March Madness: Top takeaways from 2019 NCAA Tournament

By Brian Rauf | Apr 9, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - APRIL 08: De'Andre Hunter #12 of the Virginia Cavaliers celebrates his three point basket basket late in the second half against the Texas Tech Red Raiders during the 2019 NCAA men's Final Four National Championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on April 08, 2019 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /

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TULSA, OKLAHOMA – MARCH 22: Talen Horton-Tucker #11 of the Iowa State Cyclones drives to the basket against C.J. Jackson #3 of the Iowa State Cyclones during the first half in the first round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at BOK Center on March 22, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

3) Conference tournament titles aren’t indicative of NCAA Tournament success

Let’s look at the Big 12, shall we?

Texas Tech was upset by West Virginia in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament – we know what happened with them.

Iowa State made the Cinderella run to win the conference tournament. We know what happened with them, too – they were upset by Ohio State in the first round.

Cincinnati made a similar run through the American Tournament, ousting Houston to claim that championship and generate buzz about their potential in the Big Dance. Instead, they were also upset in the first round.

Villanova didn’t make it out of the first weekend, either.

On the flip side, Auburn used their SEC Tournament run to get hot and propel them to the Elite Eight, while Oregon used their Pac-12 run to make the Sweet 16.

What’s the correlation? There isn’t any. So stop thinking that a conference tournament run automatically means that a team is poised to continue their run in the NCAA tournament. They could, but they’re just as likely to fall flat on their face.

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