The Big South Tournament looks like it will again be a wide open affair. Around 8-10 teams have a legitimate shot at bringing the title home, and we are going to make a case for each squad’s chances in this team by team preview of the tournament.

stadiumjourney.com

stadiumjourney.com

1 North- High Point 10-6 The Panthers will come into the Big South Tournament with high expectations. After dropping their first two Big South match ups, they tore through the rest of their conference slate, only losing 2 of their last 14. The team features Big South Player of the Year, John Brown, and Big South Coach of the Year, Scott Cherry. With those guys at the helm, the Panthers have proven to have the most efficient offense in the conference. Though their poor showing in non-conference match ups, and knack for tight games is worrisome, look for High Point to make a deep run, continuing their current six game win streak.

 

4 South- Winthrop 10-6 The Eagles find themselves in fourth place in the South, even with a 10-6 record. Despite their low seeding, Winthrop is as good as anyone else in the Big South’s top tier. They have a balanced offensive attack with four players averaging double figures, and one of the better defenses in the conference, forcing the most turnovers per possession. In his second year, Pat Kelsey has turned the Eagles into a solid, well rounded team.

5 North- Liberty 5-11 We all know how good this Liberty team can be, and it is definitely a possibility that they ruin a very good team’s chances in the Big South Tournement, but it doesn’t seem likely that this team could string together four wins and take the crown. That said, they did it last year with many of the same players. The Flames have four guys averaging double digits, and any one of them can carry the scoring load on a given night. They are also very good on the boards. If they fix their turnover habits Liberty could be a very dangerous team.

 

2 South-UNC Asheville 10-6  UNCA is another team that has four guys scoring in double figures, including 19.9 from Andrew Rowsey. They’ve bumped up their pace this year to try and score quick, but are not doing this at the expense of their defense. The Bulldogs will try and get to the free throw line when they can, and boast the best FT% in the conference. They also claim the title for highest KenPom ranking in the conference (223-it’s pretty sad).

 

3 North- Radford 10-6 The Highlanders are the only 20 win team after the regular season (this may have something to do with their 348th ranked SOS), but were not good enough in conference to claim one of the four byes for the Big South Tournament. They are paced by Javonte Green who averages 17 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Radford has one of the conference’s most explosive offenses. If they are able to get going in the tournament, there is no reason they shouldn’t go pretty deep.

6 South- Presbyterian 2-14 I will be shocked if Presbyterian doesn’t exit Myrtle Beach quietly. A couple of positive spots is the play of juniors Jordan Downing (19.8 PPG) and William Truss (11 PPG 9.1 REB). Downing is forced to play over 37 minutes per game.

 

1 South- Coastal Carolina 11-5 They hosts of the Big South Tournament were also able to claim a one seed. Is this the year for the Chanticleers to claim their first BSC Tournament title since 1993? Coastal has built this season on defense. They allow the fewest points per possession and rank second in defending FG%. As far as a home field advantage goes, of the five conference games they lost, three were on the road while two came at The HTC Center, not a substantial difference, but all the home losses were close while the away losses were all by at least 10 points. They currently turn the ball over on 19.5% of possessions, possibly a fatal stat for the Chants.

 

4 North- Campbell 6-10 After a pretty good start to conference play, the Camels have dropped their last five and eight of their last nine. They could potentially knock Charleston Southern out, but anything more would be completely out of character for Campbell.

5 South- Charleston Southern 6-10  The loss of Saah Nimley has not been easy on the Bucs, but they have a lot of other good pieces. Matt Kennedy, for instance, has stepped up out of nowhere in his senior season and is shooting an incredible 52% from behind the arc. This team is much better than their conference record shows. CSU holds formidable offensive and defensive rankings in the Big South, they just haven’t been able to get it done in the W/L column. They’ve lost four of their last five, but we’ve seen how good they can be last year and against Delaware this year. Don’t be surprised if they finally put things together and upset a team or two in Conway.

 

2 North- VMI 11-5 After losing the regular season “championship game” to High Point in their second to last outing of the season, VMI claimed the second seed slot in the North. The Keydets are led by the three headed monster of QJ Peterson (19.6 PPG) Rodney Glasgow (18.4 PPG, 5.7 AST) and perhaps the best all around player in the Big South, DJ Covington (18.7 PPG , 9.3 REB, 3.1 BLK, 58% FG). VMI’s incredible pace will make it extremely tough on opponents to contain all three of these guys. The Keydets will be a very tough team to put out.  

 

3 South- Gardner-Webb 10-6 The Bulldogs are another solid candidate for eventual champs. They display great ball movement on offense and have the second ranked defense in the conference in points given up per possession. It will be interesting to see if Tim Craft has what it takes in his first year, to guide G-Webb through what looks like a tough path to the championship.

6 North- Longwood 3-13 Longwood has some quality players with Tristan Carey (18.5 PPG), and Lucas Woodhouse (11.5 PPG, 6.7 AST), but they shouldn’t be considered contenders. Last year they did upset and knock out a good UNC Asheville team though, so don’t sleep on the Lancers, Gardner-Webb.

 

It is obvious that the tournament picture is currently very muddled, but hopefully Ken Pomeroy’s log5 projections, coming out later today, will give us a clearer image of what each team’s chances actually are, but even he admits that this will be a very tough tournament to predict.  


Liberty’s chances at defending their title will likely be pegged within the 1.5-2% range, but don’t put too much stock in this as last year Pomeroy gave the Flames a .5% chance.

This post itself can somewhat be used to see the first round match ups, or check out the full bracket here.