Final Predictions for the Champions of Every 2024 MCBB Conference Tournament

Four of the 32 automatic tickets for the 2024 men's NCAA tournament have already been punched, but this is where Championship "Week" really starts cooking with gas.

Say goodbye to the super confusing portion of the season where you bounce from one game to the next, not entirely sure whether it's a tournament game or a regular-season game.

It's nothing but-single elimination chaos the rest of the way.

So, who wins the other 28 tournaments yet to be decided?

I'll do my best to let you know, but I was wrong about two of the four completed tournaments and my pick already lost in two of the other tournaments currently underway. There's a reason the winner of "The Jerome" never comes even remotely close to going 32-for-32.

We'll save the six leagues guaranteed to send at least three teams to the dance for the end, but let's start out with a few words on the four teams officially in the NCAA tournament before building up to those free-for-all extravaganzas.

Ohio Valley: Morehead State Eagles—The Eagles went through a rough patch in mid-February, losing three games in the span of five days while paving the way for Little Rock to claim the No. 1 seed in this tournament. But Morehead was always the favorite, riding OVC POY Riley Minix to the first official ticket punched for the dance. Minix had 72 points and 25 rebounds between the three wins.

Big South: Longwood Lancers—After starting out 14-11 with nary a victory over a KenPom top-200 foe, Longwood twice beat Winthrop, twice beat UNC-Asheville and twice beat High Point in the span of a month on its shocking run to the dance. Walyn Napper averaged 15 points, seven assists, six rebounds and two steals during the Big South tourney.

Atlantic Sun: Stetson Hatters—Jalen Blackmon had 13 games with at least 25 points during the regular season, but he saved his best for when it mattered most, taking over in the second half of ASUN championship game against Austin Peay for a career-high 43 points. The Hatters will likely be a No. 16 seed, but imagine if he brings that magic to the dance.

Missouri Valley: Drake Bulldogs—The ideal scenario for the two-bid Valley dream, Arch Madness gave us No. 1 Indiana State vs. No. 2 Drake with the Bulldogs winning by a relatively narrow margin. Tucker DeVries and Co. were unconscious from three-point range, shooting 11-for-18 while leading by as many as 18 points in the second half. But the Sycamores battled back in what was a title game for the ages. Here's hoping the selection committee finds room for Robbie Avila and the Trees in the at-large picture.

America East: Vermont—It's hard to remember the last time Vermont wasn't the pick for this tournament, earning at least a share of eight straight AE regular-season titles. The Catamounts have lost one game since New Year's Day, with that lone misstep inexplicably coming against last-place NJIT in dramatic fashion. They should win this without much trouble, although Albany gave them a scare in the quarters.

CAA: Charleston—Any of the top four seeds absolutely could win this one, but only No. 1 seed Charleston came into it on a nine-game winning streak. The Cougars have hit their stride over the past month and would be a problematic No. 13/14 seed if they can secure this bid.

Horizon: Oakland—Save for 2021 when Cleveland State got the No. 1 seed on some convoluted tiebreaker, the last No. 1 seed to win the Horizon tourney was Valparaiso in 2015. But Oakland should be able to buck that trend with Nos. 2, 3 and 4 already eliminated in the quarterfinals. The Golden Grizzlies won 14 of their final 17 regular-season games and will lean on Trey Townsend to carry them.

NEC: Merrimack—The Warriors won this tournament last year, but were not yet eligible for the NCAA tournament. As such, the NEC's auto bid went to Fairleigh Dickinson instead. (How did they do in the dance? Anyone remember?) Now that Merrimack is playing for a spot in the field, though, they'll get it done again in Tuesday's championship matchup with Wagner.

Patriot: Colgate—Hope you still like toothpaste jokes, because Colgate is very likely going to be the Patriot League's representative for the fifth consecutive NCAA tournament. The Raiders won the conference by a six-game margin for the second straight year and should be able to win that championship game on Wednesday.

SoCon: Samford—Samford is the No. 1 seed and remains the clear favorite, but the Bulldogs haven't played all that well as of late, losing two of their final five regular-season games and just barely surviving one of the others. Feels more wide open than it did a couple of weeks ago. But we'll stick with Samford, as it's not like anyone else was surging down the stretch.

Summit: St. Thomas—The Tommies are ineligible for the NCAA tournament, but the Summit League decided to let the D-III transplants play in the conference tournament anyway. If they win it, No. 1 seed South Dakota State gets the automatic bid. And, yes, St. Thomas—the highest rated KenPom team in the league—absolutely could win this.

