NCAA Basketball: 3 teams to watch in first week of 2023 conference tournaments

March has finally arrived, the best month of the year for NCAA basketball fans (realistically, for everyone, since everyone becomes a college basketball expert this time of year). Most focus their energy on the NCAA Tournament, but there are two weeks of conference tournaments leading into the Big Dance.

Most of the prominent programs play their single-elimination conference tournament games during the second week, tacking on a couple of resume-building or crushing results for the first week. But the first week is arguably more important, since many teams’ only chances of making the NCAA Tournament are winning their league tournament.

Since most of the attention has been focused on the likes of Kentucky and North Carolina this season, plenty of the teams competing for their lives this week have flown under the radar. We’ve come up with three teams to keep an eye on this week.

These are three teams you should watch during the first week of conference tournaments, which are already underway.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the five best teams of the first week, or the five teams most likely to win their conference tournaments. While the top seeds certainly don’t always win their league’s last hurrah for the year, they are often the favorite. There’s not much mystery there.

Instead, these are teams that bring something interesting to the table. Whether it’s an elite offense or a defense that doesn’t let opponents get by, a star player, or just a great story to track, these teams will give you something to talk about this week.