Last 3 NCAA College Basketball Champs Won their Conference Tourney's

Good article on how important the conference tournaments are from www.nbcsports.com's Ken Davis

League tourney title a boost to winning it all
Last 3 champs all won conference tournaments, but it's not required

On the way to the 2008 national championship, Kansas defeated Texas 84-74 to capture the Big 12 tournament championship. The Jayhawks celebrated the addition of another trophy for the Allen Fieldhouse display case, but that one victory accomplished much more than that. It avenged an important regular-season loss to the Longhorns and gave Kansas the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Beyond that, it helped establish the reputation of junior guard Mario Chalmers as a clutch performer in big-time games. Chalmers hit eight three-pointers and scored a career-high 30 points that day against Texas.
“It’s the greatest game of my college career,” Chalmers said.
That self-assessment would later require amendment. Chalmers, of course, hit the three-pointer that forced overtime against Memphis in the national championship game. But the Jayhawks walked away from that Big 12 tournament trusting Chalmers a little more and feeling much more confident as a team. Perhaps they would have gone on to win the national title even if they had lost to Texas, but history will record the moment as the seventh consecutive victory in a 13-game winning streak.
NCAA tournament history was made in 2008 when all four No. 1 seeds reached the Final Four in San Antonio. And like Kansas, Memphis, UCLA and North Carolina also advanced to the final weekend after winning their conference tournaments.
That’s pretty impressive stuff. It also reflects the perfect symmetry of last year’s tournament. Those four teams were the best of the best. They proved it in their own neighborhoods and were rewarded with top seeds. Then they proved it under the toughest circumstances of all, surviving those first four steps on the way to the Final Four.
Along the way, at least for one year, they also quieted the argument that winning a conference tournament may not be the best idea. That theory is based on the belief that exerting so much energy over a three- or four-day period isn’t worth it in terms of the big picture.
Some say a coach can’t have the best of both worlds. He can’t push his team to win the three-day sprint and then hope to have enough left to successfully execute the six-game marathon required of national champions.
The last three title teams, Kansas and Florida, along with Connecticut in 2004, did win their conference tournaments. But UNC in 2005 and Syracuse in 2003 and Maryland in 2002 did not.
And as some conferences grow larger, the task has become even more demanding for teams that don’t qualify for the luxury of a bye (or in today’s Big East a double-bye).
In 2006, Syracuse opened the Big East tournament as the No. 9 seed but became the first team from that conference to win four consecutive games and the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
“That was really unbelievable,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “Outside of winning the national championship [in 2003], there’s never been a better stretch of basketball for me. To beat the teams we had to beat and do it four days in a row was an unbelievable experience.”
But the strain of four consecutive days on the court took its toll. Gerry McNamara had played magnificent — if not magical — basketball leading the Orange through the Big East games but injuries caught up with him the next week and Syracuse was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Texas A&M 66-58.
The cynics would say that proved their point. But this is college basketball. There are no absolute truths and certainly no formulas that are proven successful 100 percent of the time.
What worked last year may not function at all this season. North Carolina was once viewed as invincible, with the potential to go undefeated. We now know that won’t happen. It appears there are eight or nine teams capable of winning the national championship. Based on recent history, the winner will likely be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, but without a dominant team, this field is wide open.
And heading into Championship Week, it’s highly doubtful you will find any coach or any player who admits he wants to lose, get some rest and then move on to the NCAA Tournament.
No one thinks that way. There’s really nothing quite like the experience of being king of your own neighborhood, especially when that title earns you an automatic bid to the main event.
There’s plenty of time for rest after April 6.