NCAA Basketball: Predicted Winners of last 17 Conference Tournaments of 2023-24
By Bryan Mauro
Big East
Dates: March 13th-March 16th
Location: Madison Square Garden in New York, NY
Top Seed: Connecticut Huskies
Winner: Connecticut Huskies
I am trying hard to find someone other than the Huskies to potentially win this league but there are not any teams that I think have a reasonable shot to win this league. UConn is deep and has the best roster in the league and the games they have lost in the conference have taken a herculean effort to beat them. Tristan Newton and Cam Spencer make up the best duo of guards in the league and when they throw it in to big man Donovan Clingan good things always happen.
UConn enters the conference tournament with a target on their back. Last year they entered as the hunter and this year they are the hunted. They head into the conference as a sure-fire top seed in the NCAA tournament but with the league Freshman of the year and likely League Player of the Year they likely will run the table. Will this be the precursor to another championship for the Huskies and coach Dan Hurley?
Sleeper: St. John’s Red Storm
Don’t think for one second that the home team is going to be out of this tournament. Head coach Rick Pitino has made the Red Storm relevant again quickly. St. John’s is on track to make the NCAA tournament in their new coach’s first season and that has the Red Storm fans fully engaged again. When they are engaged and are showing up to show their support New York is rocking. The Garden is already an arena that St. John’s will play in during the regular season and this is going to be a home court advantage for them. Jordan Dingle, Joel Soriano, and Daniss Jenkins are all going to make sure the crowd stays engaged. St. John’s has the talent to just make sure they won’t need the at large and with this event at home anything can happen.