Wondering who is going to the Tournament? I've been to the last 39 SoCon Tournaments (and seen only 2 trips to the dance, sigh) so I'm continuing my SoCon weekend, but wondering about SB? We need support there. Who's in?

Well, our team isn't going, so...

wncapp78 wrote:Wondering who is going to the Tournament? I've been to the last 39 SoCon Tournaments (and seen only 2 trips to the dance, sigh) so I'm continuing my SoCon weekend, but wondering about SB? We need support there. Who's in?

Who's in? Only the eight teams with the best conference winning percentages will compete for the Sun Belt title and a berth in the NCAA tourney. The Apps are disqualified for post-season play of any sort in 2014-15. Send your thank-yous to Coach Capel. In addition, two other SunBelt teams will stay home due to low winning percentages in conference play.

I don't like the SunBelt's tourney format at all. I think every conference team that isn't academically disqualified should be allowed to play.

I thought we were eligible. Glad I didn't book my trip before posting this thread!

asu66 wrote:

wncapp78 wrote:Wondering who is going to the Tournament? I've been to the last 39 SoCon Tournaments (and seen only 2 trips to the dance, sigh) so I'm continuing my SoCon weekend, but wondering about SB? We need support there. Who's in?

Who's in? Only the eight teams with the best conference winning percentages will compete for the Sun Belt title and a berth in the NCAA tourney. The Apps are disqualified for post-season play of any sort in 2014-15. Send your thank-yous to Coach Capel. In addition, two other SunBelt teams will stay home due to low winning percentages in conference play.

I don't like the SunBelt's tourney format at all. I think every conference team that isn't academically disqualified should be allowed to play.

I agree. I wonder if that will change.

asu66 wrote: I don't like the SunBelt's tourney format at all. I think every conference team that isn't academically disqualified should be allowed to play.

I like it. Plus, don't they give the top two teams a double-bye to the semis?

It's kind of annoying when you see some team that won 10 games all season get hot for a weekend and win an auto bid to the NCAAs over a team that has dominated the league all year. I think the Sun Belt format is a nice balance of giving some weight to the regular season while still maintaining the drama and importance of the conference tourney.

asu66 wrote:
I don't like the SunBelt's tourney format at all. I think every conference team that isn't academically disqualified should be allowed to play.

I like the fact that the Sun Belt tries to insure the best teams from the season play for the championship. We need our best teams playing in the NCAA if we are going to build our basketball profile, and having a bad team get hot for 4 games then get blasted in the NCAA isn't going to do that. Remember when Wofford won the SoCon Baseball tourney as a 10 seed with a losing record? That's not good for anyone.

Sometimes it's not a bad team getting hot but a team that started bad getting better throughout the season and playing at the same level as the competition late and in the tournament. It's a long season, some teams start as good as they're going to get but others improve and become contenders. If it's a CONFERENCE tournamet then all eligible CONFERENCE teams should play. Don't get me wrong though, I have no issue giving the top 2 a double bye to reward them with a good regular season and letting the teams who have improved earn their shot by playing more in the tourney.

goapps93 wrote:Sometimes it's not a bad team getting hot but a team that started bad getting better throughout the season and playing at the same level as the competition late and in the tournament. It's a long season, some teams start as good as they're going to get but others improve and become contenders. If it's a CONFERENCE tournamet then all eligible CONFERENCE teams should play. Don't get me wrong though, I have no issue giving the top 2 a double bye to reward them with a good regular season and letting the teams who have improved earn their shot by playing more in the tourney.

How many of those sub-.500 conference tournament champions have gone on to pull upsets or even major scares in the NCAA Tournament? If they've really just improved so much over how they played the previous four months, then presumably that improvement would carry over to the big tournament.

Either way - lasting improvement or fluky hot streak - it has the same effect of degrading the importance of the regular season.