Busting Brackets
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NCAA Basketball: Picking winner of each conference tournament for 2022-23 season

By Bryan Mauro

Xavier Musketeers guard Souley Boum (0) and Xavier Musketeers guard Colby Jones (3) walk back to the bench during a timeout in the second half of a college basketball game between the Villanova Wildcats and the Xavier Musketeers, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, at Cintas Center in Cincinnati. The Villanova Wildcats won, 64-63.Villanova Wildcats At Xavier Musketeers Feb 21 0152
Xavier Musketeers guard Souley Boum (0) and Xavier Musketeers guard Colby Jones (3) walk back to the bench during a timeout in the second half of a college basketball game between the Villanova Wildcats and the Xavier Musketeers, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, at Cintas Center in Cincinnati. The Villanova Wildcats won, 64-63.Villanova Wildcats At Xavier Musketeers Feb 21 0152 /
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NCAA Basketball
NCAA Basketball Nicholls State Colonels guard Caleb Huffman Chris Jones-USA TODAY Sports /

Southland

Dates: March 5th-8th

Legacy Center

Top Seed: Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders

Winner: Nicholls State Colonels

The Southland is an extremely competitive league. Nationally it is not very competitive and is going to be responsible for a team who goes to one of the first 4 as a 16 seed. The teams all being fairly equal usually makes for a very interesting tournament that usually sees a ton of chaos. The top seed has not won the tournament since the 2016 season and I doubt that happens this year. Nicholls State was the top seed in the tournament the last two seasons and could not get the job done, this year they enter outside of the top three seeds and are going to be motivated to finally make the NCAA tournament.

This is the one that I am least confident about because Nicholls has not been their normal dominant self in the Southland this season. They do still have a prolific offense but the defense for the Colonels have not been as good this season. They shoot the ball well from deep and have one of the best players in the Southland in Caleb Huffman. This tournament is chaotic every year and I am going to embrace that chaos.

Sleeper: New Orleans Privateers

The Privateers have a real problem on the defensive end of the floor. They do have one of the most dynamic players in the country in point guard Jordan Johnson. Johnson and the rest of his Privateer teammates love to play games that turn into a track meet, that tends to be what happens when you don’t defend particularly well. New Orleans is one of the best three point shooting teams in the country and they do a ton of damage from beyond the arc by taking some of the fewest attempts from deep in the country.

Johnson and his backcourt mate Khaleb Wilson-Rouse account for almost 12 of the 17 threes the Privateers take every game. They prefer to get into the paint for the high percentage look and get to the foul line. Can the defense hold up for 4 games?  It will be something to watch.

ACC

Dates: March 7th-11th

Greensboro Coliseum

Top Seed: Pittsburgh Panthers

Winner: Pittsburgh Panthers

The ACC has been a very weird conference all year, especially with teams like Pitt and Clemson finishing in the top half of the league. Head coach Jeff Capel finally has Pitt back to the top of the league and has now earned the confidence that the Athletic Department at Pittsburgh kept showing in him. The Panthers were built from the transfer portal and supplemented with athletic big men who each have a different skill set. The Panthers are a great story this year because it looked like it was going to be the same old story for the Panthers as they started out the year 1-3 and looked bad doing it, but then they reeled off 10 of their next 11 to completely flip the season around. In that stretch, they beat Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, and Northwestern. Those are all turning out to be great wins.

The Panthers have stars in Blake Hinson and Jamarius Burton don’t do anything flashy, they are just great basketball players who go out and get you 16 a night. Pitt has already beaten the majority of the power teams in the ACC and they have a ton of confidence knowing they can go to Greensboro and come out victorious. Even though they are already a tournament lock, there will not be a bid stolen here.

Sleeper: North Carolina Tar Heels

I know that there is still a question on if the committee will really leave out the Tar Heels. The defending runner up’s better get it in gear then so they don’t have to leave everything to chance. Honestly, the only reason that a team like North Carolina is still on the bubble is because of their name and the fact they were the National Runners-Up a season ago. Let’s not sugar coat it the Tar Heels are the ultimate sleeper because they have a roster that we all deemed good enough to be the preseason number 1 team in the country, the roster has just not performed as well as it did last year.

If any team in the country has the ability to pull a Kemba Walker and UConn style run in the NCAA tournament this would be the one. North Carolina still has Armando Bacot, Caleb Love, and RJ Davis. They still have a ton of talent on the roster and they are still dangerous. Do not be surprised at all if the Tar Heels make a deep run in Greensboro and find themselves on the right side of the bubble come Selection Sunday.

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