Upsetting environment

Stanford, Connecticut among those ripe for a quick conference tourney

WEEK AT A GLANCE Will Emeka Okafor's bad back doom UConn in the Big East tournament? AP Starting five Stewart Mandel's top players and coach in the country over the past week: Coach: Paul Hewitt, Georgia Tech Made major statement about the rise of his program by winning at Duke. Center: Arthur Johnson, Missouri Scored 37 points, grabbed eight boards in his home finale against Kansas. Fwd: Lawrence Roberts, Miss. St. Notched 18 points and 21 rebounds in a last-second OT win at Alabama. Fwd: Shawnson Johnson, N. Texas Had 21 rebounds, eight blocks and 10 points in first-round Sun Belt game. Guard: David Hawkins, Temple Went for 41 points against UMass, 31 against Xavier on 13-of-27 3-pointers. Guard: Jerel Blassingame, UNLV Dished out 13 assists in a win at New Mexico, 14 in a near-upset of BYU. Next up Three must-see tournaments this week: ACC, Greensboro, N.C. Thursday-Sunday Five of the nation's top 17 teams makes for a battle just to reach the semis. Big East, New York Wednesday-Saturday Without fail, the Saturday night title game will be an instant classic. Atlantic 10, Dayton, Ohio Wednesday-Saturday St. Joe's road to perfection doesn't get any easier, starting against Xavier. Court matters Three burning questions that could be answered this week: Can Pete Gillen save his job? All indications are Virginia needs to reach the NCAA tournament, which in this case would require beating Duke. How is the big guy's back? Connecticut will only go as far as Emeka Okafor can carry them, which on Sunday wasn't very far. Can Sunday get here sooner? It's got to be one of the most anticipated days in all of sports, and we're finally less than a week away.

Quick, name last year's Big Ten tournament champion? How about the Pac-10? The Big 12?

There's a reason those answers don't roll off your tongue the way they would if I asked you to name last year's Final Four teams or one of the tournament's big upsets.

Though they make for great television and carry significant NCAA bubble implications, conference tournaments -- particularly in the major, multiple-bid leagues -- are fairly meaningless. Outside of the ACC tourney, with its tradition and luster, and the Big East, with the allure of the Garden, you won't see nearly the same intensity in these events as you would for the NCAAs or even a big regular-season game.

All of which goes in hand in hand with the tourneys' inevitable rash of upsets.

Year after year we see highly ranked teams inexplicably stumble in conference tournaments -- sometimes to the same teams they dominated during the regular season -- because, with their NCAA berths and high seeds already locked up, they go into cruise control.

Last year's instances included Pac-10 top seed Arizona, 25-2, losing in the first round to 9-18 UCLA, a team it had beaten by a combined 71 points in two regular-season meetings; Big Ten top seed Wisconsin, losing to eighth seed Ohio State; and Pac-10 second seed Stanford, 23-7, bowing out to 11-16 USC.

In some cases, it's a matter of running into a hot team at the wrong time. In the aforementioned examples, both Ohio State and USC wound up making the tourney finals.

Some coaches, however, simply don't consider the conference tournament a priority. They know their team ultimately will be evaluated on how it does in that other tourney the following week.

So, who are some potential upset victims to watch for this week?

Stanford: Mike Montgomery is one of those coaches who's not the biggest fan of conference tourneys. The Cardinal already have the No. 1 seed in the West all but locked up, and they no longer have the goal of playing for a perfect season. Don't expect them to let down in the first round against Washington State, but a semifinal exit wouldn't be entirely surprising.

Connecticut: Everyone wants to see a third straight Pitt-UConn final, so of course it's not going to happen. The Huskies are prone to laying an egg as it is, and now Emeka Okafor's back is bothering him. Watch out for the team they'll be playing in the quarterfinals, either Notre Dame or West Virginia, which needs the win a lot more than they do.

Wisconsin: The Badgers, despite being the No. 1 seed, have lost in the Big Ten quarterfinals in each of the past two seasons, and haven't won a conference tourney game since 2000. This year, as the two seed, they'll likely meet up with a desperate Purdue squad looking to make a last-ditch push for an at-large berth.

Kentucky: Uh oh, look who's on the Wildcats' side of the bracket -- Georgia, which swept Kentucky during the regular season and would play UK again in the quarterfinals if it beat Auburn. The 'Cats still have a shot at a No. 1 NCAA seed, but a loss wouldn't hurt them nearly as much as it would Georgia's slim at-large hopes.

Kansas: Talk about your bad draws. Following a first-round bye, the third-seeded Jayhawks almost certainly will run into archrival Missouri, just five days after beating the Tigers on a last-second shot. Not only are the Tigers angry, they badly need a couple W's to get off the bubble. KU has been an up-and-down team all season and is due for a down night.

Air Force: Nothing against the Falcons, but this is exactly the kind of situation that occurs every year in the Mountain West: Someone like UNLV or Colorado State comes out of nowhere and wins the conference tourney, forcing the regular-season champ to take an at-large bid and sending bubble teams from coast to coast into an all-out panic.

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com.