Sun Belt: James Madison—JMU has only had one particularly disappointing showing all season (losing at Southern Miss), and could be a little extra motivated from hearing nonstop for the past few weeks that their three-loss resume probably isn't good enough for an at-large bid. We were expecting a championship game showdown with Appalachian State, but the Mountaineers were upset by Arkansas State in the semifinals.

WCC: Gonzaga—Are we going to get a rubber match between Gonzaga and Saint Mary's? Please? If we do, the Zags are red hot, winners of eight in a row and 13 of their past 14. They have also owned this tournament, securing the WCC's auto bid in 10 of the last 11 years. And winning one more could get them up to a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the dance.

Big Sky: Weber State—Rolling with the No. 4 seed in the Big Sky, because betting against Dillon Jones seems like a bad idea right now. Weber's veteran leader is averaging 23.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists over his past 10 games, in which the Wildcats have gone 8-2, including a road win over No. 1 seed Eastern Washington.

Big West: UC Irvine—The Anteaters got clipped in the semifinals of last year's Big West tournament as the No. 1 seed, and they will be out for revenge this year. With UC San Diego ineligible for the postseason, UCI is clearly the best team in this field.

C-USA: Louisiana Tech—Sam Houston State swept LA Tech during the regular season, but they were both close games, suggesting very little separation between the clear top two teams in this league. And if Round No. 3 is another tight one, give us the team with arguably the three best players in the conference in Isaiah Crawford, Daniel Batcho and Tahlik Chavez.

Ivy League: Princeton—Getting the No. 1 seed in this four-team field is a massive advantage, as the semifinal matchup with 12-17 Brown is a whole lot easier than needing to deal with 22-6 Cornell or 20-9 Yale right away. And Princeton has that advantage. For what it's worth, this Tigers team is a good deal better than the one that made a surprise run to the Sweet 16 last year.

MAAC: Rider—This tournament usually runs through Iona, but the Gaels are having one of their worst seasons in a long time. So how about the Broncs of Rider in what should be a wide-open field? They haven't been to the dance since 1994, but they finished the regular season on a seven-game winning streak. Mervin James could take over.

MAC: Ohio—A month ago, this felt like Akron's tournament to lose. But the Zips really stumbled to the finish line, paving the way for Ohio to win this thing. The Bobcats have a dynamic point guard in Jaylin Hunter and one of just two players in the nation this season with at least 50 blocks and 50 made triples in AJ Clayton. And they've been fairly hot for the past six weeks.

MEAC: Norfolk State—Flip a coin between Norfolk State and NC Central. Both of their games during the regular season came right down to the wire, and they are on a theoretical collision course in the championship as the top two seeds. But let's go with the Spartans on a Jamarii Thomas game-winner.

Southland: McNeese State—Put it this way: If McNeese doesn't win this tournament, the Southland's chances of winning a game in the big dance drop to almost nil. Maybe Texas A&M-Corpus Christi could mess around and pull off a stunner, but Will Wade's Cowboys are the heavy favorites with a real chance to pull off a 13 over 4 or 12 over 5 upset.

SWAC: Texas Southern—The Tigers have won seven of the past nine completed SWAC tournaments, including last year as the No. 8 seed with a 7-11 league record. Even though they aren't the No. 1 seed this year, either, it would feel foolish to pick against them.

WAC: Grand Canyon—This one isn't nearly the "favorite or bust" proposition that the Southland is, as both Seattle and UT Arlington could be dangerous No. 15 seeds if they happen to secure this auto bid. But Grand Canyon is the cream of the crop, and the one that could crash the Sweet 16 as a No. 12 seed if it gets in. Fun wrinkle in this one, though: No. 2 seed Tarleton is ineligible for the NCAA tournament, but will be competing in the WAC tournament. So if it's GCU vs. Tarleton for the championship, the 'Lopes get the auto bid either way. Fair to wonder if they would even bother trying to win that game.

Atlantic 10: Loyola-Chicago—Richmond is the No. 1 seed, but Dayton is the only A-10 team with a particularly compelling case for an at-large bid. So if you're a fan of a bubble team, you are pulling hard for the Flyers in this tournament—with a championship game that won't end until about three hours before the Selection Show.

But Loyola-Chicago has become the team to beat.

The Ramblers did have a dud of a 15-point loss to St. Bonaventure two weeks ago, but they have won 17 of their past 20 contests, rallying from a disappointing 6-5 start to the year with some of the best defense the A-10 has to offer. Even with Dayton's star DaRon Holmes II doing his usual box score-filling thing, Loyola-Chicago was able to knock off the Flyers earlier this month and could do the same in this tournament.

