It's conference tournament time

Quick looks at this week's ACC and Atlantic 10 tournaments. Click on the conference title links for complete bracket and tournament info.

ACC
When: Thursday through Sunday
Where: Greensboro Coliseum
Why we care: Virginia is the No. 3 seed and earned a first-round bye, while Virginia Tech is seeded 10th and will open Thursday at 6 p.m. in first-round action against No. 7 Boston College. Neither team should have any complaints with its draw. Three of the four conference teams that beat Virginia (Duke, Maryland, Wake Forest) are on the other half of the Cavaliers' bracket. Virginia did go 0-2 against second-seeded Florida State and could see the Seminoles again in the semifinals. But in the teams' last meeting, the Cavaliers came within an open 6-footer at the buzzer of knocking FSU off. If that matchup occurs again, the Cavaliers should take the floor knowing they can beat that team. As for the Hokies, they'll open against a BC team they've already beaten.

Atlantic 10
When: Friday through Monday
Where: Show Place Arena, Upper Marlboro, Md.
Why we care: Richmond is seeded 8th in the 12-team field. The Spiders came by their seeding honestly, as they went 0-7 against the top seven teams and 7-0 against teams 9-16. Richmond will open against No. 9 UMass on Friday at noon. The winner advances - or perhaps we should say is sentenced - to play top-seeded Xavier in a Saturday noon quarterfinal.
By the way: Poor LaSalle. Only 12 of the A-10's 14 teams qualify for the tournament, and the Explorers, Rhode Island, Fordham all tied for the final spot. After the league had exhausted all of its tiebreakers, Fordham and LaSalle remained deadlocked. Fordham wound up getting the 12th and final spot on a coin flip. For the record, LaSalle had "tails".