year and is one of the more electric players in the conference.
Southland Tournament - First Round
We have a pair of first round games in the Southland as someone tries to unseat Southeast Louisiana, who has absolutely rolled the league during a year when I expected new entrant Stephen F. Austin to be the juggernaut. Both games — Texas A&M Corpus Christi vs. Northwestern State and Nicholls vs. UT Rio Grande Valley — will probably be close matchups with interesting finishes. But if you’re watching for one thing, it’s probably the diminutive 5’5 senior guard out of Northwestern State. Mya Blake has been a consistently steady presence for the Lady Demons this year, ending the regular season on a nice run that included a 31 point, 10/18 shooting performance against New Orleans. NSU, it should be noted has multiple single digit losses to the top teams in the league and seems to be a bit better than their record indicates. The real show starts tomorrow when SFA enters the Tournament but if you want a bit of intrigue in the Southland, get on Demon Time with Northwestern State!
Sun Belt Championship - Final
James Madison feels like a team that is going to scare the hell out of an unsuspecting 4, 5, or 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament next week. They’ve run through the Sun Belt to the tune of 18-0 and boast a dominant guard in Peyton McDaniel, who leads the Dukes in points (16.3 PPG), rebounds (8.5 RPG), steals (1.8 SPG) and blocks (.7 BPG). But, the one interesting wrinkle here is that JMU didn’t see Arkansas State at all this year. So this will be the first time the teams meet which is exceedingly rare in a conference tilt this late in the season. So that will make for an interesting schematic matchup. Arkansas State has had a better record in the Sun Belt than their non-con, where they had several head scratching losses coupled with unremarkable wins. I expect James Madison to win this one but I think it’s worth taking a look just to see if the Dukes are the upset special March Madness team I think they have a shot to be.
WCC Tournament - Semifinal
Probably the best semifinal matchups of the day. I fully expected this to be the final four teams left in the WCC but maybe not in the way it ended up. Oregon State and Washington State are underdogs to Gonzaga and Portland here. But, it’s hard to count out Kamie Etheridge and Scott Rueck in these schematic spots. They’re damn good coaches and have shown their chops in Pac-12 and NCAA Tournaments. But Lisa Fortier’s Gonzaga teams have been to Sweet 16’s and know the drill. Michael Meek’s Portland Pilots upset Gonzaga to steal a bid to the NCAA Tournament last year. So you’ve got four coaches that know how to win in March and a slew of players that have similar experience. Will the former Pac-12 teams pull off some shockers late? I’d love to see it. But I think both of these games have potential to be really exciting matchups that give us good finishes. Outside of the Big East final, I think the WCC has the best games of today’s slate. Give your mid-majors some love! The Ball-Knowers sure will!