What a regular season! From Zion breaking through his shoe against UNC, to Ja Morant leading Murray State back to the Dance, and for the Big 12 title finally being taken away from Kansas. We are less than a week away from Selection Sunday, where millions of brackets will be filled out, aiming for that one perfect bracket. Before the bracket is released, teams are trying to punch their ticket to the Big Dance through conference tournaments. There are three categories for this week: locks, on the bubble, and zero chance other than to win their conference. Scoop Sports has the breakdown of the major conference tournaments with predictions and what teams must do in order to go dancing.

ACC

Locks: Virginia, Duke, North Carolina, Louisville, Florida State, Virginia Tech

Bubble: Syracuse, NC State, Clemson

The talk of the ACC is when will Zion be back suiting up for the Blue Devils. Duke is a different team, still very capable of making a run, just not as deep as many of their faithful would like. Outside of Duke, there are still some teams fighting for their season. One of these squads is becoming a mainstay on the bubble, Syracuse. Year after year, the Orange hangs around and does just enough to reach the Big Dance with their patented 2-3 zone. Even if Syracuse are to lose their first game against Pitt, their resume is good enough to make the field. The biggest bubble game of the week comes in the form of NC State and Clemson. This is effectively a play-in game for the tournament, win and in. Both teams have come up short too many times this year, however, playing in the ACC is a blessing since there are very few "bad losses" to come by. NC State will move on more than likely thanks to their gritty defense.

Predictions: Notre Dame will get to the third day to face eventual champion, UNC. Most games will be decided by seven points or less due to the competitive nature of the tournament. Having said that, there will not be many upsets in this conference and Virginia will once again meet in the title game only for UNC to get revenge this year after falling 71-63 a year ago.

Big East

Locks: Marquette, Seton Hall, Villanova

Marquette: While Marquette has lost four in a row and descending in the rankings, their body of work throughout the year will put them through March. Markus Howard is a human microwave and can put up 30 plus against anyone in the country. The two downfalls of this team are their turnovers, due to a lack of ball handlers, and their defense. Marquette got hot too early, thankfully they still have time to rebound and make a run in March.

Seton Hall: Two words, Myles Powell. Powell willed them to two victories at home over Marquette and Villanova to get off the bubble and become a lock.

Bubble: Creighton, Georgetown, St. John's

Creighton: The Bluejays got a much-needed victory at Marquette and will most likely need to reach the conference final to sneak into the tournament. The Bluejays had a rollercoaster of a season by losing three overtime games to the top three teams in the Big East and are looking for some revenge this week.

Georgetown: Beating Marquette in Milwaukee and beating Seton Hall at home were huge wins for the Hoyas. Was it enough? More than likely not. The Hoyas will need a run this week by beating the Pirates to set up a likely matchup with the Golden Eagles in the semifinals. The Hoyas need two victories to be in the conversation for a ticket to the dance.

St. John's: Their record is not reflective of the raw talent that this team has. Chris Mullin must be shaking his head. A 3-1 record against Marquette and Villanova, but managed to finish seventh in the conference out of ten teams. WHAT!? This is a microcosm of their season where they can get hot and shoot any team out of the gym. St. John's will be on upset alert against a DePaul team that has nothing to lose with senior Max Strus (averages 19 points a game) who can take over any game.

Tournament Prediction: Creighton pulls off the upset over Nova, Marquette gets bounced by DePaul, and Seton Hall cuts down the nets.

Big Ten

Locks: Michigan State, Michigan, Purdue, Wisconsin, Maryland, Iowa

Bubble: Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio State

The Big Ten is as tough as it gets with many solid and quality coaches. Izzo still runs the conference thanks to heady play from Big Ten player of the year, Cassius Winston. Even with two starters out due to injury, Sparty kept on keeping on. Maybe the biggest surprise of the year is how well Purdue played after losing Haas and Mathias. Fear not Boilermaker fans, Coach Painter pulled off a phenomenal job once again and has his team flying under-the-radar, making them very dangerous.

