The A-Sun doesn’t do well in the “computer numbers,” but I think it is a much better league than any of those tempo-free numbers or the ole RPI may claim. Mercer and Florida Gulf Coast can rival any low-major top two and many of the mid-majors, as well. And, then there is USC-Upstate, which is a very talented team that just hasn’t put it together. And, let’s not forget that Stetson nearly beat the ACC’s best team, and FGC DID beat the ACC’s best team. Oh, and Mercer knocked off Florida St. And, with the exception of Kennessaw St., who didn’t qualify for the conference tournament, there was not an easy night all year in the A-Sun.
CHAMPIONSHIP (March 9th – 24 points)
#1 Mercer vs #2 Florida Gulf Coast
Two years ago, Florida Gulf Coast advanced to the finals of the conference tournament as a Cinderella 7-seed and seemed just happy to be on ESPN, as they got pummeled by Belmont. Last year, as the 3-seed, they got there again and put up more of a fight, but still lost to a superior Belmont team. This year, for the third straight year, the Eagles will play for a shot at their first ever trip to the Dance. Unfortunately, they are up against the odds again, as they have to face a red-hot and talented Mercer team on their home floor. But, FGC looked the better team in the semifinal double-header on Friday, as they took care of business against #3 Stetson, while Mercer struggled all day against #5 USC-Upstate. This should be good…
Only GrossSr (Jacksonville), Gersh and Teddy (Stetson) don’t have skin in this game. The other 21 people all have a champion in play here. And, we will multiple perfect A-Sun brackets. If Mercer wins, Alex, Cheryl, Rikey, and RDoc will share the 2013 A-Sun crown with perfection. If FGC wins, Lynch and PapaCim will boast a perfect 2013 A-Sun bracket.
Florida Gulf Coast 88 – Mercer 75
Light-scoring point guard, Brett Comer went for 21 points and A-Sun POY, Sherwood Brown, added 16 points and 11 boards from the guard spot, as the Eagles of FGC snap Mercer’s 17-game home winning streak and head to The Dance.
Lynch and PapaCim complete perfect A-Sun brackets with the win here. Caleb, GrossJr, J, Lohse, Primm, Scoot, and Waters also hit this champions pick.
SEMIFINALS (March 8th – 12 points each)
#2 Florida Gulf Coast vs #3 Stetson
The Stetson Hatters erased a halftime deficit in style in Thursday night’s 21-point quarterfinal win over East Tennessee St. and now have to come back a day later and take on the biggest, most physical team in the A-Sun, who has had two days to recover from a relatively tough quartefinal win over North Florida. The good news for Stetson is that they match up relatively well inside with FGC with their big guy Adam Pegg; the question is can they control Sherwood Brown and Chase Fieler on the wings for FGC. Gulf Coast remains undefeated (8-0) against teams from the state of Florida and with Jacksonville losing Thursday, this will be the last Florida team they face this year, unless they win the A-Sun and draw Miami (who, they’ve already beaten) or Florida in the first round of the Big Dance.
Alexi, Gersh, Lazarow, Mac, Stumpf, and Teddy all have Stetson in the minor upset here, with Gersh and Teddy picking the Hatters to win the whole thing. Caleb, GrossJr, J, Lohse, PapaCim, Primm, Scoot, and Waters all picked FGC to win this tournament, so multiple people will lose a champion here today. Dave and GrossSr have already lost this game, having picked ETSU.
Florida Gulf Coast 72 – Stetson 58
Sherwood Brown does what Sherwood Brown does – dominate. Brown had 18 points, 7 boards, and 3 steals as FGC explodes for 48 second-half points in advancing to their third-straight A-Sun championship game. The Eagles took care of business on the glass, outrebounding Stetson 40-29.
16 people correctly predicted the Eagles would return to the finals. Caleb, GrossJr, J, Lohse, PapaCim, Primm, Scoot, and Waters all keep their champion alive..
#1 Mercer vs #5 USC-Upstate
A really good semifinal double-header in Macon, GA, will be capped off by a great semifinal matchup between the top-seeded Bears and the talented, but underachieving Spartans. Both teams had somewhat easy quarterfinals, with Mercer cruising past #8 Lipscomb on Wednesday, while USCU knocked off #4 Jacksonville on Thursday. The host, Bears, have yet to win this tournament since it moved to their home floor, but that was mainly because Belmont was still in the league.
Nobody has USCU winning this game, but Caleb and GrossSr are rooting for them because they have Jacksonville winning this game, so they are hoping no one gets any points here. Half the field has Mercer cutting down the A-Sun nets, so the other half are probably USCU fans today, as well.
Mercer 72 – USC-Upstate 64
This game was tied at 57 with about 3:30 play when USCU’s best player and A-Sun Conference Player of the Year, Torrey Craig went down with an apparent concussion and Mercer’s star, Langston Hall, just took over. The Bears, who have one of the nation’s longest winning streaks are now one home win away from Dancing.
22 people got this right, 12 of whom keep alive their champion.
QUARTERFINALS (March 6th & 7th – 6 points each)
#3 Stetson vs #6 East Tennessee St.
The Stetson Hatters this year were supposed to compete just to make the 8-team A-Sun tournament, but they were actually in contention for a conference title for a while, before finishing a respectable 3rd place behind the two big guns in the conference. ETSU has the opposite story. They were supposed to possibly challenge the big guys up top, but needed a late-season surge to assure themselves a place here at the tournament table. This game is a battle of the guard-oriented ETSU team and a Stetson team with a lot of size. The winner will get to face Florida Gulf Coast in Friday’s semifinal.
