This a D-I conference by official title only.  The quality of basketball is not nearly on a D-I level, with the exception of two teams – one of whom (Texas-Southern) isn’t eligible for the conference tournament due to academic performance.  The only real interesting aspect of this conference tournament is the change that they made to the format of this 7-team tournament this year.  It is really interesting how they have laid it out, where the top seed gets a bye AND gets to face the winner of the worst two teams.  Very interesting and thoughtful.  I commend the SWAC for thinking creatively, but, realistically, this tournament is essentially unwatchable.  Expect the winner (which should be Southern) to lose in the First Four next week.  If not Southern, I guess look for Jackson St. to cut down the nets, but they are a whole level below.  The only other competitor to Southern (and TX-Southern) would have been AR-Pine Bluff, but they didn’t make the academic scores to qualify either.

CHAMPIONSHIP (March 16th – 12 points)

#1 Southern vs #4 Prairie View
The Jaguars of Southern looked less than dominant, but still took a 13-point semifinal win over Alabama A&M on Friday.  Prairie View handled #2 Jackson St. in the early game and will now try and get themselves to Dayton with a win here.

Dave and Gersh have Prairie View in a really nice champion pick here.  Cheryl, Lynch, and Mac have already lost this game.  The other 19 people all have Southern.   If Southern wins, GrossJr, Rikey, and Teddy will share the 2013 CTC SWAC crown.  If Prairie View wins, Gersh will win the title outright.

SEMIFINALS (March 15th – 8 points each)

#2 Jackson St. vs #4 Prairie View
Jackson St. came from behind to beat Alabama St. on Thursday, while PV upset 3rd-seeded Alcorn St.  Now, they face off here in the semis for the right to play in the final of the First Four Invitational.

The field was all over the map with picking the winner of this semifinal.  Alexi, Cheryl, Lohse, Primm, RDoc, and Waters have Jackson St. here.  Alex, Bry, Dave, Gersh, GrossJr, Rikey, and Teddy all have Prairie View.  The other 11 have already lost this game with either Alcorn St. or Alabama St.  At least one person is going to lose a champ here, as Cheryl has Jackson St. winning this tournament, while Dave and Gersh have PV.

#1 Southern vs #6 Alabama A&M
This conference was seven pathetic teams, one just-barely-not-pathetic team, and two semi-decent low-major teams.  Well, the just-barely-not-pathetic team (AR-Pine Bluff) and one of the two semi-decent low-major teams (Texas-Southern) are ineligible for this tournament, so we’re left with Southern and six pathetic D-I teams.  Southern not winning this tournament (particularly because they only have to win two games to do it, and the first was against the winner of a game between the two worst teams in the worst conference) would probably be more surprising than if any other team in the country were to fall.  They open Friday against an Alabama A&M team that got here by beating an 0-29 team by 8 points.

All 24 people have Southern here, with 19 of them picking the Jaguars to win the tournament and be placed in the First Four in Dayton.

QUARTERFINALS (March 13th & 14th – 4 points each)

#6 Alabama A&M vs #7 Grambling
This Grambling team might go down as the worst team in NCAA D-I history.  Their roster consists of mostly walkons and the scholarship players aren’t very good.  They lost all 27 games they played this year and never had a final score closer than 13.  They didn’t have a single second-half lead, and there were very few times in the second half that they were even within double-digits.  Alabama A&M isn’t good at all, but Grambling is historically bad.  The non-loser of this game will get #1 Southern in the semifinals.

Cheryl, Dave, LohseJr, PapaCim, Primm, and Waters took a shot at Grambling here.  No one has either of these teams beating Southern in the semis.

#3 Alcorn St. vs #4 Prairie View
Alcorn St. was probably the closest thing to a contender to Southern, among the teams that will be playing in the tournament, but they were not very close.  Prairie View has a little talent, actually, but almost no results to show for it.

This is kind of a big CTC game – at least as bis as a SWAC quarterfinal can be (which isn’t very big).  Ten people (Alex, Bry, Cheryl, Dave, Gersh, GrossJr, Primm, Rikey, RDoc, and Teddy) have PV in the mild upset here.  Alex, Bry, GrossJr, Rikey, and Teddy all have them losing in the finals.  Dave and Gersh both have them winning this whole tournament.  Doogan, LohseJr, and Stumpf have Alcorn St. going to the finals and losing, while Lynch and Mac have them winning this tournament.  So, no matter what happens here, we will have some people lose finalists and other lose champions here.

#2 Jackson St. vs #5 Alabama St.
Jackson St. has the best tempo-free numbers of anyone team in the tournament other than Southern, so I guess they are as deserving as anyone of the 2-seed.  Alabama St. showed some signs of life in conference play, but finished middle of the pack.

Only eleven people (Alexi, Cheryl, GrossJr, Lohse, LohseJr, Mac, Primm, Rikey, RDoc, Teddy, and Waters) went with the favorites, JSU, here.  Cheryl is the only one to take this 2-seed to win the tournament.  Caleb, GrossSr, J, Lazarow, PapaCim, and Scoot all have Alabama St. reaching the finals, though none of them have them winning.

CTC UPDATE

Championship Picks

• #1 Southern (19)
• #2 Jackson St. (1)
• #3 Alcorn St. (2)
• #4 Prairie View (2)

Biggest Upsets

• QF – #7 Grambling (Cheryl, Dave, LohseJr, PapaCim, Primm & Waters)
• SF – #5 Alabama St. (Caleb, GrossSr, J, Lazarow, PapaCim & Scoot)
• Champ – #4 Prairie View (Dave & Gersh)

Previous CTC Champions

• 2008 – Waters
• 2009 – Ina (perfect)
• 2010 – Teddy
• 2011 – Lynch
• 2012 – Dave, Doogan & Stri (perfect)

2013 Scores