Brackets Set for the 2021 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship

[NewsCopy]

Seeds and matchups for the 2021 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship, presented by First Bank and Trust, were announced Sunday.

The Sun Belt Conference Tournament will be held in Pensacola, Fla. March 5-8 with all 12 teams competing in the single-elimination tournament. Tournament games will be played at the Pensacola Bay Center and Pensacola State College.

The West Division's top team Texas State (18-6, 12-3 Sun Belt) ended their regular season with a seven-game winning streak. The Bobcats won their first-ever Sun Belt regular-season title based on the best winning percentage in conference play (.800). They earned a No. 1 seed and a first-round bye. Georgia State (14-5, 8-4 Sun Belt), winners of six in a row, are the No. 1 seed from the East Division.

Coastal Carolina (15-6, 9-5 Sun Belt) and Louisiana (16-8, 10-7 Sun Belt) each earned No. 2 seeds and also have first-round byes. Louisiana will open play on Saturday (March 6) in a 5 p.m. contest against the South Alabama/ULM winner at Pensacola State College's Hartsell Arena.

The tournament opens with first-round games on Friday, March 5, quarterfinal games on Saturday, March 6 and semifinal games on Sunday, March 7. The championship game will be played Monday, March 8 at 6 p.m. CT.

The first-round, quarterfinal and semifinal games will be televised live on ESPN+ with Monday's championship game slated for ESPN2. All tournament games are available through the ESPN App, accessible on computers, smartphones, tablets and connected devices. Live statistics are available on SunBeltSports.org.

COVID note: there will be no reseeding based on a team's inability to participate. If a team is unable to play, their opponent will advance to the next round via the no-contest rule.

Tickets for games at the Pensacola Bay Center are available through Ticketmaster.
Follow #SunBeltWBB on social media via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and on our Championship page.

2021 SUN BELT MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round
Friday, March 5
Game 1 - (4W) Arkansas State vs. (5E) Georgia Southern (ESPN+), 5 p.m. PSC
Game 2 - (3E) South Alabama vs. ULM (ESPN+), 5:30 p.m. PBC
Game 3 - (3W) UTA vs. (6E) Troy (ESPN+), 8 p.m. PBC
Game 4 - (4E) App State vs. (5W) Little Rock (ESPN+), 7:30 p.m. PSC

Quarterfinals
Saturday, March 6
Game 5 - Game 1 Winner vs. (1E) Georgia State (ESPN+), 5:30 p.m. PBC
Game 6 - Game 2 Winner vs. (2W) Louisiana (ESPN+), 5 p.m. PSC
Game 7 - Game 3 Winner vs. (2E) Coastal Carolina (ESPN+), 7:30 p.m. PSC
Game 8 - Game 4 Winner vs. (1W) Texas State (ESPN+), 8 p.m. PBC

Semifinals
Sunday, March 7
Game 9 - Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner (ESPN+), 5:30 p.m. PBC
Game 10 - Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner (ESPN+), 8 p.m. PBC

Championship Game
Monday, March 8
Game 11 - Game 9 Winner vs. Game 10 Winner (ESPN2), 6 p.m. PBC
PBC - Pensacola Bay Center
PSC - Pensacola State College (Hartsell Arena)

Louisiana Athletics
RaginCajuns.com
PRESS RELEASE

[CajunEXPRESS]

COVID note: there will be no reseeding based on a team's inability to participate. If a team is unable to play, their opponent will advance to the next round via the no-contest rule.

What a novel idea. Too bad football didn’t embrace this for postseason

[moorecajun]

COVID note: there will be no reseeding based on a team's inability to participate. If a team is unable to play, their opponent will advance to the next round via the no-contest rule.

What a novel idea. Too bad football didn’t embrace this for postseason

Yeah, maybe they learned something from the weasel chickens!

[zephyr]

Hope we look better than we did this weekend. Good lord.

[Hatch]

Sorry was a little out of touch over the weekend. I thought there was talk of Georgia St being seeded 6th due to lack of games played regardless of their record. What changed there?

[ULvictory]

I just want to make the tournament final more than once in 11 years. Is that too much to ask?

[zephyr]

I just want to make the tournament final more than once in 11 years. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently so

[CajunEXPRESS]

Apparently so

Well that’s still an opportunity. Certainly doesn’t correspond to the Marlin results of the past decade.