Great West Conference Tournament

Great West Conference Tournament (ranked 32^nd by kenpom)

March 9-12

Hosted by: McKay (possibly Dylan) Events Center in Orem, Utah

Sponsored by: Pepsi. That’s it.

Tickets: Don’t see anywhere I can buy them. There is no official tournament page as there is for the other 32 conferences. I’m starting to think maybe this tournament doesn’t exist. I feel as though if I went to Orem, Utah to confirm, that I would walk into a parallel dimension, or agents in black suits, ties, and sunglasses would show up and ask me what I was doing in Orem.

The Bracket:

Friday March 10: #4 South Dakota v. #5 Chicago State (1)

#2 NJ Institute of Technology v. #7 Houston Baptist

#3 North Dakota v. #6 Texas Pan American

Saturday March 11: #1 Utah Valley v. Winner of (1)

Winners of other games.

Sunday March 12: Finals

The Favorite: Remember, the winner of this tournament does not go to the NCAA tourney, but rather, the CBI or some crap. Ill take Utah Valley though. They went 11-1 in the conference, and have won 9 of 10, their only loss in a non-conference game vs Seattle. They’re also playing on their home floor.

Trivia: The conference has only been in existence for two years, so there aren’t many records or history to speak of. Reading the website, they introduce themselves as “a conference made up of 10 intercollegiate institutions that range geographically from New Jersey to Texas to California.” First off, this is really dumb. You shouldn’t have a conference that spans all of America. I began wondering who the California team is. If you look above, you see that no team from California is in the tournament. You also see only seven teams, which contradicts the Great West’s claim that they have ten. How is this possible? Well, the Great West does have Cal Poly and UC-Davis for football. The Great West was once just a football conference. Then, a couple of years ago, they made a basketball conference, but they’re not even the same teams that are in the football conference. Cal Poly and UC-Davis are members of the Big West already for basketball. Which west is better? The 'Great' one, or the 'big' one. Confused? Me too.