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FIve storylines to watch during week one of conference tournament play
While college basketball’s marquee conference tournaments don’t begin until next week, the undercard is already underway. The Atlantic Sun was the first of 13 conferences whose tournaments tip off this week.
Below is a look at the five biggest storylines from week one of conference tournament action:
1. Will Alec Peters be healthy enough to lead Valparaiso?
One of the great stories from this past summer was the loyalty Peters showed to Valparaiso. The heralded 6-foot-9 forward chose to stay with the Crusaders even after coach Bryce Drew left for Vanderbilt and dozens of high-major programs reached out through back channels urging him to consider leaving as a graduate transfer.
For months, it appeared Peters’ loyalty would be rewarded. He averaged 23 points and 10.1 boards to play his way into contention to be a first-round draft pick and to lead Valparaiso into position to win the Horizon League title. But then Peters suffered an unspecified lower leg injury that sidelined him for the Crusaders’ final two regular season games and has since thrown his availability for the Horizon League tournament into question.
Valparaiso (24-7, 14-4) is an experienced, postseason-tested team that would be a tough out in the NCAA tournament, but there’s little chance the Crusaders will get there if Peters either can’t play in the Horizon League tournament or is at less than full strength. They’ll likely have to get by a Green Bay team that upset them in the conference tournament last year just to earn the right to make the title game, where an Oakland team that beat them twice this season could be waiting.
2. Will Wichita State or Illinois State have a long wait for Selection Sunday?
On one side of the Arch Madness bracket is Illinois State, which used exceptional defense to pile up 25 wins and go 17-1 in the Valley. On the other side of the Arch Madness bracket is Wichita State, which won 27 games and also finished 17-1 in the Valley despite not having a senior in its rotation.
Both these two league powers finished eight games clear of any other Valley team, meaning it would be a massive surprise if they don’t meet in Sunday’s conference tournament title game. The winner will be a tricky team for the selection committee to seed. The loser will have a anxious wait to find out if they’ve done enough to reach the NCAA tournament at all.
Of the two Valley co-champs, Wichita State has a stronger case for an at-large bid. While both teams lack quality non-conference wins, the Shockers played a far tougher schedule and avoided any losses to teams outside the top 50. It also doesn’t hurt that they boast a rich recent history of NCAA tournament success. Or that advanced metrics rank them among the best 20 teams in the nation.
3. Can BYU build off its upset of Gonzaga?
For the first 30 games this season, BYU was pretty dismal. Piling up 20 wins against modest competition couldn’t mask the fact that a Cougars team loaded with promising young players lost to the likes of Utah Valley, San Diego, Pepperdine and Santa Clara and failed to even challenge Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s for a top-two WCC finish.
Saturday night’s seismic upset of top-ranked Gonzaga was a reminder of how good BYU can be when it plays to its potential. Eric Mika avoided early foul trouble and scored efficiently in the paint. T.J. Haws and Nick Emery displayed better shot selection rather than hunting contested threes. And BYU forced 16 turnovers and played solid half-court defense.
If BYU can perform at that level in Las Vegas, the Cougars are capable of stringing together a couple of wins. Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s are obviously safely in the NCAA tournament no matter what they do in Las Vegas, but BYU would need to win the WCC tournament to join them.
4. Can Monmouth avenge last year’s snub?
Having accomplished virtually everything a MAAC team could besides winning its conference tournament, Monmouth had legitimate hope of attaining an at-large bid on Selection Sunday last March. The Hawks instead had to settle for an NIT bid despite winning 27 games, capturing the MAAC title outright and upsetting Notre Dame, USC, UCLA and Georgetown.
The memory of that disappointment has fueled a Monmouth team that brought back nearly its entire roster. Standout guards Justin Robinson and Micah Seaborn have led the Hawks to a 26-win season and a first-place finish in the MAAC by four games over second-place Saint Peter’s and six over third-place Iona and Siena.
While non-conference victories over Memphis and Princeton were solid, Monmouth doesn’t have enough marquee wins to have realistic hope of landing an at-large bid this season. For that reason, the Hawks will have to do what they could not last season and avoid an upset in the MAAC tournament.
5. Will Mike Daum get a chance to shine on a national stage?
The best player you may not have watched this season is a 6-foot-9 sophomore who has gone from being virtually unrecruited to drawing interest from NBA scouts. South Dakota State’s coaching staff initially had no idea who Mike Daum was, but they fell in love with his game watching him drain threes in an AAU game they originally attended to scout someone else.
Daum has made the Jackrabbits look smart for offering him a scholarship, evolving from the Summit League’s sixth man of the year as a redshirt freshman to its player of the year this season as a sophomore. The inside-outside threat is efficient scoring in the paint or raining down jump shots. His 24.9 points per game are the second most of any player in the nation, behind only Marcus Keene of Central Michigan.
Despite Daum’s brilliance on offense, South Dakota State isn’t the favorite entering the Summit League tournament — far from it in fact. The Jackrabbits are among the league’s worst defensive teams and finished tied for fourth behind South Dakota, North Dakota State and Nebraska Omaha. But when Daum gets going, he can carry his team. He had 25 or more points 11 times during league play and lit up Fort Wayne for 51 earlier this month.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