Speaking for Hoosiers fan quoting the great Shakespeare, "O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Hoosier nation needs a few big-time performances from freshman sensation Romeo Langford. The guard has come up big the last few games and is looking to carry that momentum all the way to the Big Dance before likely turning pro.

Predictions: The team that no one wants to play is Rutgers. No, that is not a typo. Rutgers is rising much faster than expected and will be a tough out. It will not be surprising if they make it to Saturday before running out of gas from playing three consecutive days. Another team that no one wants to play is the Fighting Illini. Playing in Chicago, expect a home crowd to carry them to a couple of victories thanks to the coaching style of Underwood (remember when he coached SFA Austin to victory over VCU a few years back?) He knows how to complete an upset. In the final, it will be a match between regular season co-champions, Michigan State versus Purdue to settle the true champion of the Big Ten this season. The Boilermakers will come out on top as Carsen Edwards will put the team on his back for a 68-66 victory.

Big 12

After 14 years of dominance, the Jayhawks streak of Big 12 titles came to a crashing end after multiple injuries and lack of depth. Kansas did a 180 from December to March where they could not buy a road victory. The Big 12 was balanced from top to bottom this year with Chris Beard and the Red Raiders building a force to be reckoned with for years to come. With Jarret Culver as the front man, this team has possible Elite Eight potential, not to mention the possibility of winning the conference tournament this week. Their co-champion, Kansas State (sorry Jayhawk fans), had a quiet yet steady year. No one talked about how Coach Weber was able to win with their best player, Dean Wade, being injured for most of the year. Having reached the Elite Eight last year, the Wildcats are no strangers to winning big games come March. The Big 12 has the most bubble teams as eight of the ten teams in the Big 12 can still make the Dance. How? Each team's strength of schedule is unparalleled with any other conference.

Predictions: West Virginia upsets the Sooners bursting their bubble, Texas knocks off Kansas to solidify their spot in March, and Texas Tech getting the best of the Wildcats by five as Culver will be too much to handle with his shot making ability.

Pac-12

The Conference of Champions? More like the Conference of Weenie Hut Junior! What an abysmal year for the Pac-12. This is unprecedented in a power five conference. Their champion, Washington, isn't a lock and doesn't even have a Quad One win! Insanity. If they don't win their tournament this week, will we see a repeat of what happened to a RANKED SMU team that didn't get in? Who knows? What we do know is that no one is a lock, and everyone is on the same playing field.

Predictions: With such a level playing field, expect the unexpected. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Civil War in the final, Oregon versus Oregon State. Coach Altman and Coach Tinkle would relish the chance to put it all on the line against their rival. The Beavers came close to picking up a road win against the Huskies and will get a chance to redeem themselves this week. The Ducks will burst the Sun Devils bubble and beat their in-state rival 73-65 in the final to get back to the Big Dance. The flipper fits.

SEC

A rather surprising season by the LSU Tigers has landed them in talks of making it to Minneapolis. With Coach Wade and Javonte Smart suspended indefinitely, lots of questions remain. LSU has done well in the face of adversity all year and will try to block out the noise, nonetheless, this team is not the same without passionate Coach Wade on the sidelines. Kentucky has played as well as any team in the country after their first game where they were mollywhopped by Duke. The limiting factor on Big Blue Nation getting to yet another Final Four is whether Travis Reid will be healthy or not.

Predictions: With the outside distractions, LSU will have an early exit and try to regroup for the NCAA tournament the following week. While the middle of the pack will have close games, there will be a lack of upsets as the more dominant teams simply have too much firepower. UK and UT will face off in the semi-final with a chance to play Auburn in the final. BBN will spread out the Volunteers on offense and win a nail biter 77-74. The Wildcats will then go on to defeat a tired Auburn team handily. Tyler Herro and PJ Washington will dominate the tournament, being unfazed by the big moment. Expect a deep run from the Wildcat team come tournament time.

Check back early next week for a breakdown of each region and our predictions for the best tournament in all of sports!

written by Brian Zimdars and edited by Jack Kurtz