8 Must-Watch Conference Tournament Games For Saturday

You’re right, I was horrible in yesterday’s picks, going a whopping 2 for 10 in my predictions. In my defense, I told you Penn State would hang with Purdue, and they had a lead with just over seven minutes to go in the second half. Indiana went down to the wire on Maryland, Ohio State lost by single digits to Michigan State, Oklahoma should have went into overtime with Iowa State (more on that later), and I told you UCLA would keep it close with Arizona.

After that debacle yesterday, I stand at 5-18 in picks overall, good enough for a .217 batting average. I’m quickly becoming old-Derek Jeter here. I’m going to need to pull it together fast. First, awards for yesterday.

MVP: This trophy will be split between K.T. Harrell of Auburn and Joseph Young of Oregon. By now, you’ve probably seen the latter’s game-winning three-pointer from well beyond the three-point line to upset the Utes and deny us a chance at a third Utah-Arizona match-up.

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Young, the controversial selection for Pac-12 Player of the Year, has shut up his critics in the conference tournament. In the quarterfinals against Colorado, he dropped 30 points and against Utah, he added 26 and the game-winner. Still think he isn’t worthy?

Harrell is just as deserving of this award as Young, though. The senior guard for Auburn put the team on his back against LSU and single-handedly (ok there was A LOT of help from LSU, but again, we’ll get to that in a bit) carried his team into the semi-finals. His three-pointer to end regulation tied the game and sent it into the extra period, where Auburn, who was playing their third game in as many days, looked the fresher team and out-lasted LSU.

LVP: Everyone on Duke not named Jahlil Okafor. Seriously, what is with this Duke team? Is Notre Dame their kryptonite this year? Admittedly part of their game plan, the Fighting Irish allowed Okafor all the points he wanted as they chose not to double-team him. He happily obliged, pouring in 28 points on 13-18 shooting from the field.

Everyone not named Okafor, though, finished with 36 points on 14 of 42 shooting, including an abysmal 3 of 17 from the field. This Duke team probably has enough talent to get by any team in the opening weekend, but against better teams, you aren’t quite sure what you’ll get. Will it be the team that won at Virginia, at Louisville, at Wisconsin, and at North Carolina? Or the one who lost to NC State, Miami, and Notre Dame twice and needed overtime to beat Virginia Tech?

Best Performance In A Game You Probably Didn’t Watch: I’m not going to pretend I watched the entirety of this game, but I flipped between Oregon-Utah and UC-Irvine and UC-Santa Barbara last night and boy can Alan Williams from Santa Barbara play. Coming into the game averaging 16.9 points and 11.8 rebounds, the senior had his hands full, tasked with going up against mammoth big man Mamadou Ndiaye, who stands at 7’6″. Williams was the emotional leader of the Gauchos, though, pouring in 24 points, grabbing 15 rebounds, and narrowly winning the game at the buzzer at the end of regulation.

Unfortunately, near the start of overtime, Williams aggravated a shoulder injury that knocked him out of the game momentarily. In his nearly two-minute absence, the Anteaters went on a 7-0 run and essentially ended the game, a tough way for the senior to go out.

“Did You Even Want To Win” Award?: I referenced it earlier, but the ending of regulation by the LSU Tigers was comical, to say the least. Here’s a run-down of the final few possessions:

With just under a minute left, LSU’s Tim Quarterman fouls Harrell on a three-point attempt with his team up four points. Harrell makes all three free-throws
Coming out of a time-out with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock, LSU looks like a team who had no idea there was 10 seconds left on the shot clock and don’t even attempt a shot, turning the ball over to Auburn.
After dodging an initial bullet and hitting two free-throws to go up three, Auburn is in-bounding the ball six seconds remaining. For reasons unclear to anyone, Cinmeon Bowers, a 48% free-throw shooter, is in-bounded the ball and LSU DOESN’T FOUL! Not only that, they allow Harrell an open look that he knocks down to force overtime.

