NCAA Basketball: Picking winner of each conference tournament for 2022-23 season
By Bryan Mauro
Big Ten
Dates: March 8th-12th
United Center
Top Seed: Purdue Boilermakers
Winner: Indiana Hoosiers
There was a time when it looked like Purdue was going to run away and hide in the Big Ten and it would be a battle for second place. As the season came to a close the Boilermakers have shown some chinks in the armor and maybe are not be the team that we all thought they were. Indiana has beaten them twice this year and over the last two weeks leading up to Championship Week the Hoosiers looked like the most complete team in the league.
They have arguably the most dominant player in the league in Trayce Jackson-Davis. The big man gives new meaning to taking over a game and when he gets going he can have 30 points and 20 rebounds with relative ease. The other player that has stepped his game up is freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino. Hood-Schifino plays the off-guard for Indiana but he is a guy who they can play anywhere. He is a great defender to go along with his elite offensive skill set. The guard gives Indiana an extra level when he is playing well. The Hoosiers have some guys who are automatic from deep that can make a shot at any point in time in the game.
It’s hard to believe that a program as decorated as the Hoosiers has never won a Big Ten tournament title. This is finally the year Indiana is coming out ready to prove they earned their top 16 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Sleeper: Nebraska Cornhuskers
The Big Ten has been crazy this year and it has been a battle for the 2-12 spots in the standings. One team, in particular, has stood out the entire month of February. Nebraska is that team as they got extremely hot at the end of the season to work their way into the postseason conversation. They will likely need to win the Big Ten tournament to get into the NCAA tournament but they are likely going to play in the NIT and just typing that considering that in four years’ time, head coach Fred Hoiberg has 60 losses in the conference and as of late January his prospects for remaining the coach at Nebraska looked bleak.
Enter February and Keisei Tominaga started going to get white hot as he was making everything he put up over a six-game stretch. Coach Hoiberg also had to insert his son Sam into the lineup and since Hoiberg has been a regular in the Nebraska lineup good things have happened. The younger Hoiberg has a knack for making a huge play when the Huskers need it the most.
The Huskers are not going to win any beauty contests for how they play basketball, but they play great team defense and rely on their two grad transfers in Sam Hoiberg and Derrick Walker to carry the load in addition to Tominaga. Nebraska is on fire right now and playing will a ton of confidence that they do have enough to make a little run in March.
Conference USA
Dates: March 8th-11th
Ford Center at the Star
Top Seed: Florida Atlantic Owls
Winner: Florida Atlantic Owls
Give it up for Florida Atlantic this season. Heading into the year everyone knew they had the potential to be great and win the Conference USA. I don’t think anyone other than head coach Dusty May and the Owls players knew they would have their best season ever, and also one of the best seasons in Conference USA history. The Owls are likely an NCAA tournament lock at this point but you never know exactly what can happen.
Florida Atlantic loves to shoot the three as they shoot almost 30 a game. They are also a fantastic rebounding team and when the ball does go inside they use their 7’1” center to get easy looks at the basket. Johnell Davis and Alijah Martin are the players who are going to get the recognition for the Owls but they play as a team. No one for Florida Atlantic gets more than 10 shots per game, they share the ball so well and they have fantastic team chemistry.
Sounds like something you could say for every good team right? Sure, but not all of those teams are scoring 80 points per game. FAU has only lost three games all season and two of them are in conference. The Owls are a team that is primed for a Sweet 16, but first, they need to add some more hardware with a Conference USA tournament championship.
Sleeper: Charlotte 49ers
Charlotte is on pace for one of their best seasons in a long time and if they do not win the Conference USA tournament they are going to find themselves in a postseason tournament. 49er fans were getting restless at the start of February as it appeared that Charlotte was going to waste their tremendous start to the season and limp to the finish. Something happened though and Charlotte was able to figure it out and reeled off a bunch of wins at the end of the year outside of FAU the hottest team in the league at the start of the conference tournaments.
Head coach Ron Sanchez has built his team on defense and uses an efficient ball-control offense to score points. Charlotte plays at one of the slowest paces in the entire country on both ends of the floor. They are never in a hurry and if you like to run they are going to slow you down. The 49ers are extremely comfortable winning games that end up in the 40’s and 50’s. Charlotte hardly ever turns the ball over and doesn’t force too many turnovers but they make teams work for every shot they get and their contrasting style is so hard to prepare for.