NCAA Basketball: UNC’s title hopes, to-do list for bubble teams and more weekly takeaways

8) Mid-majors to watch this week

This week is conference tournament week and you’ll undoubtedly be watching a significant amount of the power conferences (as well you should).

However, this week is also great because of the random conference tournament championship games between two teams you may not know anything about that will be taking place. Belmont and Murray State was a ton of fun on Saturday night, so which similar games should you be paying attention to this week?

There are two quality ones today in the Big South and A-Sun. Radford’s defense can make them dangerous in the Big Dance if they can get past Gardner-Webb in the Big South, while whoever wins the A-Sun between Lipscomb and Liberty could make some noise (Lipscomb is the more likely of the two to do so).

I mentioned the SoCon last week and that’s worth watching because of Wofford/Furman/UNC-Greensboro. The CAA is worth your time, too. Hofstra has a legitimate star in Justin Wright-Foreman and could face a tough test in Charleston, who is hosting the tournament. That could make for some drama.

There will also likely be some drama in Conference USA. Old Dominion, who has a win over Syracuse on their resume, was dominant during the regular season but Western Kentucky might be the most talented team in the conference and Marshall still has Jon Elmore, who led the Thundering Herd to a win over Wichita State in last year’s tournament.

Then there’s the A-10. I’d recommend you watch to see how good you think VCU is (hint: they’re really good and might make the Sweet 16) but also for Davidson and Dayton, both of whom are on the bubble.

If you want to look smart when you fill out your bracket next week, pay attention to these tournaments. It’s that time of the year, ladies and gentlemen!