The seedings and pairings for the Big South Conference men’s basketball tournament have been determined following the conclusion of the league’s regular-season schedule. The top five teams earned byes into the quarterfinals.
Campbell and Radford shared the Big South regular-season championship at 12-4, and the Camels emerged as the No. 1 seed based on its season sweep of the Highlanders. Campbell is the No. 1 seed for the first time during its Big South affiliation (1983-94, 2011-present), and also earned its first regular-season title as conference members.
It is the conference’s fourth time with co-champions in the past five seasons. In addition, the Camels have secured the Big South’s automatic bid to the NIT should they not win the tournament.
As the No. 1 seed, Campbell will host the quarterfinals and semifinals, March 7-8, while the highest remaining seed will host the Ccampionship game on Sunday, March 10, at 1 p.m. on ESPN. Tickets for the quarterfinals and semifinals can be purchased through the Campbell ticket office, and online at www.gocamels.com/creekmadness.
Radford, the defending Big South Champion, is the No. 2 seed for the second consecutive year after winning a share of its first regular-season crown since 2008-09. Winthrop and Gardner-Webb tied for third-place at 10-6. As the teams split the season series, the next tie break was record against teams — or group of tied teams — at the top of the standings on down. Winthrop is the No. 3 seed based on its 1-2 record against Campbell/Radford, while Gardner-Webb is the No. 4 seed after going 0-2.
A four-way tie for fifth-place featured High Point, Charleston Southern, Presbyterian and Hampton all finish at 9-7 in league play. The first multi-team tiebreaker of collective head-to-head records gave High Point the No. 5 seed based on its 4-0 record against CSU, PC and HU, with Charleston Southern receiving the No. 6 seed based on its 2-2 mark, compared to 1-3 records for both Presbyterian and Hampton. Since that reduced PC and HU back to a two-way tie, the head-to-head tiebreaker gave the No. 7 seed to the Blue Hose for their regular-season win over the Pirates. Hampton fell to the No. 8 line, followed by Longwood (5-11) at No. 9, UNC Asheville (2-14) at No. 10 and USC Upstate (1-14) at No. 11.
(Big South media services provided the basis for this report)
Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament
First Round
Tuesday, March 5 (ESPN3)
Game 1: No. 10 UNC Asheville at No. 7 Presbyterian, 7 p.m.
Game 2: No. 11 USC Upstate at No. 6 Charleston Southern, 7p.m.
Game 3: No. 9 Longwood at No. 8 Hampton, 7 p.m.
Quarterfinals
Thursday, March 7, at Campbell (ESPN3)
Game 3: No. 2 Radford vs. No. 7/10 winner, Noon
Game 4: No. 3 Winthrop vs. No. 6/11 winner, 2 p.m.
Game 5: No. 1 Campbell vs. No. 8/9 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 6: No. 4 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 5 High Point, 8 p..m
Semifinals
Friday, March, at Campbell (ESPN+)
Game 7: Semifinals — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 8: Semifinals — Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 8 p.m.
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Championship
Sunday, March 10, at highest remaining seed (ESPN)
Game 9: Championship — Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 1 p.m.
