The Big South is another conference that constantly churns out teams that are 14, 15, or 16 seeds and don't usually make a lot of noise in the NCAA Tournament. That last time that a Big South team won an NCAA Tournament game was UNC Asheville in 2011, when they defeated Arkansas-Little Rock in the First Four. The last time a Big South team won in the main bracket was in 2007 when #11 seed Winthrop advanced to the Round of 32. For one of these teams though, the goal is to make the NCAA Tournament and get onto that national stage. One of these 10 teams will do so, regardless of how short their stay is.
In bracket projections, Winthrop has shown up in about half of the brackets averaging a 14 or a 15 seed, while UNC Asheville has turned up in the other half at the same seed line. The two schools tied for the regular season championship.
The Big South has 10 teams as mentioned. The top six teams received a bye to the quarterfinals and the other four teams will play for the two remaining spots. The tournament will take place from today to Sunday, March 5th. The first round games will be at campus sites, then the remaining games will be at Winthrop Coliseum.
First Round-Tuesday, February 28th
#10 Presbyterian vs #7 Campbell
#9 Longwood vs #8 Charleston Southern
Quarterfinals-Thursday, March 2nd
#8 Charleston Southern vs. #1 Winthrop
#5 High Point vs. #4 Gardner-Webb
#7 Campbell vs #2 UNC-Asheville
#6 Radford vs. #3 Liberty
Semifinals-Friday, March 3rd
#4 Gardner-Webb vs. #1 Winthrop
#3 Liberty vs. #2 UNC Asheville
Championship-Sunday, March 5th
These two teams, along with Liberty, had a sizable lead over the rest of Big South, so it is not the difficult to foresee both of them being in the final. If this championship game is anything like the two games they previously played, it would be well worth the price of admission. In the first matchup at Winthrop, the Eagles defended their home court in a back and forth game that they won 76-73. The second game at UNC Asheville was won by the Bulldogs in double overtime 107-104. Given that this game will be at Winthrop, I'm going to give the edge to the Eagles, though an Asheville victory would not be surprising.
UNC Asheville 70, Winthrop 75
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