No more second chances. Championship Week is a team's final chance to impress the NCAA tournament selection committee or avoid the process by winning its conference tournament. Let's take a look at which teams are already in the NCAA tournament, and which teams need to make a statement to get in. Wake Forrest's Demon Deacons clinched the regular season ACC title last week, giving the school their first outright regular season conference title since 1962. As it stands now, No. 9 Wake Forrest, the No. 12 Duke Blue Devils, and the No. 15 Maryland Terrapins are all virtual locks for the NCAA Tournament. The aspect of this tournament to watch is the performance of the North Carolina State Wolfpack (16-11). At 9-7 in the ACC, there is some serious distance between NC. State and the fifth place team, but they have key losses struggling teams such as the UMass Minutemen and the Temple Owls. They are also just 1-5 against top 25 teams. With a RPI ranking of 60, the Wolfpack had better win at least one game this weekend. Besides the four top teams, no other team has a chance of getting in, outside of winning the ACC Tournament.
It will again be a big year for the Big East as the conference looks to get either five or six teams into the Big Dance. Five teams in the conference, barring complete collapses in the Big East Tournament, are good bets to get in: the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Syracuse Orangemen, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the UConn Huskies, and the Boston College Eagles.
Seton Hall's Pirates are really the only other team with the possibility of receiving an at large bid. Sitting at 16-11, "the Hall" at one point won nine straight games including victories over No. 5 Pittsburgh and No. 19 Notre Dame, and finished 10-6 in the Big East. With losses in the last two regular season games, the Pirates' postseason aspirations would definitely be helped by two wins at Madison Square Garden.
In the Big Ten, the Wisconsin Badgers clinched their first outright regular season title in over 50 years last week. (Last year they had a share of the conference title.) Wisconsin, along with the Illinois Fighting Illini (20-6), the Purdue Boilermakers (18-9), and the Michigan State Spartans (18-11) look to have very good tournament chances. Last season's national runner up Indiana Hoosiers (18-11) may have to reach the Big Ten title game to make up for an inexplicable 74-66 loss to a 7-20 Penn State Nittany Lions' squad.
After a year plagued by disappointments and underachieving, including a horrible 4-6 finish and a mediocre 8-8 conference record, the Hoosiers must come up with a great performance in this weekend's Big Ten Tournament. Otherwise, this team will be getting no love on selection Sunday.
The Michigan Wolverines were one of the powers in the conference this year, but because of a self-imposed ban, they are not allowed entrance into either the NCAA or NIT Tournaments. Look for them to wreck some havoc this week as they try and ruin the postseason dreams of its Big Ten foes.
Without a doubt, the midwestern schools of the Big 12 have been the most dominant conference in the nation all year. From top to bottom, the Big 12 has arguably the best talent in the nation. With three teams ranked in the top-6, there is certainly some good competition at the top. The No. 4 Kansas Jayhawks sealed up the regular season title on Sunday with a 79-74 win over the Missouri Tigers. Kansas, along with the No. 3 Texas Longhorns and the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners are all fighting for number one seeds in the Midwestern Region of the NCAA Tournament.
The conference looks to have a firm grip on six invitations, with the other three going to Missouri, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, and the Colorado Buffaloes. Look for the top three teams to put it all on the line to gain one or even two of the coveted number one seeds.
The Pac-10 has been the home of the nation's number team for the majority of the NCAA season. Except for a few weeks near the start of the season, the Arizona Wildcats have been on top of the polls and last week got a little closer to its ultimate goal of capturing the Pac-10 regular season title. They are primed for a number one seed in the Western Region, and look to be joined by the California Golden Bears, the Stanford Cardinal, the Arizona State Sun Devils, and possibly the Oregon Ducks. With a 20-9 record, including a 5-5 finish, the Ducks will need at least one win in the Pac-10 tournament to be able to get back to last year's elite-8 position. They are the key team to watch in this tournament.
After a tumultuous off-season, in which multiple players transferred from the school, the Kentucky Wildcats dominated the SEC. They ripped through its conference schedule with a perfect 16-0 record, recording the regular season conference title and a rise to No. 2 in the national polls. The No. 7 Florida Gators, who were once ranked number one in the nation, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs are just playing for seeding, while there are several teams in the middle of the conference standings still fighting to get into the tournament.
These teams include the LSU Tigers (19-9), the Auburn Tigers (19-10), the Alabama Crimson Tide (17-10), and the Tennessee Vols (17-10) who all must put forth great showings to get a ticket to the dance. The Georgia Bulldogs have been dropped from the SEC's radar, as school officials fired head coach Jim Harrick and removed the team from the SEC and NCAA tournaments on Sunday. This may open up an at large bid for another major conference team.
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