Selection Sunday is coming.

”The calm before the storm” is on as conference tournaments are now underway coming to the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament. It’s all about seedings to those teams hopeful to win the national title by season’s end with their seeds for March secured.

But in leagues such as the Atlantic Sun, Patriot and Sun Belt, it’s winner-take-all. There are no at-large bids, and the teams know that if they want to be in the March spotlight, they must win their league tournament first.

In the Big 12 Conference, the Kansas Jayhawks won the regular-season title by a game over Oklahoma, which lost twice while star big man Blake Griffin was sidelined by a concussion. One of those losses was at home to the Jayhawks. Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma are NCAA locks, while Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State look good for bids.

For the Big East, the Louisville Cardinals won the regular-season title by a game over Connecticut and Pittsburgh. If the Cardinals can also win the league tournament, they’re a good bet for a No.1 seed.

Seven Big East teams; Louisville, second-seeded Pittsburgh, third-seeded Connecticut Huskies…

The madness in March has begun.

And while the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament hasn’t officially began, the games we have on Championship Week will surely bring in the madness earlier than expected.

On Thursday, we have the No.5 Louisville Cardinals (25-5) looking for their eighth consecutive win when they take on the eight seeded Providence Friars in the tournament quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden.

The Louisville Cardinals earned the top seed and a double-bye into the quarters by defeating West Virginia 62-59 on Saturday night in Morgantown. Pittsburgh knocked off Connecticut on Saturday afternoon, giving Louisville the opportunity to redeem itself after falling 55-52 to Georgetown in its 2008-09 regular-season finale with the Big East title at stake.

First-team All-Big East selection Terrence Williams scored a team-high 20 points to lift the Cardinals over the Mountaineers.

The Cardinals would like to get off to a better start Thursday than they did in their last meeting with Providence last February 18. Louisville trailed the Friars by three in the second half before holding them without a field goal for more than nine minutes. Providence committed a season-high 22 turnovers in the 94-76 loss.

Louisville is 22nd in the nation in field-goal percentage defense at 39.5.

For what it’s worth, the Providence Friars (19-12) showed they can…

It’s the regular season finale for the Villanova Wildcats and the Providence Friars.

And while the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament inches closer and closer by the second, teams hopeful to get the invite to the tournament will just keep on trying to build some semblance of momentum heading to the biggest tournament in college basketball.

With the Villanova Wildcats and the Providence Friars duking it out, you can very well expect both teams to heat up The Pavilion. You see, the last time these teams met, both were involved in a finish no one saw coming.

It was during their first meeting, with the Villanova Wildcats having built a 20-point second-half lead at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center on Feb.4, only to see it whittled to one in the closing seconds by a flurry of 3-pointers from the Providence Friars.

The Wildcats made 8 of 15 3-pointers in the first half but knocked down just 1 of 13 attempts after the break. The Friars, on the other hand, tied a school record with 17 3-pointers, 11 in the second half, and set a record with 40 attempts from behind the arc.

Scottie Reynolds led Villanova with 31 points, and Dwayne Anderson (19 points, 10 rebounds), Reggie Redding (12 points, 11 rebounds) and Dante Cunningham…

Well well well, look at who’s back on top.

After losing their No.1 ranking last month when they lost their first road game of the 2008-09 NCAA college basketball season, the Pittsburgh Panthers are back on top as the No.1 team in the nation.

The Pittsburgh Panthers have Providence on Tuesday as they try to avoid the same fate they suffered last month, when they missed out on the overall no.1 ranking. Pittsburgh is also going for their 9th straight victory over Providence and since the Panthers have already beaten the Friars eight straight, I see no reason why Pittsburgh will be fumbling anything on game night.

Pittsburgh, 25-2 overall and 12-2 in the Big East, won two home games after being voted as the nation’s top team last month. Unfortunately, they lost a game when they visited the Louisville Cardinals last January 17 and again 11 days later when they visited the Villanova Wildcats.

Does Pittsburgh have a knack for losing the overall no.1 ranking away from home? Luckily, they only have the Providence Friars to worry about and as stated, they’ve already beaten this team eight straight times.

Additionally, since losing the overall no.1 ranking…