Across the country, March signifies the start of college basketball's crazy postseason. The first steps toward March Madness are the conference tournaments that take place in each of the NCAA's conferences.

Among those is the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), whose tournament dates back to 1972. As one of the smallest conferences in the country, the MEAC sends only one team to the NCAA tournament — its conference champion, crowned at the end of an 11-team, single-elimination tournament. The current iteration of the tournament takes place at Norfolk Scope in Virginia, the former home of the Old Dominion Monarchs.

No team has ever been more successful in the MEAC tournament than the North Carolina A&T Aggies, who have won the title a record 16 times. However, in-state rival North Carolina Central has been successful more recently, with three championships in the ‘10s.

While the MEAC doesn't have the name recognition of the bigger conferences, a handful of NBA players got their start in the conference. The 2012 tournament MVP Kyle O'Quinn parlayed a successful college career into a solid career in the NBA, while Florida A&M's Jerome James carved out an 11-year career in the early part of the 21st century.

Perhaps the most successful MEAC player in the NBA was North Carolina A&T's Al Attles, who played 11 seasons in the NBA after being drafted in 1960. Attles played his entire career with the Warriors, first in Philadelphia, then when the team moved west, in San Francisco.