Men’s Championship Bracket
2016 Sun Belt Men’s Basketball Championship Bracket Announced
NEW ORLEANS – The seeds and pairings for next week's 2016 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship, presented by First Bank and Trust and hosted at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, La., have been determined following the conclusion of the conference's regular-season on Saturday evening.
The tournament begins on Thursday, March 10, and ends with the championship game on Selection Sunday, March 13. All games of the tournament will be available on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app with Sunday’s championship game slated for a national broadcast at Noon C.T. on ESPN2.
The Little Rock Trojans (27-4, 17-3) clinched the regular-season championship, No. 1 seed and double-bye to the tournament’s semifinals following a 73-68 win against Texas State last week. The title was the first-ever outright regular-season title for Little Rock in school history. The Trojans were the No. 7 seed in last year’s tournament but made a 14-win improvement, tied with the best turnaround in Sun Belt Conference history, to claim the top seed this season.
The UL Monroe Warhawks (19-12, 15-5) enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed on the heels of a nine-game winning streak, the longest current streak in the league. ULM earned the second double-bye in the tournament and will wait until Saturday, March 12 to play its first game of the tournament.
The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds came down to the final day of play as the UT Arlington Mavericks (22-9, 13-7) defeated Troy tonight to clinch a first-ever bye in the Sun Belt Basketball Championship. The UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (16-13, 12-8) earned the No. 4 seed and clinched a first-round bye for the third consecutive season.
The tournament begins next Thursday with first round games featuring the Nos. 5-8 seeds battling to advance to the quarterfinals. The Georgia Southern Eagles (14-16, 10-10) will be the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will take on the No. 8 seed South Alabama Jaguars (13-18, 8-12) in a 5 p.m. CT tip from the Lakefront Arena. Following that game the No. 6 seed Georgia State Panthers (16-13, 9-11), last season’s regular-season and tournament champions, matchup against the No. 7 seed Texas State Bobcats (14-15, 8-12) at 7:30 p.m. The Bobcats defeated South Alabama on the final day of the regular season to clinch a second-consecutive tournament berth and the No. 7 seed via a tiebreaker by virtue of a 2-0 record against South Alabama in the regular season.
The winners of Thursday's opening games advance to Friday’s quarterfinals with games slated for 5 p.m. CT and 7:30 p.m. CT. Saturday’s semifinals will tip at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. CT and the championship game is set for a 12 p.m. CT tip on Sunday, March 15. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN2.
2016 Championship Schedule
Thursday, March 10 (Opening Round)
G1: No. 5 Georgia Southern vs. No. 8 South Alabama, 5:00 p.m. (ESPN3)
G2: No. 6 Georgia State vs. No. 7 Texas State, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
Friday, March 11 (Quarterfinals)
G3: No. 4 UL Lafayette vs. Winner G1, 5:00 p.m. (ESPN3)
G4: No. 3 UT Arlington vs. Winner G2, 7:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
Saturday, March 12 (Semifinals)
G5: No. 1 Little Rock vs. Winner G3, 1:00 p.m. (ESPN3)
G6: No. 2 UL Monroe vs. Winner G4, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN3)
Sunday, March 13 (Championship Game)
G7: Winner G5 vs. Winner G6, 12:00 p.m. (ESPN2)
* - All times C T and subject to change