NCAA Basketball: 3 teams in need of a big conference tourney run

Without a good trip to their conference tournaments, these three teams will find themselves on the outside looking in come the NCAA Tournament.

Conference tournaments, while controversial, can provide classic moments for teams clinching NCAA Tournament automatic bids. For the small schools from mid-majors, particularly, these become the moments the players and students never forget.

For big conference teams, however, there is not much to be gained during the conference tournaments. Unless a program goes from conference laughingstock to tournament champion, the only prize for wins and losses is a general hit to seeding as the committee analyzes your latest losses.

After all, every team but one in every conference tournament is bound to be saddled with another loss.

In the big conference tournaments, all eyes will be on the bubble teams. Those that lose early in their conference tournaments can expect an invitation to the NIT in the succeeding days. Those that make a run through their conference tournaments, however, may just be able to boost their NCAA Tournament resume enough for inclusion.

The Big Ten Tournament moved up a week this year, so they won’t be included in this list. That being said, the teams that needed a particularly strong run through the Big Ten Tournament were the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Penn State Nittany Lions. As of this writing, Nebraska fell in the quarterfinals, while Penn State was minutes away from tip-off in their quarterfinal.

Here are the three major conference teams that need to make a big run through their league tournament next week.