2023-24 college basketball conference previews, part 4: #17 (SoCon) through #13 (WAC)

The conferences that actually rile up your interest a bit during Championship Week

PREVIOUSLY: Intro: Parallax, Previews Part One, Previews Part Two, Previews Part Three.

Hello! This is Part Four of our multi-week conference preview series. Today’s previews cover the SoCon, Big West, Ivy League, Sun Belt, and WAC, which are ordered using KenPom’s conference rankings. We’re now through 20! of the available 32 conferences.

I ended up going with these five today because of two things: I think this is the end of the conference that absolutely, positively will only get one team in the field. (Yale is probably the exception but it would take a real shocker of a performance in non-conference to make them at-large level.) These conferences are all pretty solid, and one or two may produce a March winner, but they are all very likely to only get one team in the field. Everyone after this could potentially get a second if things go right or are a lock to get several teams in.

Lastly: as has been outlined a few times now, all conference previews from this point forward will be behind a paywall. If you have a financial issue that keeps you from paying the $30/year for the subscription ($20/year for people with .edu emails), let me know and I’m happy to give you a discount. Alternately, I think you can use a free trial for a week or whatever. Just get in touch.

It’s Friday, let’s hoop.