Conference Tournaments Starting March 11th

We have two Conference Tournaments beginning on Tuesday before a DELUGE of Tournaments get going on Wednesday. Some of the major Conferences begin their tourneys on Wednesday so I'm keeping this entry quick and brief (make your own joke), as I need to begin some serious research regarding the major conferences. As always, my predicted champion is in bold.

• Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) - Morgan State - We've come to another conference where I couldn't name more than two teams off the top of my head. I mean, I know these schools exists...I just didn't know they were all grouped together in this quaint conference. Although this may be a competitive conference, it's not exactly a good one. The MEAC ranks 30 of 32 in conference RPI, only ahead of the Southwestern Conference and the NCAA Independents (gulp). But luckily, to fill space, I have a personal story related to this conference and the NCAA Tournament. I was lucky enough to be in attendance, with my friends Phil, Matt, and Kevin, when #15 Coppin State upset #2 South Carolina in the 1997 tournament. At the time, this was the third occasion when a #15 seed defeated a #2 seed. To add to the fun of that historic upset, Coppin State, led by coach Ron "Fang" Mitchell (above) narrowly missed advancing to the sweet-sixteen two days later...losing to Texas by a point. I remember at the time I was fiercely rooting against Coppin State because they were messing up my brackets. But looking back, I was able to see something very rare and relatively historic (on a college basketball level that is). Louisville was in this group of games also, and I was able to make off with the 2-foot by 4-foot banner that simply says 'Louisville', which marked where the Louisville fan section was located. I loved swiping stuff like that. That is my MEAC related story. I can always say that I was at that game. Notable seeds: #1 Morgan State, #2 Hampton (who also won a Tournament game as a #15 seed, defeating Iowa State in 2001), #3 Norfolk State, #5 North Carolina A & T, #7 Coppin State

• Western Athletic Conference - Utah State - This entire conference comes down to Utah State and Nevada. I literally deliberated for 10 minutes and flipped a coin in an attempt to decide who I thought would win the conference title. Utah State and Nevada had identical conference records at 12-4, split their season series with each team winning at home, and both teams have an RPI in the 70's. I really don't know who to pick. Thankfully, I only have 13 more of these capsules to do. In the end...I'm going with the #1 seed Utah State. Not because I necessarily like Utah State, I'm actually kind of going against Nevada here. Nevada has had the WAC spotlight on them long enough, they screwed up in the Conference Tournament last year and cost a deserving team a bubble spot, and I really got tired of hearing how good Nick Fazekas was over the last couple NCAA Tournaments. Turns out Fazekas is pretty good, he made the NBA's Developmental League's All-Star Game, but didn't play. Let's talk a little about Utah State University, which is located in Logan, Utah. I will give Utah State a little credit...they have Jaycee Carroll, WAC Player of the Year and leads the nation in three-point shooting at 50.2 percent. Pretty darn good. Notable seeds: #1 Utah State, #2 Nevada, #3 New Mexico State, #4 Boise State, #5 Hawai'i