“Wanna Get Away” Southwest Airlines Award: Another moment I referenced earlier was the ending of the Oklahoma-Iowa State game. With 9.7 seconds left, the Sooners trailed by two. Jordan Woodard dribbled into the lane, stopped, and found a WIDE OPEN Ryan Spangler under the rim for the game-tying basket with just a couple seconds left. Except he blew the lay-up, OU couldn’t corral the rebound, and Iowa State escaped for it’s second game in a row.

Now, let’s look ahead to today/tonight’s action with the top 8 games. Again, all games are Eastern time.

8. UC-Irvine vs. Hawaii, 11:30 PM, ESPN2

Again, I haven’t watched any of Hawaii this year and only ~10 minutes of UC-Irvine. What I know is that, with a win, UC-Irvine are dancing and, more importantly, Ndiaye is dancing. All I know is, there is nothing I want more in the NCAA Tournament than seeing UC-Irvine as a 15-seed going up against the 2-seed Duke Blue Devils and watch Okafor vs. Ndiaye for 40 minutes.

Winner: UC-Irvine (please give this to us, basketball Gods)

7. Kentucky vs. Auburn, 1:00 PM, ESPN

Auburn’s Cinderella run is by far the most impressive we’ve had in any “power” conference tournament this year. Their reward for winning three games in three days as a 13-seed? Only facing arguably the greatest college basketball team of all-time. Good luck, Bruce Pearl!

Winner: Kentucky

6. Tulsa vs. UConn, 5:00 PM, ESPN2

The Huskies are doing their damndest to have a chance to defend their national title. To do so, they’ll need to win the conference tournament, and Ryan Boatright is doing his best Kemba Walker impersonation. His buzzer-beater on Friday downed Cincinnati, and now they get a Tulsa team on the bubble and a team UConn beat by 25 points in their last meeting.

Winner: UConn

5. Davidson vs. VCU, 1:30 PM, CBS Sports

Even without star guard Briante Weber, Shaka Smart has VCU positioned for the tournament yet again. Currently projected a 10-seed in the tournament, the Rams could improve their seed position with a conference tournament victory. In their way is the top-seeded Dayton Flyers, who throttled the Rams in their last match-up by 27 points. That won’t happen again.

Winner: VCU

4. Villanova vs. Xavier, 8:00 PM, Fox Sports 1

Since our Big East “expert” likes to compare me to Stephanie McMahon, I thought I’d share an interesting comment he had prior to last night’s Big East games.

"The Big East tournament has been awful. No upsets, No drama, No bubble teams."

Well what he didn’t account for was the Law of Gus, with Gus Johnson calling the semi-finals last night. First, Villanova narrowly escaped the upset bid of Providence, then Xavier opened up a huge lead on Georgetown only to see the Hoyas come flying back before running out of steam late.

Yeah, no drama.

Tonight is the culmination. And with the Law of Gus in full effect, I’m predicting the improbable.

Winner: Xavier

3. Oregon vs. Arizona, 11:00 PM, ESPN

The UCLA Bruins gave Arizona all they could handle, but some big defensive stops from Rondae-Hollis Jefferson and a dagger three-pointer from Stanley Johnson was enough. Tonight, they’ll get another tough test against an up-tempo offense and Young. However, this is Arizona’s trophy to lose.

Winner: Arizona

2. Notre Dame vs. North Carolina, 8:30 PM, ESPN

Raise your hand if you had UNC and the Fighting Irish in the conference tournament game? No. You’re lying. But the fact is, both of these teams played extraordinarily yesterday and earned the right to play in this game. It won’t be the glitz and the glamour of a Duke-Virginia or Duke-UNC match-up, but it’ll be just as fun to watch Jerian Grant against Marcus Paige.

Winner: UNC

1. Kansas vs. Iowa State, 6:00 PM, ESPN

First, a standing applause to ESPN, who won’t force viewers to switch between multiple stations to catch last-minute drama. Starting with this game, you can sit down and watch three straight conference tournament finals. I picked against both of these teams yesterday, which guarantees that whoever I pick today will definitely be the loser.

Winner: Kansas

Next: Texas Southern Earns Bizarre NCAA Tournament Auto Bid

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