ATLANTIC COAST (4-3): DUKE, MARYLAND, CLEMSON, FLORIDA STATE, WAKE FOREST, GEORGIA TECH. Despite the ACC having a "down season", they've done pretty well in the first round of the tournament. Duke, Maryland, Wake Forest and Ga Tech all advanced (with the last two pulling upsets to do so). The problem is that only Duke has a good shot at advancing to the Sweet 16.
BIG EAST (4-5): SYRACUSE, WEST VIRGINIA, VILLANOVA, GEORGETOWN, PITTSBURGH, MARQUETTE, NOTRE DAME, LOUISVILLE. Not a good showing by the Big East thus far. Of the four schools that lost in the first round, three were the better seed in their game ... including the upset of the tournament so far in G'town's blowout loss to Ohio. No. 2 Villanova (who got that lofty seed because they are from the conference) were upset by No. 10 St. Mary's. Still, the Big East has a good shot at getting all of those remaining three teams into the Sweet 16.
BIG TEN (4-1): OHIO STATE, PURDUE, WISCONSIN, MICHIGAN STATE, MINNESOTA. Only Minnesota, a No. 10 seed, has lost. The Big Ten has really performed well in this tournament thus far, but the second round is a lot more dangerous. Wisconsin gets a tough Cornell team; Michigan State faces Maryland; Purdue gets Texas A&M. Ohio State is the only school that I feel has a realistic shot at the Final Four. Or Elite Eight.
BIG XII (7-3): KANSAS, KANSAS STATE, BAYLOR, TEXAS A&M, OKLAHOMA STATE, TEXAS, MISSOURI. The best conference in America has the most teams advancing to the second round. Not just that, but they realistically have a shot at getting three of them into the Elite Eight. The thing is that the surest thing in the tournament, Kansas, was ousted in the second round.
MOUNTAIN WEST (2-4): NEW MEXICO, BYU, UNLV, SAN DIEGO STATE. About what you'd think. New Mexico and BYU have been two of the better teams in the nation this year. What will put them further into the "major" category would be if both could advance to the Sweet 16. That's a tall order since Washington and Kansas State are in their way, respectively. A tall order that was too much. No more Mountain West.
PAC-10 (3-0): CALIFORNIA, WASHINGTON. Hey, hey, hey! The much-maligned Pac-10 has come to crash the party. All the crappy Pac-10 has done is beat two Big East teams. Plus, there is buzz that Washington can topple New Mexico (they did) and Cal could give Duke too much to handle.
SOUTHEASTERN (4-2): KENTUCKY, VANDERBILT, TENNESSEE, FLORIDA. The two teams that I felt were the SEC's best (Kentucky, Tennessee) are still around. Suffering another upset loss really hurts Vanderbilt. Tennessee is unexpectedly in the Sweet 16.
ATLANTIC 10 (1-2): TEMPLE, XAVIER, RICHMOND. Not a positive showing for the A-10. All three teams were the better seeds and two of them lost. Both Richmond and Temple were pretty much dominated in their games. Xavier, though, continues to carry the league's torch and has an interesting game against Pitt coming up.
CONFERENCE USA (0-2): UTEP, HOUSTON. Well, neither were supposed to win their games. Houston gave great effort in their loss to Maryland.
WEST COAST CONFERENCE (3-0): GONZAGA, ST. MARY'S. Wow. St. Mary's popped Villanova in a Digger Phelps special (Digger said there was no way Nova could beat St. Mary's). Gonzaga-Syracuse will be very interesting.
WESTERN ATHLETIC (0-2): UTAH STATE, NEW MEXICO STATE. Neither were favored to win their games. Still, NMSU really pressured Michigan State in their matchup. Utah State really couldn't keep up with Texas A&M.
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