Southern California will have 3 teams in the tourney, though none will be the University of Southern California, who despite the hot coach with the hot wife, finished last in the Pac 12. But their rival, UCLA, will be in the tourney after beating #4 Arizona for the conference championship. The Pac 12 won’t get any respect though, so don’t expect UCLA to be ranked too high.
And in the biggest surprise of the conference championships, Cal Poly San Luis Obsipo (SLO) began the tourney 10-19 and proceeded to rout #2 Santa Barbara, upset #1 UC Irvine (my wife’s alma mater who was also trying to make the NCAA tourney for the 1st time ever), and outlast Cal State Northridge in the Big West final. Their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tourney, they are a shoo in for the First Four, so they probably won’t make the proper 64.
Finally, despite losing in the Mountain West final, San Diego St. will be in the tourney. So three local teams aren’t bad. But I am not picking Cal Poly SLO if they somehow did make it the proper 64!