Southwestern Athletic Conference
March 8-12. All games at Houston.
kPOY: Chris Thomas, Texas Southern.

The SWAC gets underway on Tuesday with two first-round games at the Toyota Center.

Hey, for once Grambling is not the team with the lowest chance of winning the SWAC tournament. In fact, the Tigers’ chances are equivalent to what Austin Peay’s were in the OVC tournament, which officially makes them realistic if highly unlikely. After starting 2-0 in SWAC play, they finished dead last at 4-14, but as Tigers’ fans will tell you, that was quite deceptive. They were in nearly every game and their last seven losses were by a combined 21 points. There are fully six college basketball teams ranked worse than Grambling this season, and although none of those teams are in the SWAC, the 10-seed allows Grambling to avoid powerhouse Texas Southern until a potential showdown in the championship game.

The conference as a whole climbed out of the Division-I basement for the first time since 2003. An for the 20th consecutive season, the SWAC awarded an outright regular-season title. That went to Texas Southern, despite the Tigers going 1-11 in non-conference play. The most impressive non-conference performance was registered by Southern, who went 8-5 and registered a Tier A win with their victory at #73 Mississippi State. The Jags also won at Wyoming and gave Memphis a legit scare. But that was then and this is now. Mike Davis’s team is a significant favorite to make its third consecutive NCAA tournament.

                           Qtrs Semis Final Champ
 1 Texas Southern           100  86.8  63.9  49.2
 3 Jackson St.              100  74.4  50.4  19.5
 4 Southern                 100  55.9  19.1  11.2
 2 Alcorn St.               100  70.9  31.2   8.8
 5 Alabama St.              100  44.1  12.8   6.7
 6 Prairie View A&M         100  25.6  11.0   2.0
 8 Alabama A&M             65.1  10.1   3.5   1.4
 7 Mississippi Valley St.  51.0  15.0   3.9   0.6
10 Grambling St.           49.0  14.1   3.5   0.5
 9 Arkansas Pine Bluff     34.9   3.1   0.7   0.2

SWAC tourney records (since 1999)

Texas Southern         18-11
Alabama St.            20-13
Alcorn St.             14-10
Southern               13-11
Arkansas Pine Bluff     9- 8
Jackson St.            16-15
Alabama A&M             8-11
Mississippi Valley St. 10-14
Prairie View A&M        8-13
Grambling St.           5-15