I will have bracket thoughts and a few statistical notes on Monday. But in the meantime, let’s take a look back at 10 conference tournaments that wrapped up on Saturday and Sunday.

CUSA Title Game: Tulsa defeated Louisiana Tech

In my preseason rankings, I expected Tulsa to have the 5^th biggest improvement in margin-of-victory (MOV) of any team in the country. For the record, here were the Top 8 and how they fared:

The reason I expected such a big improvement from Tulsa was simple. Tulsa gave over half its minutes to freshmen last season, and by cutting down on mistakes, I expected a significant number of those players to take a big leap forward. Not everyone got better, but the three leading scorers in the CUSA title game, James Woodard, Rashad Ray, and Shaquille Harrison all had huge improvements in efficiency in their second season. This was mostly due to improved shot selection as all three used a fewer possessions than last year.

Tulsa still has a very young team, so I’m not sure I would pick them in my bracket. But with an improving roster, this team has a very good chance to stay in the top half of the American Conference and maybe even earn an at-large bid when they join the AAC next year.

Looking back at my most improved list, the crazy thing is that three of those teams (Tulsa, Milwuakee, and Wofford) won their conference tournament.

MWC Title Game: New Mexico defeated San Diego St.

Last year Boise St. went to the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years. With almost everyone back, the Broncos fully expected a repeat trip in 2014. But almost no one in the MWC did well in the non-conference schedule, and Boise St. was not good enough in MWC play to be in the at-large discussion. That meant their game against New Mexico in the semi-finals was once of the most emotional of the whole tournament. When senior Thomas Bropleh was ejected from the game for an unintentional, but still brutal clothesline of Cameron Bairstow, it was devastating to the coaches and players on the Boise St. team. And yet you could see them rallying emotionally for one last run. Even after Anthony Drmic fouled out of the game, and sat with glazed eyes on the sideline, Boise St. would not give up.

Yet somehow, New Mexico’s Cameron Bairstow was relentless in taking the ball to the basket, and his late jumper and free throws sealed the game.

In the MWC final, San Diego St.’s Xavier Thames, the MWC player-of-the-year, made a big mistake. He fouled New Mexico’s Cullen Neal on a three point shot (which banked in), and Neal converted the four point play. Worse yet, it was Xavier Thames fourth foul, it sent him to the bench, and it triggered a run that led to a 7 point lead for New Mexico.

And yet you could tell that San Diego St. would not give up either. A week after unleashing a 1-3-1 defense for a huge comeback against New Mexico, San Diego St. applied the pressure again grabbing 11 total steal in the game. And Thames was knocking down big shots again. And nothing was more devastating than the steal that happened with 1:25 left in the game. SDSU’s Dwayne Polee tipped an in-bounds pass, Winston Shepherd corralled the deflection, put up a shot, and Polee’s dunk and one gave San Diego St. the late lead.

And yet once again, Cameron Bairstow refused to give in. He attacked the basket, scored plus the foul, and took the momentum right back. And as the game-announcers argued that Bairstow was the player who really deserved the league’s MVP award, he can take solace in another trophy. His big plays brought home the MWC tournament title.

Pac-12 Title Game: UCLA defeated Arizona

I cannot do the full game justice, but two sequences deserve a moment of recollection. First, with 2:30 left in the second half, UCLA’s Jordan Adams tipped the ball away, and the ball drifted momentarily in the back-court with no one around it. It was like an XFL coin toss – who would run and get to the ball first? And as Travis Wear dove for the ball and called time-out, it was college basketball hustle at its finest.

Then we had the final sequence. After Arizona missed a three you could visibly see Sean Miller tell his team that they didn’t need a three pointer. And yet after UCLA failed to covert at the free throw line, Arizona was back jacking up threes. Miss after miss, offensive rebound after rebound, the clock eventually ran down. It was not quite as bad a sequence as Syracuse getting five offensive rebounds and missing six shots in the final seconds, but Arizona will regret its missed opportunity with time running down.

The American Title Game: Louisville defeated UConn

Most people would say it is better to win by a large margin. It shows that your team is more dominant, and it is the type of fact that predicts great success in future games. But I’ve never before seen a team win its conference tournament without facing any meaningful game pressure. Louisville embarrassed Rutgers, crushed Houston, and the UConn final was not as close as the final score would indicate. While team’s like New Mexico and UCLA have been fighting tooth in nail against top-level competition, Louisville has been coasting. Louisville hasn’t been punched in the mouth very often late in the season, and it will be very interesting to see how they respond when that eventually happens in the NCAAs.

Big East Title Game: Providence defeated Creighton

At the end of the first half, Providence used a 2-3 zone defense against Creighton, and I thought those possessions when the Blue Jays failed to score were the difference in the game. It seems counterintuitive to play zone defense against Creighton because they are the best three point shooting team in the nation. But that is exactly why it is brilliant strategy. Few teams have dared to use the zone against Creighton this year, and Creighton has less experience attacking the zone in game situations. Truly, at the end of the first half they seemed to stand around and look lost.

We saw the same thing when UCLA threw zone defense at Duke earlier this season. Sometimes, even if a strategy is puzzling (pressing a fast-breaking team, zoning a three point shooting team), if it catches a team off-guard, it can still be brilliant.

