Big East

When Western Kentucky fired Ken McDonald on January 6th few envisioned the young Hilltoppers earning a bid to the NCAA tournament. But they did just that, beating North Texas 74-70 in the Sun Belt title game.

While there's plenty of conference tournament action on Tuesday's schedule, and three bids to be distributed, there's also a huge game in the Ivy League as Penn (19-11, 11-2) visits rival Princeton (18-11, 9-4). What's on the line for the Quakers? A share of the Ivy League title with Harvard, which would force a one-game playoff between the two teams at a site to be determined.

Week One Conference Tournament Schedules

ACC (March 8-11 in Atlanta)
Regular season champion: North Carolina
.pdf bracket

Last week CHN writer Jon Teitel unvelied part one of his CollegeHoops.net All-Conference selections, featuring the fourteen conferences that begain conference tournament play at that time. The final seventeen teams are here, with the Player of the Year in each league in italics. 

Wednesday's Conference Tournament Primer

#4 Kansas clinched their eighth consecutive Big 12 title with a wild 87-86 overtime win over #3 Missouri, placing head coach Bill Self in some esteemed company. Here are today's "Quick Hitters": 

While NCAA Tournament runs by Butler and VCU prove that there is more parity than ever in college basketball, the power conferences still rule. Here is a ranking of all 74 power conference teams, including a comparison to how they ranked in the previous update 2 months ago.

 

Although the conference table was mostly set back in January when we last updated the Consensus Conference Ranking, there have been some changes since. As you'll see below, the Mountain West dropped from 4th to 6th since January 3rd, while the Colonial and Ivy have jumped 2 spots.

In the first meeting between #18 Notre Dame and West Virginia the Fighting Irish didn't get going until late, when three three-pointers pushed them past the Mountaineers in Morgantown. Mike Brey's team got going offensively much sooner in the rematch, as a two-point lead at the half turned into a 71-44 whipping, moving their win streak to nine. This marks the first time in school history that the Irish have won nine straight Big East games, and by the game this young team has the look of a group that can make some noise next month.