Sun Belt Sends Two to NCAAs

INDIANAPOLIS – The Sun Belt Conference will be sending two teams to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship for the first time since 2008 as Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky University are part of the 68 team field. The announcement was made by the NCAA Sunday afternoon.

WKU will face off against the No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks on Thursday, March 21 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Kansas. The Hilltoppers are making their second consecutive trip to the NCAA postseason after earning the Sun Belt automatic qualifier during the 2013 Sun Belt Championship last week in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

WKU (20-15) is making its 23rd overall NCAA tournament appearance and fourth in the last six years.

Middle Tennessee, meanwhile, will help open the First Four in Dayton on Tuesday night, facing Saint Mary’s. The winner will play Memphis on Thursday.

Middle Tennessee (28-5) was upset by FIU 61-57 in the Sun Belt semifinals, ending the nation's longest active winning streak at 17 games. The Blue Raiders won their conference's regular season title with a 19-1 record.

Meanwhile, Davidson and the SoCon got zero respect in being relegated to a 14th seed.

SHHHHHHHHH don't do this! The Sun Belt is terrible! It will kill our athletic programs! We're doomed!

Southern Miss is in Conference USA, not the Sun Belt. And I'm not sure Davidson's 14 seed is any sort of "relegation." The SoCon champ is often a 16 seed.

The last time the SoCon was a 16 seed was in 2009 when Chattanooga won the SoCon tourney. In 2008 Davidson was a 10 seed. The last four years the SoCon rep has either been a 13 or a 14 seed.

asucrutch23 wrote:Southern Miss is in Conference USA, not the Sun Belt.

My Bad. Fixed.

asucrutch23 wrote:And I'm not sure Davidson's 14 seed is any sort of "relegation." The SoCon champ is often a 16 seed.

Your bad!

asu66 wrote:

asucrutch23 wrote:And I'm not sure Davidson's 14 seed is any sort of "relegation." The SoCon champ is often a 16 seed.

Your bad!

I sit corrected. However, the average seed since 2000 is right at 14. Either way, I think we can agree that the Sun Belt is a better basketball conference. Sending 2 teams to the dance 4 times in the last 20 years is better than the SoCon's 0 times! The fact that it may soon be without it's best basketball member (WKU) will hurt it, but imagine a SoCon without Charleston (CAA), and potentially Davidson (rumored to CAA at one point). All I can say is yikes!