Memphis May Not Get a No. 1 Seed Despite Being the No. 1 Team

The Memphis Tigers were impressive at burning through the Conference USA Tournament in the same manner they blazed through the conference season.

And that's the problem.

Memphis could actually be the No. 1 ranked team in the nation on Monday ... but may not get a No. 1 seed when the bids are announced for the NCAA Tournament later today.

With North Carolina, UConn, Pitt and Oklahoma losing before their conference's championship games (only UNC won a game), No. 3 Memphis could climb to the top spot in the rankings. Could. Now the announcement of the tournament could change perceptions of the voters, but it is a strong possibility.

It is nearly a lock that North Carolina and Pitt will get two of the No. 1 seeds. Louisville should get a third with their Big East regular season and tournament titles under their belt (They just went 19-2 in the so-called toughest conference in America). The fight will be between UConn and Memphis.

I think UConn is the better team but Memphis may have more juice right now. Memphis hasn't lost in months while UConn enters the NCAAs on a two-game losing streak. I know that this is a new year, new tournament and new teams ... but the NCAA does take into consideration your past history. Since Memphis has been a fixture in the second weekend of the tournament (barely losing to Kansas in the title game a year ago), they could get the nod. Especially since UConn hasn't won a postseason game since 2006. No Big East wins; No NCAA tournament wins.

Still, if you lined them up side-by-side then many would pick UConn to win.

We will find out today who gets that final No. 1 seed.

State Of the ACC Address (Midseason Edition)

The greatest rivalry in college basketball ... and maybe all of sports ... resumes tomorrow. The UNC-Duke game ceremoniously marks the midseason for the ACC season. Everyone has played at least eight games and the standings seem to be settling.

TEAM TO BEAT: NORTH CAROLINA. The Tar Heels have won 7 straight after spotting the rest of the league their 0-2 start. Their offense has been clicking again while their defense has gotten just a little bit better. Still, there is some gleam gone from their pre-conference swagger as injuries have left the team a bit exposed.

IF NOT THEM, THEN: DUKE. Believe it or not, but the Blue Devils are actually deeper than the Tar Heels. Their defense is still dominating ... at times. The key will be their ability to defend and score in the paint. They can get away with this against some ACC teams, but Clemson and Wake Forest exposed this, just as UNC may do tomorrow.

TEAM WHO COULD RISE: Virginia Tech. Va Tech is laying in the weeds at 5-3. They have Georgia Tech, at Maryland, at Virginia and Florida State coming up. Very winnable games. They will need to win most if not all of those to get to 9-3 or 8-4. Their closing schedule? At Clemson, UNC, Duke and at Florida State. Yikes!

TEAM WHO COULD FALL: FLORIDA STATE. The Noles have finally appeared in the rankings, but will it last? They did win at Clemson but don't really have any other impressive conference wins. Coming up, they will have a stretch at Wake Forest, Miami, at Virginia Tech, at Boston College, Clemson, at Duke and Virginia Tech.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR: TYLER HANSBROUGH. This is a tough one. Hansbrough is just doing what he always does. He has a sizeable lead in the scoring race and will be chasing down J.J. Redick's ACC scoring mark in a month. Wake's Jeff Teague has a good shot at taking the award away from Psycho T, but it may come down to whose team wins the regular season title.

COACH OF THE YEAR: AL SKINNER. There are a lot of great candidates for this. Roy Williams has had to deal with injuries and expectations at North Carolina; Dino Guadio has taken a young Deacons team to a No. 1 ranking; Leonard Hamilton has his Noles ranked; Oliver Purnell lost some key guys off of last year's team but has Clemson still in the thick of things. But Al Skinner has taken a Boston College team that was picked to finish dead last in the ACC and turned them into a possible NCAA Tournament team. I think that he may need to get them in to secure this award, but what he has done already is amazing. They won at North Carolina and have beaten Va Tech. They will get some publicized run soon as they will face Clemson, Duke and Miami in the next 11 days.