Conference tournament predictions: Big South

*Finally recovered from the reading the headline of the post below*

March Madness officially begins tonight, with three smaller conferences (Big South, Horizon, and Ohio Valley) kicking off their conference tournaments with opening round games at campus locations. I will do what very few have done before and attempt to predict the outcomes of all 31 conference tournaments. Assisting in these predictions will be my never published computer rankings of all 334 Division 1 teams.

First up, the Big South. This conference has been dominated by Winthrop, who has won the last 3 tournaments and 7 of the last 9, and knocked off Notre Dame in the first round of the Big Dance last year. This year however, the Bulldogs from UNC Asheville have taken the top seed, and thus will have hosting rights to the semifinals and championship games (if they make it). Asheville is the home of 7' 7" Kenny George, the tallest player in NCAA history, whom Tyler Hansbrough dunked on during an early season game. This is one of the lesser conferences in Division 1, so the tournament champion will more than likely earn the only berth in the NCAA Tournament.

First round (higher seed hosts) predicted winners in ITALICS:
1 UNC Asheville
8 Charleston Southern

4 Liberty
5 VMI

3 High Point
6 Coastal Carolina

2 Winthrop
7 Radford

Second round (at Asheville, NC), can be seen Thursday 3/6 on ESPNU:
1 UNC Asheville
4 Liberty

2 Winthrop
3 High Point

Championship (at Asheville, NC or higher seed if UNCA is eliminated), can be seen Saturday 3/8 on ESPN2:
1 UNC Asheville
2 Winthrop

Straight chalk in the first two rounds, then I'm going with Winthrop in the final, despite being on the other team's home floor and losing the first two matchups. The main reason for this is because they have been in the national TV spotlight before in these situations and Asheville has not. The Eagles should be the more composed team in the title game.