Week 5 (Feb. 18 – Feb. 24)

With so many BracketBuster games, each conference is fighting to get as many teams as they can into the tournament. The challenge is to finish strong, and with most teams only having four games left the final stretch is a double-edged sword.

Major conferences: These are the conferences that make up the majority of the at-large bids. Here are Mike N Mike’s picks after five weeks.

A-10:

M.N.M.- Xavier, St. Joe’s
Work to do- UMass, Richmond, Rhode Island: The A-10 is down, with so many losses in conference, the Rams are falling while the Minutemen rise. Look for UMass to get in as the A-10 gets three teams in.

ACC:

Mike N Mike’s pick- UNC, Duke, Clemson
Work to do- Maryland, Miami, Wake Forest: Hurricanes have to win out convincingly and the Terps need to hold home court in order for either team to be considered. Wake Forest needs to beat UNC and Maryland to get in.

Big Ten:

M.N.M.- Michigan St., Indiana, Wisconsin, Purdue
Work to do- Ohio St.: The Buckeyes face all four teams above, plus Minnesota, and need to win two of those four in order to get in, but that will be a tough challenge.

Big East:

M.N.M.- Georgetown, Marquette, Louisville, UConn, Notre Dame,
Work to do- Syracuse, Pitt, Villanova: ‘Cuse has to win two of their last four. They are in the same situation as Ohio St. in facing teams that are a lock. If they can take down Marquette and Pitt they should be a lock.

Big 12:

M.N.M.- Texas, Kansas, Kansas St., Texas A&M, Baylor
Work to do- Oklahoma: The Sooners have to win their last four to even be considered. Baylor should be in after a big win over KSU, but could crack under the pressure of holding onto the fifth seed in the Big 12.

Pac-10:

M.N.M.- UCLA, Washington St., Stanford, Arizona
Work to do- Arizona St., USC: USC has got to win two of three against ASU, Zona and Stanford in order to get in while the Sun Devils need to win three of their last four to get in, the one loss being to UCLA.

SEC:

M.N.M.- Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Mississippi St., Florida
Work to do- Arkansas, Kentucky: Kentucky has to prove they can make a run, and the only way to do that is to have a solid last 10 record going into the SEC tourney. The Razorbacks needed that win on Saturday and still have too much work to do.

Teams out from last week: Cincinnati, Cal, Oregon
Teams moving up in italics
Teams moving down are italic and bolded
Two team conferences: These conferences should have two teams in the tournament.

Horizon

M.N.M.- Butler
Work to do- Wright St.

“#”Mid-American

M.N.M- Kent St.
Work to do- Akron

Mountain West

M.N.M- BYU
Work to do- UNLV

“#”Sun Belt

M.N.M- South Alabama
Work to do- Western Kentucky

West Coast

M.N.M.- St. Mary’s
Work to do- Gonzaga:

Teams moving up in italics
“#”- New conference

One team conferences: These are the teams that will win their conference titles and be the only team in the tournament from their respected conferences.
America East: UMBC
A-Sun: Belmont
Big Sky: Portland St.*
Big South: UNC-Asheville
Big West: Cal State Fullerton
Colonial: Virginia Commonwealth
C-USA: Memphis
Ivy: Cornell
Metro Atlantic: Rider
Missouri Valley*: Drake
Mid-East: Morgan St.
Northeast: Robert Morris
Ohio Valley: Austin Peay
Patriot: American
Southwestern: Alabama St.
Southland: Lamar*
Southern: Davidson
Summit: Oral Roberts
Western: Boise St.

*- New team/conference from last week

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