Conference tournaments are closing in fast, and that means the real madness is nearly upon us.
For teams like Northwestern, Texas, BYU and Cincinnati, the beginning of Championship Week will be a critical time. Most of the top conferences will still be wrapping up their regular seasons while other conferences like the CAA and Missouri Valley will be knee-deep in the thrills of win-or-go-home action.
And of course, the return of conference tournaments also means the re-emergence of the bid thief.
Ah yes, the wonderful bid thief: a species of team that upsets a sure-fire tournament lock, thereby unexpectedly claiming an automatic bid and relegating some other team onto the wrong side of the bubble.
This year, the Missouri Valley Conference could easily produce a bid thief. Creighton and Wichita State are locks to reach the NCAA Tournament at this point. But no one else should reach the tournament with an at-large invitation. That means if Missouri State, Evansville or some other Missouri Valley team can catch fire in St. Louis, Arch Madness will inflict all kinds of sadness on the fan base of one of the last teams to miss the NCAA Tournament.
As of right now, that would be Northwestern. The ninth team in the Big Ten as I see it right now is the last one to earn an at-large bid. It would also be the first NCAA Tournament in program history. For the Wildcats, the path to the tournament is coincidentally identical to the path of the bid thief: just keep winning. Northwestern has several more chances to bolster its résumé so that Selection Sunday wouldn’t be overly stressful.
Which other teams have work left to do to feel more comfortable about their tourney prospects? Let’s get to the brackets.
If you’re curious about how these predictions stack up compared to other commentators, check out the great work at the Bracket Project.
