3 men’s basketball conference tournaments you should be paying attention to

1. Sun Belt

Look at this beautiful SOB:

That’s right, for the first time in the history of college basketball, we have the possibility of seeing a team play for a week straight in the postseason. Louisiana and/or Southern Miss could win five games in five days — the same feat NC State accomplished on their way to the ACC tournament title last season — and they wouldn’t have even arrived at the Sun Belt championship game yet.

Toss in the fact that this league had a four-way tie for first place (South Alabama, James Madison, Arkansas State and Troy) at the end of the regular season, and I don’t know what else you could want here.

Now some people might say that setting up your bracket this way creates two unnecessary days of extra tournament play. They might say that this, especially in today’s college sports climate, is a waste of time, money and resources.

To those people I would say … shut up. We’re doing something over here. Let us have fun.

2. Metro Atlantic Athletic

Year after year, this always winds up being one of the strangest tournaments of March.

The MAAC has had multiple top three seeds lose before the semifinals in three pf the past four years. No other conference in Division-I can claim that. Since 2018, the top three seeds in the MAAC tournament are a sad 8-10 in the quarters. If that weren’t enough, at least one team seeded fourth or worse has reached the tournament championship game in SEVEN straight years.

Even with all that madness, Iona has won six of the last eight MAAC tournaments. Saint Peter’s has won the other two.

3. Missouri Valley

Arch Madness always, always delivers. There’s no reason to believe that this year will be any different.

Despite not handing out any byes to the semifinals, this tournament has still produced a classic No. 1 vs. No. 2 title game in three of the last four years. Also, the top two seeds have lost in the quarterfinals only once each in the past 26 MVC tourneys (both in 2020).

I’d be annoyed at the lack of chaos if the Valley didn’t consistently deliver elite semifinal and championship games.

Drake vs. Bradley would absolutely be appointment viewing.