Eight people went for a decent pick here with ETSU (Bry, Dave, Doogan, GrossJr, GrossSr, J, Scoot, and Waters). Dave and GrossSr took it a step further, as they both have ETSU reaching the finals. Gersh and Teddy are the biggest Stetson fans, as they picked them to cut down the A-Sun nets on Saturday. Lazarow, Mac, and Stumpf all pegged the Hatters to reach the finals.
Stetson 67 – East Tennessee St. 46
The Stetson Hatters saw their excellent season slipping away at halftime, when they trailed by 3, but came out of the locker room like gangbusters and blew the doors off of ETSU for the relatively easy 21-point win. The Hatters advance to Friday’s semifinals to take on 2nd-seeded Florida Gulf Coast.
Eight people missed this one, including Dave and GrossSr, who lost a finalist here. Gersh and Teddy keep their A-Sun champs alive.
#4 Jacksonville vs #5 USC-Upstate
Probably the most intriguing matchup of the A-Sun quarters is Thursday’s 4-5 game between Jacksonville and Upstate. The A-Sun this year was supposed to be a thrilling three-team race all year, but one team just didn’t show up to the party – USC-Upstate. Between Torrey Craig, Ricardo Glenn, and Jodd Maxey, many believe that this Spartan team has clearly the most talent in the entire conference, but they have just been unable to put any semblance of consistency together this year. Jacksonville, on the other hand, has probably overachieved given the talent level that they have. Until the final two weeks of the season, the Dolphins were right in the mix for a conference title. They finished #4 and need to beat Upstate for a semifinal shot at #1 Mercer.
Much of the field was enamored enough with the talent of Upstate to take them here in the minor upset, though no one was enamored enough to have them beating Mercer in the semis. Ten people (Caleb, Dave, Gersh, GrossSr, Lohse, Primm, Scoot, Stumpf, Teddy, and Waters) took the favored Dolphins in this one, with Caleb putting the ‘Phins through to the finals, and GrossSr picking them to win the whole thing.
USC-Upstate 76 – Jacksonville 62
All 5 Upstate starters were in double-figures, as the Spartans take one step towards vindicating their otherwise disappointing season. They will take a shot at top-seeded Mercer (on the Bears home floor) in Friday’s semifinal. A mediocre Jacksonville season comes to a close in this one.
Ten people missed this minor upset, with Caleb losing a finalist and GrossSr losing a champion.
#2 Florida Gulf Coast vs #7 North Florida
As good of a season as FGC had – and it was, clearly, the best in program history – they couldn’t pull out their first conference title and now they get a pretty tough quarterfinal against a UNF team that won 8 conference games and has been playing very well lately.
Surprisingly, Lazarow is the only one who took this very enticing upset pick. Nine people will be playing close on ESPN3 this afternoon, as they have FGC winning this tournament.
Florida Gulf Coast 73 – North Florida 63
As expected, the Ospreys of UNF put up a good fight, but eventually the more talented FGC team prevailed, despite a relatively quiet day from their star, Sherwood Brown. For UNF, it was quite the way to close out a career for Parker Smith, who closed out a stellar career with 29 points and looked like the best player on the floor for most of this game. The FGC Eagles are now 8-0 against teams in the state of Florida and might get a shot at 9-0 in the semis if Stetson beats E.Tennessee St. in the quarterfinal.
Lazarow came close, but missed on his solo upset pick here. The nine with FGC winning this tournament cleared the first hurdle.
#1 Mercer vs #8 Lipscomb
Just like FGC, top-seeded Mercer doesn’t get a walkover in the quarters, either, as Lipscomb is playing their best ball of the year and could put up a fight in the host’s own gym.
This is a rather mundane game for CTC purposes, as no one has Mercer going down here. Though, half the field has someone other than Mercer winning this tournament, so they wouldn’t mind a Lipscomb upset here.
Mercer 82 – Lipscomb 48
Top-seeded Mercer looked like the A-Sun team to beat on Wednesday, as they pounded Lipscomb to open their A-Sun tournament run. First-team all A-Sun point guard, Langston Hall went for 12 points and 10 assists, as the Bears move on to the semis on Friday. A rough season for Lipscomb comes to a close with a whimper.
Not much going on in the CTC here, as everyone got this one right.
CTC UPDATE
Championship Picks
- #1 Mercer (12)
- #2 Florida Gulf Coast (9)
- #3 Stetson (2)
- #4 Jacksonville (1)
Biggest Upsets
- QF – #7 North Florida (Lazarow)
- SF – #6 East Tennessee St. (Dave & GrossSr)
- Champ – #4 Jacksonville (GrossSr)
Previous CTC Champions
- 2008 – J
- 2009 – J
- 2010 – Bry
- 2011 – Dave & J
- 2012 – Gersh, Gross, Lohse, Mac, Rikey, Scoot, Stri & Teddy
2013 FINAL SCORES
- Lynch (’13*) – 75 (perfect)
- PapaCim (’13*) – 75 (perfect)
- GrossJr (’12) – 69
- J (’08, ’09, ’11) – 69
- Lohse (’12) – 66
- Primm – 66
- Scoot (’12) – 60
- Waters – 60
- Caleb – 54
- Alex – 51
- Cheryl – 51
- RDoc – 51
- Rikey (’12) – 51
- Bry (’10) – 45
- Doogan – 45
- LohseJr – 42
- Alexi – 39
- Mac (’12) -39
- Lazarow – 33
- Gersh (’12) – 30
- Stumpf – 30
- Teddy (’12) – 30
- Dave – 24
- GrossSr – 12