American: UAB—If any conference tournament from a possible multi-bid league is going to go completely off the rails, it's this one, right?

Most of the bracketology focus for the AAC has been pinned on Florida Atlantic and, occasionally, Memphis. But this league has been a two-month-long grinder, with 13 games needing at least one overtime and 22 others decided by a single bucket.

It would be an awesome story if No. 1 seed South Florida wins it, but let's throw a dart at one of the two teams to beat USF in the past three months. Since figuring out what a force JUCO transfer Yaxel Lendeborg can be, the Blazers have been solid, beating each of USF, Memphis, FAU and North Texas at least once.

Pac-12: Arizona—I don't mean to suggest that the Pac-12 is quite as bad as either the A-10 or the AAC with this grouping, but it sure has been a disappointing final season for the major conference out west, with only two surefire NCAA tournament teams in Arizona and Washington State.

Despite a no show in Saturday night's loss at USC, the Wildcats have won 11 of their past 13 games and certainly should win this tournament. If so, they would keep themselves in the mix for the No. 1 seed in the West Region—and would keep a lot of bubble teams happy.

But who knows? We could be headed for a repeat of 2021, when Oregon State pulled off three consecutive stunners to steal a bid. Can't imagine it would actually be the last-place Beavers making that miracle run, but maybe UCLA or USC?

When: 8:30 p.m. ET Saturday, March 16, on ESPN

The Pick: Duke Blue Devils

Quick question for you: When do you think the most recent Duke-UNC ACC championship game was?

There were three consecutive semifinal showdowns from 2017-19, but the most recent time the loathed rivals met in the ACC title game—and the only time it has happened in the past two decades—was in 2011.

Just something to think about before you go penciling in that almost too obvious pick for the championship game pairing.

And if anyone is going to crash that party and maybe even win this tournament, it's probably Clemson, right?

The Tigers won at North Carolina in early February. They looked to be in good shape to win the home game against UNC until PJ Hall got into foul trouble. And they really should have won the controversial game at Duke. They've proven they can hang with the ACC's co-frontrunners.

Still, I do think we get a rare Duke-UNC championship game and that the Blue Devils emerge victorious from that third showdown.

It's not that I believe the Blue Devils are better than the Tar Heels. UNC trailed for all of 16 seconds in the process of sweeping the regular-season series, so that would be hard to argue. But it's an acknowledgement that Duke is the deeper team and the one more equipped to win three games in the span of about 56 hours.

That's nothing new, either. UNC had one of the shortest benches in the nation in each of the past two seasons and their offense came out super flat in losing their second game of the ACC tournament both years.

Duke also just generally takes this tournament more seriously, winning 13 dating back to 1999 compared to North Carolina's three.

But if another Duke-UNC matchup does come together, it should be an awesome game.

When: 6 p.m. ET Saturday, March 16, on ESPN

The Pick: Iowa State Cyclones

Imagine if WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble were on back-to-back weekends. That's about what it feels like getting the Big 12 tournament the week before the NCAA tournament begins.

If you have a strong feeling about who is going to win this one, though, you're only fooling yourself. Any of the nine Big 12 teams likely to make the NCAA tournament could mess around and win this gauntlet.

But here's why/how I've talked myself into Iowa State as the pick.

Fatigue is going to be a major factor here, which figures to benefit the teams that A) don't rely too heavily on three-pointers, B) prey on the mistakes of their opponents as opposed to leaning on their own mistake-free offense and C) have enough depth to survive.

Part A kind of eliminates both BYU and Texas Tech. Part B hurts the case of both Baylor and Oklahoma. Part C is bad news for Kansas, and to a lesser degree Houston, after it recently lost JoJo Tugler to a season-ending injury.

That leaves Iowa State, TCU and Texas on the board, and there's no real debate that Iowa State is the best of that trio.

Bonus factor for the Cyclones: You know damn well they heard all of the "gaming the NET" talk in recent weeks and are beyond fed up with people acting like they aren't any good just because they blew out a bunch of cream puffs in nonconference play. They would love to win this thing to shut everyone up.

Iowa State has also won four of the past nine Big 12 tournaments, although the most recent of those came in 2019.

When: 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday, March 16, on FOX

The Pick: Connecticut Huskies

Since the magical "five wins in five days" run under Kemba Walker back in 2011, Connecticut has won more national championships (2014, 2023) than it has won conference tournament titles (2016, while in the AAC).

But how could the Huskies not be the pick here?

