Troy, South Alabama eye Sun Belt’s auto bids to big dance
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March is here and the NCAA Tournaments are just around the corner.
Several smaller conference tournaments start this week including both the men’s and women’s Sun Belt tournament.
The Troy men’s team just finished off a second consecutive regular season conference title and will be trying to clinch a spot in the big dance for a second straight season.
Meanwhile, South Alabama got the short straw in the conference seeding tiebreakers and will now have a much longer path to the auto bid in both the men’s and women’s tournaments.
We’ve got everything you need to know about both tournaments in Pensacola + how you can watch the Trojans and the Jaguars this week.
Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Tournament
Okay, so first thing is first: yes, that’s a weird looking bracket.
The conference recently transformed their tournament, looking to reward the teams who finished near the top of the standings in the regular season.
The top 2 seeds automatically advance to the semifinals, the 3 and 4 seeds to the quarterfinals and so on.
That means Troy, the regular season conference champions, need just two wins to earn an NCAA Tournament bid but Old Dominion, who finished 11th, has to win seven games in seven days to win the tournament.
South Alabama finished just one game behind Troy but because of seeding tiebreakers, the Jaguars finished sixth which means they need four wins.
The Jaguars have won five Sun Belt tournaments in program history but they have not been to the big dance since 2008.
The two rivals splits their regular season meetings and would not meet again unless both teams make the Sun Belt championship game.
Sun Belt Women’s Basketball Tournament
Troy fell just short of the women’s regular season title but the Trojans still get an auto bid to the conference semifinals.
Chanda Rigby’s team is hoping to make the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in the last 10 seasons and the first since 2021.
The Trojans wrapped up the regular season with a loss to South Alabama but they still won five of their last six games and nine of their last 11.
The Jaguars are on a three-game winning streak but still have to start the tournament Tuesday morning. South will need to win seven games in seven days to secure its first NCAA Tournament bid since 1987.
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