That said, I think we should all be thankful that Doug McDermott stuck around one last season to play in the Big East. Not only did he become the 5^th leading scorer in NCAA history (with a chance to become #4 in the tournament), we finally got to see what we all dreamed of seeing. There was Doug McDermott hitting two desperation threes while trying to carry his team to a Big East Title at the Garden. Eventually he got pushed out to far, and the shot was off, but the dream of a magical shooter remains.

Big 12 Title Game: Iowa St. defeats Kansas

While I appreciated Brent Musburger pointing out Gary Franklin’s pastel green and pink shoes (Easter theme?),Musburger was dead wrong about one thing. Baylor’s Isaiah Austin did not make himself a lot of NBA money by sticking around another year. Austin might have been a lottery pick last year, but I will be shocked if he goes that high in this year’s loaded draft class. Musburger also gave Austin credit for not jacking up a bad three that he would have taken as a freshman. The only problem with that storyline is that Austin went 0 for 5 from three in the game, making him 4 for 22 from deep in his last ten games. Austin still makes a lot of the same questionable decisions he made last season.

The graphic that Iowa St. has eight comebacks this season from down 10 points is just staggering. If you had to draw up one play right now to score to win a national championship, there is no NCAA coach that you should pick ahead of Fred Hoiberg right now. He seems to have the magic touch with his offensive sets.

A10 Title Game: St. Joseph’s defeated VCU

I will never complain when I tune into a game and hear the voices of Verne Lundquist and Bill Raftery. They are a college basketball institution.

College basketball has a lot of coaches who are institutions. But sometimes you miss the ones you once knew. Who doesn’t miss Temple head coach John Chaney and the stories of 4am practices?

Phil Martelli is a St. Joseph’s institution. He led the team to one of the most successful seasons in A10 history, 30-2, in 2004, and from 2001 to 2005, he was one of the top coaches in the game. Things have slipped a bit in recent years, and last year’s team was supposed to be the team that broke through and returned St. Joseph’s to the glory days. The roster was loaded with elite talent, and yet St. Joseph’s ended up only 8-8 in the A10 and headed to the NIT. For many, it seemed like the end. It meant that St. Joseph’s couldn’t reach that next level ever again. But the super-efficient Langston Galloway had one more year of eligibility, dynamic rebounder Ronald Roberts was back for one more year of monster dunks, and Halil Kanacevic was back too.

Kanacevic is a much more enigmatic player than one might suspect. While he is a true stat-sheet stuffer with points, boards, and assists galore, if you watch St. Joseph’s play you realize that his turnovers and emotional play can make him a hugely frustrating player.

And somehow, a year later than expected, St. Joseph’s climbed the mountain one more time. With his adorable four-year old grandson on the sideline imitating his mannerisms, Phil Martelli watched his squad fight their way to an A10 championship.

And as the Philadelphia institution struggled with words to describe his emotions, Verne Lundquist asked one last question and brought in Martelli’s wife for a hug. It was the kind of moment that represents everything we want sports to be.

Sometimes, milking emotions for TV fails miserably. A month ago, NBC got huge criticism for putting Bode Miller through the ringer. But on Sunday, CBS’s coverage hit the perfect note.

ACC Title Game: Virginia defeated Duke

I liked one commentator’s take on Mike Krzyzewski from earlier this week. Krzyzewski admitted that this was not one of the all-time great Duke teams. And yet this is one of his favorite teams to work with. If you pick Duke in your bracket this year, you will love to cheer for their offensive heroics. But as has happened far too many times this season, Duke couldn’t stop Virginia’s Akil Mitchell from crashing the offensive glass. And they couldn’t stop Virginia from getting in the lane and getting to the free throw line. And that meant all it took was a few mistakes (a Krzyzewski technical for throwing a pen, a Rasheed Sulaimon technical, Jabari Parker dropping a pass while wide open under the basket), and Duke was done.

Big Ten Title Game: Michigan St. defeated Michigan

Tom Izzo’s teams always play better in March and I will show those stats again in my next column. And Michigan St. crushed Michigan in the Big Ten title game. But I sort of liked Doug Gottlieb’s question at half-time, because it really sums up this team. Are we crazy to think Michigan St. is a Final Four favorite? Just when you start to think everyone is healthy and everyone is clicking, another shoe drops. On Sunday it was Gary Harris who hurt his shoulder and spent much of the second half on the bench.

SEC Title Game: Florida defeated Kentucky

Kentucky had a chance to win the game in the final seconds, but slipped and fell to the ground. Yes, falling on your face is probably the appropriate metaphor for the Wildcats season. No one wants to see Kentucky in their region. But at the same time, maybe you should.

Amazingly, despite a 26 game-winning streak, Florida only has the third longest winning streak in the country. Wichita St. has won 34 in a row and Stephen F Austin has won 28 games in a row.

Florida will be a heavy favorite in the early rounds, to the point where the most interesting question might be tracking how many minutes Chris Walker gets. (Walker was a super-elite recruit who only became eligible late in the year and is not completely familiar with the team’s offense.) But keep in mind that Florida has struggled against teams like Auburn and Vanderbilt late in the season. Florida may be the heavy favorite, but they are not perfect.