The Big East has three clear Final Four contenders in Connecticut, Marquette and Creighton, and UConn will need to deal with a maximum of one of the other two in the championship game.

Tough to know what to expect from Marquette with Tyler Kolek's status up in the air after he missed the final three games of the regular season. And while it's foolish to bet against Creighton at home—where it has scored at least 85 points in seven consecutive games—the Bluejays are much more susceptible to an off night on the road—scoring 66 in a loss at MSG just a few weeks ago.

But Connecticut is a wagon, winning 18 of its past 19 games as simply the most complete team in the country.

Nothing is guaranteed, of course. The Huskies could immediately lose to Butler for all we know. However, the clear favorite to win the national championship is also the clear favorite to win the Big East tournament, even if it's something this program has not done in a while.

When: 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday, March 17, on CBS

The Pick: Ohio State Buckeyes

If there's one conference tournament that you can almost always rest assured will get at least a little weird, it's the Big Ten.

It's not usually quite as "No. 10 seed reaches the championship game" weird as it was last year, but a No. 5 seed or worse has won three of the past six B1G tournaments, and at least one No. 5 seed or worse has made the championship game in five of the past six tournies.

At any rate, there hasn't been a "chalky" No. 1 vs. No. 2 Big Ten title game since 2007, so maybe don't bank on a third Purdue-Illinois showdown.

And if we're getting weird, let's go ahead and get really weird.

Since replacing Chris Holtmann with Jake Diebler, Ohio State has been a completely different animal, beating Purdue, Michigan State and Nebraska while finishing the season on a high note with wins in five of its final six games.

This team always had the talent to be good—it beat Alabama on a neutral floor in November during a 12-2 start—and now it finally looks like they enjoy playing together again under a new coach.

All of a sudden, the Buckeyes have emerged as a "could become a legitimate at-large candidate with another big win or two in its conference tournament" type of team. But why stop there? The way they've been playing as of late, they could just erase all doubt by securing the auto bid.

When: 6 p.m. ET Saturday, March 16, on CBS

The Pick: UNLV Rebels

Get your popcorn ready for what may well be the most entertaining conference tournament in quite a few years.

Are any of the Mountain West teams a legitimate threat to repeat the run that San Diego State went on in last year's tournament? Debatable. In fact, it wouldn't take much to convince me that this 5-7 bid league will get completely shut out of the Sweet 16.

But the games that the top seven teams in this league have played against each other have been sensational more often than not, and it's a shame there's not some way for every game of this tournament to end at 1am on the East Coast, since staying up late to watch some random Nevada-Colorado State barn-burner has been a several-times-per-week tradition for the past few months.

For the most part, home-court advantage has been critical in any game pitting two of Boise State, Colorado State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, UNLV and Utah State against each other. The home team went 26-13 during the regular season, with seven of the road wins coming by either a one-possession margin or in overtime.

So the answer is obvious, isn't it?

UNLV is winning this tournament held at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Not only have the Rebels been red hot as of late (10-2 in their past 12 games), but they'll have home-court advantage throughout the tournament.

Granted, they've had that exact same advantage for the vast majority of MWC tournaments, and some lot of good it has done them lately. Since last making the championship game in 2013, they've gone 6-10 overall with all six wins coming against teams ranked well outside the KenPom top 100.

But those teams didn't have Dedan Thomas Jr.

That trend ends this year.

When: 1 p.m. ET Sunday, March 17, on ESPN

The Pick: Tennessee Volunteers

It sure would be something if Alabama or Auburn—after more than four months of basically refusing to pick up a quality win against anyone aside from each other—got hot for a series of Q1 victories to take this title. Both schools certainly have the talent to pull it off, each ranking in the top 10 in most of the metrics. But it's difficult to trust either one at this point.

It's also difficult to trust Kentucky, though the Wildcats do at least have quite a few high-quality wins. They've just struggled to string together consecutive give-a-darn-on-defense performances and might need to average 100 PPG in Nashville. Which they could do.

But Tennessee is the relatively clear pick here.

The Volunteers have been a smoldering inferno as of late, making a real case to be regarded as co-favorites with Connecticut for the national championship. That eight-man rotation has been stout, with Zakai Zeigler running the point, Jonas Aidoo dominating the paint, Dalton Knecht scoring at will and defense ruling the roost.

If you're leery about picking Tennessee to the Final Four because A) Rick Barnes is the coach and B) the Vols have been to 25 dances without ever reaching a national semifinal, I get it. Those same fears might get the best of me when it's time to fill out a bracket, too.

But they can win the SEC tournament. They just did so two years ago, and they're considerably better now than they were then.