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NCAA Basketball: Unlikeliest Conference Tournament runs of the Decade

By Joey Loose

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 12: The Connecticut Huskies celebrate with their trophy after defeating the Louisville Cardinals during the championship of the 2011 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament presented by American Eagle Outfitters at Madison Square Garden on March 12, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 12: The Connecticut Huskies celebrate with their trophy after defeating the Louisville Cardinals during the championship of the 2011 Big East Men's Basketball Tournament presented by American Eagle Outfitters at Madison Square Garden on March 12, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 04: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates after defeating the Purdue Boilermakers 75-66 during the championship game of the Big 10 Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 4, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 04: Head coach John Beilein of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates after defeating the Purdue Boilermakers 75-66 during the championship game of the Big 10 Basketball Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 4, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

Conference tournament season is near and many teams are about to have their seasons ended and bubbles burst. Let’s take a look at some of the unlikeliest teams to win their conference tournaments and nab the auto-bid to March Madness.

Every March we are treated to the NCAA Tournament, which may just be the most exciting postseason tournament in all of sports. 68 teams head to neutral sites and some of the greatest programs in the nation fight for the national championship and the chance for glory. More than half of the tournament field are great, big-name programs, but that’s not the whole story.

In the two weeks prior to the Tournament, the 32 conferences each host their own tournaments, with the winners receiving automatic bids to the NCAA’s. For power conferences like the Big Ten and ACC, the winners would already have received at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. What makes conference tournament season interesting is seeing the mid-majors.

These tournaments are winner-take-all in leagues where none of the teams will receive at-large bids. Regardless of whatever happened in the regular season, whoever gets hot and plays the best in the conference tournament gets to play in the NCAA Tournament. Even in power conferences, there have been some incredible performances in these tournaments to secure the automatic bid.

The top team or teams in each conference are expected to win, but there are surprises every single year. The 1-seed in each conference tournament is guaranteed an automatic bid to the NIT if they are upset, but everyone wants to be in the NCAA Tournament. Even if that 1-seed has dominated the competition during conference play, they can be felled by one bad shooting night and have their entire season unraveled.

We’re going to look at some of those incredible and unexpected conference tournament runs, but we won’t limit our focus. There have been some amazing runs in both power and single-bid conferences. Each of these teams will be presented with their records at the end of regular season play, though of course they had each picked up three of four more victories before NCAA Tournament play. In the last ten years, we’ve seen all kinds of teams get hot in March, so let’s take a closer look at some of the very best unexpected runs.

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