Credit: Kate Connors/University Star
Chaos ensued in last year’s Sun Belt basketball tournament Appalachian State won four games in four days to stun the field. To avoid a headache, we won’t even try to rehash the wild divisional seeding of last year’s Sun Belt Tournament bracket. Luckily, the conference has gone back to seeding its member college basketball schools 1-12 for the 2022 tournament. This time, the Mountaineers join each of last season’s division winners, Texas State and Georgia State, in occupying the top-3 seed lines. Will a new Cinderella story be written in Pensacola over the coming days? The following contains the Sun Belt Tournament bracket and schedule, as well as a preview of what we can expect to see.
Check out the FlurrySports Conference Tournaments Hub for wall-to-wall college basketball coverage throughout the leadup to March Madness!
| Team | Conf. Record | Overall Record | Seed |
| Texas State | 12-3 | 21-6 | 1 seed |
| Appalachian State | 12-6 | 18-13 | 2 seed |
| Georgia State | 9-5 | 15-10 | 3 seed |
| Troy | 10-6 | 19-10 | 4 seed |
| South Alabama | 9-7 | 19-10 | 5 seed |
| Arkansas State | 8-7 | 17-10 | 6 seed |
| Coastal Carolina | 8-8 | 16-12 | 7 seed |
| Louisiana | 8-9 | 13-14 | 8 seed |
| UT Arlington | 7-10 | 11-17 | 9 seed |
| Georgia Southern | 5-11 | 12-15 | 10 seed |
| Louisiana-Monroe | 5-13 | 13-17 | 11 seed |
| Little Rock | 3-11 | 8-18 | 12 seed |
Dates: March 3-6
TV Schedule: ESPN+ (First Round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals); ESPN2 (Championship)
Venue: Pensacola Bay Center — Pensacola, FL
Byes: Top 4 teams get single bye
Defending Champion: Appalachian State
First Round
Quarterfinals
Semifinals
Championship Game
Georgia State advances to NCAA Tournament
While Appalachian State was the surprise story of last year’s Sun Belt basketball tournament, the team they beat in the championship game has been the perennial frontrunner in the conference. That would be Georgia State, which again occupies a top-3 seed in this year’s Sun Belt Tournament bracket. The Panthers won back-to-back titles in 2018-19 and three of the last six overall. Interestingly enough, the 1-seed in this year’s bracket, Texas State, has yet to win a Sun Belt basketball championship. The closest the Bobcats came was in 2017 when they fell in the title game to Troy.
Although the Sun Belt is almost always a one-bid league, the vast majority of teams in the conference finished the regular season ranked inside the top-200 of the College Basketball NET. Texas State predictably led the way at No. 119 in the rankings. The rest of the net rankings actually differ greatly from the actual Sun Belt basketball tournament seeding. 5-seed South Alabama is actually the second-highest-rated team in the NET at No. 132. 7-seed Coastal Carolina follows them at No. 146. In fact, 3-seed Georgia State is only the seventh-best team in the league this season going solely off of the NET rankings!
Preseason favorite Georgia State did not underachieve greatly in the final Sun Belt basketball standings. However, their NET ranking compared to other teams in the conference suggests that they fell well short of expectations. Overall, the Panthers flipped spots with Texas State relative to the preseason media poll as the Bobcats were picked to finish third. The overachiever that stands out is Troy, who goes into the Sun Belt Tournament seeded fourth after being picked to finish ninth. On the other side of the spectrum, Louisiana was picked to finish runner-up but heads to Pensacola as the 8-seed.
NET Ranking: 119 (No. 1 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 129 (No. 2 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 106.8 (No. 116)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 103.2 (No. 160)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -3.09 (No. 232)
NET Ranking: 158 (No. 4 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 153 (No. 4 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency: 102.1 (No. 207)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 101.0 (No. 123)
Strength of Schedule Rating: +0.37 (No. 143)
NET Ranking: 177 (No. 7 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 155 (No. 5 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 100.6 (No. 239)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 99.7 (No. 97)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -1.05 (No. 177)
NET Ranking: 175 (No. 6 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 171 (No. 6 in MVC)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 100.2 (No. 249)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 100.3 (No. 110)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -1.79 (No. 197)
NET Ranking: 132 (No. 2 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 125 (No. 1 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 104.4 (No. 167)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 100.5 (No. 113)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -1.82 (No. 198)
NET Ranking: 171 (No. 5 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 178 (No. 7 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 100.9 (No. 231)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 101.5 (No. 132)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -2.35 (No. 213)
NET Ranking: 146 (No. 3 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 148 (No. 3 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 104.1 (No. 170)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 102.5 (No. 146)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -1.74 (No. 194)
NET Ranking: 195 (No. 8 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 190 (No. 8 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 101.9 (No. 211)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 103.6 (No. 168)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -2.07 (No. 207)
NET Ranking: 233 (No. 9 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 220 (No. 9 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 99.3 (No. 266)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 103.2 (No. 161)
Strength of Schedule Rating: +1.68 (No. 120)
NET Ranking: 248 (No. 10 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 253 (No. 10 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 96.7 (No. 303)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 104.1 (No. 182)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -1.22 (No. 182)
NET Ranking: 278 (No. 11 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 263 (No. 11 in MVC)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 101.7 (No. 217)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 109.9 (No. 295)
Strength of Schedule Rating: -1.35 (No. 186)
NET Ranking: 325 (No. 12 in Sun Belt)
KenPom Overall Efficiency Ranking: 332 (No. 12 in Sun Belt)
Adjusted Offensive Efficiency Ranking: 96.0 (No. 310)
Adjusted Defensive Efficiency Ranking: 112.0 (No. 323)
Strength of Schedule Rating: +0.86 (No. 132)
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This post was last modified on March 8, 2022 5:14 PM
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