HoopsHD keeps celebrating the greatest time of the year with Part 2 of our 3-part preview of every single conference tourney in the nation. Jon Teitel continues our coverage with his predictions for 4 conference tourneys getting underway this week/weekend. Tweet us if you have any comments, check back later next week for his picks on the remaining 16 conference tourneys, and if you missed his picks last weekend about 11 other conference tourneys you can find them at:
https://hoopshd.com/2025/03/02/conference-tourney-previews-part-1-of-3
America East tourney predicted champ: Vermont (#2 seed)
Dates: March 8-15
Location: Campus sites
2024 tourney champ: Vermont (#1 seed)
Fun fact: Vermont has won 5 of past 7 tourneys
Seeding: 7 of past 9 champs were #1-seed
The Catamounts have owned this tourney since before COVID but struggled out of the non-conference gate with 3-game losing streaks in both November & December. I was leaning towards choosing Bryant, but Vermont has gotten hot at the right time with a 9-game winning streak (including a 4-PT win over the Bulldogs last month) to finish the regular season. Coach John Becker has made the title game in 7 of the past 8 years that this tourney has been played so nobody will be able to out-coach him in March. Since the higher seed will host each tourney game in which they play, Vermont cannot wait to welcome teams to Patrick Gymnasium where they have lost exactly 2 home games all season. Defense allegedly wins championships and a team that is 15th in the nation with 64.3 PPG allowed knows the importance of guarding their own basket. I was a little worried that they were running out of TJs after TJ Long went down with an injury in December, but TJ Hurley has helped save the day with 16.1 PPG/88.7 FT%.
Big Sky tourney predicted champ: Montana (#2 seed)
Dates: March 8-12
Location: Boise, ID
2024 tourney champ: Montana State (#5 seed)
Fun fact: Montana State has made title game in each of past 4 years
Seeding: 3 of past 4 champs were not #1 seed
The good news for Montana State is that it has made the title game in each of the past 4 years: the bad news is that they were swept by both of the top-2 seeds this year so I do not think they can make it 5 in a row. Therefore, I will go with their fellow Treasure State program located in Missoula. Last March the Grizzlies made it all the way to the title game before losing to the Bobcats, but Coach Travis DeCuire has never had a losing season during his 11 years as head coach so I believe in him. His team was red-hot down the stretch and the only reason they are not entering this tourney on a 12-game winning streak is because they choked away an 11-PT lead with 5 minutes remaining in an OT loss at Portland State last Saturday. They are not a great rebounding team, but you do not have to rebound a lot of misses when your 49.8 FG% is #3 in the nation…and with all the money in the sport these days, how can you bet against a team whose leading scorer is named Money Williams?!
MVC tourney predicted champ: Bradley (#2 seed)
Dates: March 6-9
Location: St. Louis, MO
2024 tourney champ: Drake (#2 seed)
Fun fact: each of past 3 championship schools won back-to-back titles
Seeding: 5 of past 6 champs were not #1 seed
After making each of the last 4 title games and wrapping up a 27-3 regular season last Sunday you would think that Drake is the 1 top seed in the entire nation that I SHOULD go with…but history says otherwise. This tourney has been unkind to #1 seeds, and the only school to ever win 3 of these in a row was Southern Illinois from 1993-1995. Over the past 2 months the Bulldogs have won 15 of 16 with just a 2-PT home loss, so I will go with the team that gave them that loss. Bradley looked quite beatable a month ago when they lost 3 in a row to UIC/Northern Iowa/Belmont by an average of 13+ PPG, but they got back on track by winning 6 of their final 7. There are some teams that require a deep-dive to discover the secret to their success but that is not the case for the Braves: their 40.9 3P% is #1 in the nation, and they have 4 seniors who each started 30+ games this season.
Southland predicted champ: McNeese (#1 seed)
Dates: March 9-12
Location: Lake Charles, LA
2024 tourney champ: McNeese (#1 seed)
Fun fact: 5 different champs in past 7 tourneys
Seeding: 9 of past 11 champs were top-2 seed
McNeese shattered their school record for wins last year with 30 (the previous high was 22)…but I would argue that this year’s squad is just as impressive. Last year they only faced 1 top-75 team in non-conference play (beating VCU in the season-opener), but this year the Cowboys are much more battle-tested with a win over North Texas and single-digit losses to Alabama/Liberty/Santa Clara/Mississippi State. You can call Coach Will Wade a lot of things but “loser” is not 1 of them: at age 42 he has won 70% of his games while coaching 4 teams in 4 different conferences. Their 70 FT% might end up biting them in the butt…but with an average scoring margin of 13.1 PPG thanks to a defense that is top-20 in the nation with 64.4 PPG allowed, they usually do not have to worry about games that go down to the wire.
