Atlantic Sun (conference rank: 25th)
Feb. 27, Mar. 2, 5
All games at higher seed
kPOY: Brandon Goodwin, Florida Gulf Coast
Regular season champ: Florida Gulf Coast (preseason #103 / 1st A-Sun, current #119)
Overachiever: Lipscomb (preseason #231, current #162)
Underachiever: Stetson (preseason #228, current #315)
The Atlantic Sun will tip off tournament action tonight at 7 pm eastern time in various locations. With the league ranking third among conferences in both efficiency and tempo, conference members continue to the put the Fun in the Atlantic Sun. The seven games of the A-Fun tourney figure to feature plenty of points. Florida Gulf Coast cruised to the regular-season title losing twice, though in an odd plot twist, both losses were at home.
The Eagles have a nine-game win streak on the road which started with a sneakily impressive win at #92 Louisiana Tech, the only Tier A or B non-conference win for any of the conference’s teams. None of that will help them here though because they will play all of their tournament games at home. Though who knows how much that is worth since the league’s teams went just 29-27 on their home floors during conference play.
The tourney champ has received a 16-seed the last two seasons, but that will change this year if FGCU is able to pull it out, and both my ratings and Strong Bad believe that is where the smart money should go. However, second-seeded Lipscomb, who was the surprise of the league under fourth-year head coach Casey Alexander, is also in play. The Bisons like to run and chuck threes and they won at Florida Gulf Coast in the regular-season, so a possible meeting in the title game would be a compelling contest.
Semis Final Champ 1 Florida Gulf Coast 93.5 78.2 60.0 2 Lipscomb 84.6 70.4 27.4 4 USC Upstate 67.9 14.6 4.7 3 North Florida 66.7 16.7 4.0 5 Kennesaw St. 32.1 5.9 1.6 6 Jacksonville 33.3 7.6 1.2 7 NJIT 15.4 5.3 0.9 8 Stetson 6.5 1.3 0.2