Busting Brackets Podcast: Big Ten, Big 12 and early conference tourney talk

Conference tournaments are set to start in the next week. Which ones intrigue the Busting Brackets Podcast hosts the most?

There were plenty of notable defeats in the past week, including Duke’s loss to Wake Forest along with San Diego State falling to UNLV. These are teams with high ceilings but have shown some level of weakness lately. What do Busting Brackets Podcast hosts Brian and Connor think about these top-tier teams and what do they have to do in order to be Final Four viable?

The conference tournaments start up next week, with the Mountain West and WCC events the most notable in the first week. The guys talk about two teams on the bubble (Utah State and Saint Mary’s) and what they have to do in order to be dancing in March. And is it possible that four teams could get bids from the WCC?

While they don’t have top seeds in their conference, the Missouri Valley and Southern Conference also have intriguing tournament storylines. Northern Iowa (MVC) and East Tennessee State (SoCon) are teams right on the bubble and may have to win their tournaments in order to get into the NCAA Tournament. The guys preview those, along with the other teams to watch out for in the smaller conference tournaments. FYI, lookout for a potential clash of heavyweights in the ASUN finals.

Contributor Anthony Brown joins the guys to talk about Big Ten Basketball. With the NCAA Tournament fast approaching, it’s time to see which of the teams are Final Four potential. Between Michigan State, Maryland, Iowa and others, which at the top are most capable of a big run? Another difficult discussion that’ll be had is the Big Ten Coach of the Year Award, with many quality candidates this year.

The Big 12 is brought up next, with Kansas and Baylor being the season-long heavyweights. Are we headed towards round 3 between those teams in the conference tournament, or can someone else crash the party? Texas is one of the hopefuls who could make a run and they might need to in order to save head coach Shaka Smart’s job. The Jayhawks and Bears certainly aren’t making any coaching changes but which of them do the guys think is the best team in the country this season?

Thanks for tuning into this week’s Busting Brackets Podcast episode and lookout for the next edition, as the remainder of the conference tournaments gets previewed.