March Madness 2019 conference power ranking

8. West Coast Conference

Teams: 2, Gonzaga (1), St. Mary’s (11)

Average seed: 6 

Sense a theme here? The West Coast Conference looked like they were also going to be a one bid league until Saint Mary’s was able to pull off the big upset in the conference championship game.

What gives them the edge over the other three leagues with two bids is the fact that they have a one seed in Gonzaga, who very well could make a run to the Elite Eight or Final Four, despite having one of the toughest draws.

Saint Mary’s without a doubt earned their way into the tournament by defeating the Zags, but I can’t see a scenario where they even win a game. They’ll get No. 6 seed Villanova, the Big East Champions, in the first round.

7. Pac 12

Teams: 3, Washington (9), Arizona State (11)*, Oregon (12)

Average seed: 11

The fact that the Pac 12 got three teams into the NCAA Tournament is a bit of a miracle in itself, as they were easily the worst Power 5 conference this season. Washington was the only lock to be in, with Arizona State sitting squarely on the bubble, until Oregon woke up in the conference tournament and won four games in four days, without their best player.

Even with three teams in the tournament, their best seeded team is only a nine seed, and it’s unlikely that without some upsets any of these teams will be able to do much in the tournament.

With teams like Arizona, USC, UCLA, Stanford, and even Washington, Arizona State, and Oregon recruiting so well each year, you expect the Pac 12 to have more than three mediocre teams make the tournament. While getting three teams in in a down year is still an achievement, this is a year the conference will want to forget ASAP.

6. Big East

Teams: 4, Marquette (5), Villanova (6),  Seton Hall (10), St. John’s (11)*

Average seed: 8

Compared to the last few seasons, the Big East had a down year, only having two teams finish the season in the top 25, and it showed in the NCAA Tournament seeding as their conference champion, Villanova, was a six seed and Marquette, who was a top 10 team most of the year, was a six seed.

The Big East did sneak two more teams into the tournament in Seton Hall and St. John’s, both of whom were bubble teams heading into the conference tournament. Seton Hall was able to go on a nice run, knocking off Georgetown, Marquette, and nearly pulling off the upset over Villanova. St. John’s picked up one win in the opening round and had to rely on their big regular season wins over Marquette and Villanova to get them into the tournament.

Marquette and Villanova, one team who is experienced at the guard position with Markus Howard and the other who is led by two seniors in Eric Paschall and Phil Booth, both have the potential to make runs but will have to get past some tricky first round matchups in order to do so.

The Big East has had a member in the NCAA Championship game two of the last three years, thanks to Villanova, but barring some unforeseen upsets, that streak likely comes to an end this season.