Southland and Mountain West Crappy Conference Championship Preview

Editor note: This continues a series of conference tournament previews for the worst conferences in college basketball. Every day we will preview the conference tournaments for the non “Power” conferences that will begin on that day. Today we have the Southland and Mountain West.  Want conference tournament previews for the A-10, SEC, Big Ten, Pac 12, Big East and Big 12 which also begin their tournaments today? You’re in the wrong place… With apologies to the former USSR, here is the AMSTS CCCP (Crappy Conference Championship Preview)

Conference: Southland

Rough Geographic Area: Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana

School you’ve probably heard of: Stephen F. Austin is probably the winner here after upsetting VCU in the 2014 Tournament. Previously, Lamar had some NCAA Tournament success in the 1979-1983 period, so there’s that too.

School you may not have heard of: Houston Baptist. With an arena holding 1,500 and over 3,000 students, Houston Baptist has not seen much basketball success, with one NCAA Tournament appearance in 1984.  They have, however, one of the longest tenured coaches in Division 1. So there’s that.

Favorite: Stephen F. Austin 22-5 (15-0). #93 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings.  SFA is the only school this year to go undefeated in conference, and while the conference isn’t the best, Texas A&M CC is a decent team, so they have at least a couple of good wins.

Dark Horse: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 22-6 (13-3), #122 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings.  This is a two team conference, and with both teams getting into the semifinals via bye, TAMU-CC is the only legitimate dark horse in the race.

Game that might be closer than it should be: Given that Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian, and Central Arkansas are all ineligible to win this tournament, the only good game ought to be the Championship between SFA and TAMU-CC.

Likely seed with Massey Conference Ratings: 14 with SFA, 16 play-in with anyone else, ranked 29th of 32 conferences by the Massey Ratings Compiler.

How to watch the games: ESPN3, Championship on ESPN2.

Conference: Mountain West

Rough Geographic Area: Unsurprisingly, the Mountain West.

School you’ve probably heard of: UNLV.  Lots of “big” names in this conference, but UNLV probably has the strongest basketball traditions, with the National Championship in 1990, and 4 Final Four appearances.

School you may not have heard of: Air Force. I mean, hopefully you’ve heard of the Air Force, but most of these schools in the MWC have recognizable (i.e. state) names. The Falcons only have four NCAA Tournament appearances since 1960, and two since 2000.

Favorite: San Diego State 21-8 (14-2), #64 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings

Dark Horse: Boise State 19-10 (10-6), #89 in the AMSTS Computer Rankings

Game that might be closer than it should be: Look for the semifinal with #2 vs #3 to be up for grabs. With three teams vying for the #2 seed coming into the tournament, one can imagine that the game to determine the second spot in the final will be close.

Likely seed with Massey Conference Ratings: 12 with SDSU, otherwise 13 or 14, ranked 9th of 32 conferences by the Massey Ratings Compiler.

How to watch the games: CBS Sports Network, Championship on CBS.