NCAA Basketball: Picking winner of each conference tournament for 2022-23 season
By Bryan Mauro
America East
Dates: March 4th, March 7th, and March 11th
Campus Sites
Top Seed: Vermont Catamounts
Winner: Lowell River Hawks
Don’t be alarmed by not seeing the regular season champion Vermont Catamounts as the winner. This has been a vulnerable Vermont team all year and Lowell has been the most consistent team in the league outside of the Catamounts all season. The River Hawks are the team that pushed Vermont at the top of the standings this year and finally was able to provide some competition at the top. River Hawk fans have enjoyed this year as Lowell has one of the top offenses in the country.
They do a lot of things very well. They are an elite rebounding team, shoot the ball well from deep, and make most of their shots from inside the arc. All of that has led to a team who has 21 wins and is on the doorstep of its first NCAA tournament appearance. The other thing about the River Hawks is they have a ton of experience. They returned over 70% of their roster from a season ago. I picked the River Hawks as a sleeper in the America East last year. That led into this year, where I figured Lowell would be better, but I didn’t know how much better.
The River Hawks have been the best team in the league all season and were good enough to get the second seed in the conference tournament. It also helps that Lowell split the games with Vermont and is going to get to play at home until the finals. Everette Hammond has been playing great basketball over the last few weeks to close out the season. The River Hawks should get their first championship as a member of Division 1 this season.
Sleeper: New Hampshire Wildcats
It is never a bad thing when a team dominates a conference for so long. That creates competition and eventually the rest of the teams in the conference close the gap considerably. That is what happened this year in the America East. The level of competition has risen and the gap between Vermont and the rest of the league has shrunk. New Hampshire is one of those teams who has benefitted from better talent over the last few seasons. It was not too long ago that New Hampshire was one of the worst teams in the America East and now they are one of many who have drastically improved and have found themselves in the middle of the pack over the last few seasons.
New Hampshire has shown well this year with a virtually new team. They are undersized but extremely athletic. Clarence O. Daniels Jr. has been named as the Busting Brackets mid-major player of the week once this season and has been nominated a handful of other times. He leads a team full of physical players who are going to play a close game every night. The Wildcats have as good of a chance as anyone to win this league especially if their opponents are not up for a battle.
Big Sky
Dates: March 4th-8th
Idaho Central Arena
Top Seed: Eastern Washington Eagles
Winner: Eastern Washington Eagles
The Eagles enter championship week fresh off an 18-game winning streak. They just lost on February 26th but before that, they did not lose a game after December 13th against Texas Tech. There is a level of domination in the Big Sky that the Eagles have displayed this year that may not be replicated within that conference ever. The Eagles have destroyed the league on the offensive end. They lead in points scored, assists, and are shooting 63% from two and 38% from deep. They are impossible to play defense against and it is no wonder they have blown out most of their Big Sky foes.
This league is a little different than the other mid-major conference with an undefeated winner. Unlike the Summit League, there is some legitimate competition at the top which is not going to make the Eagles run to the NCAA tournament easily. No conference tournament is ever easy but Eastern Washington is likely going to find itself in a tough battle against Montana State for the title. Eastern Washington is still a tough matchup for everyone because the ball never stays in one spot and the Eagles’ offense thrives on finding the open man with ball movement and kick outs. If they are making their threes and getting easy looks at the rim they will beat everyone they play and could spell disaster for a power conference school. Remember the last time the Eagles made the tournament they put a big scare into Kansas until finally losing late.
Sleeper: Sacramento State Hornets
This is another conference that no one other than the top two seeds is likely going to win but if a perfect storm happens Sacramento State does have the pieces to make a deeper run and ruin some seasons. The Hornets don’t do much on offense, they play slow, and they hang their hat on the frustrating defense they play. Head Coach David Patrick is a genius when it comes to writing up defensive schemes to frustrate his opponents. The Hornets will limit the shots you get from outside the arc and try and filter everything inside to the painted area where they have a big man in Callum McRae who loves to force you into tough shots at the rim.
Sacramento State is a great rebounding team and on offense, they play a slow-it-down ball control style that leads to crisp passes and pretty good looks at the basket. If the Hornets can catch a team on an off night and they start making threes, they will be in a game with anyone. Conference tournaments are weird, and anything can happen, but this would be a huge upset.