The SWAC is terrible…again. I understand the draw of this conference and its importance to the cultural landscape of sports, but it really doesn’t belong in D-I because (a) they just can’t get quality players and (b) they can’t keep them eligible. Again this year, 4 of the 10 teams in the conference are ineligible for postseason play because of academic reasons. The conference got a special exception this year to allow all 10 teams to play in the tournament, though, and the conference will – GET THIS – award the auto-bid to the eligible team that went the furthest in the tournament. Uh…WHAT?!?!? Yep, SWAC basketball…it’s FANNNN-tastic. By the way, the ineligible teams are the two last-place teams in MVSU and Grambling, the 4th-place team ARPB, and, yep, you guessed it, first-place and regular season dominant, Southern. Reminiscent of last year when the dominant team all year was Texas-Southern and yet they were ineligible for postseason play. Awesome.
21 of the 25 have one of the top 2 seeds winning this tournament, with Southern getting 13 picks and Tx-Southern getting 8. Jackson State and Alcorn State are a couple of sleeper picks. GrossJr and Teddy both went perfect in the SWAC in 2013 and are trying to defend their titles. It was Teddy’s second SWAC championship – the only one with more than one.
CHAMPIONSHIP (March 15th – 12 points)
#2 Texas-Southern vs #8 Prairie View A&M
The Annual First Four Play-In game pits Texas-Southern and Prairie View. TSU has, expectedly, waltzed through the bottom half of the bracket, including a 12-point win over a decent Alabama State team in the semis on Friday. PVAM has won three straight to get here – crushing two prideless teams in MVSU and Southern before tackling Alabama A&M in Friday’s semifinal. The winner here is undoubtedly headed for Dayton’s First Four.
No one has PVAM here, but 9 people have TSU (Alexi, Becks, Colton, Dave, Doogan, GrossJr, Stri, Stritts, Teddy). Colton will win the SWAC outright if the Tigers win this game. He will have to share the title with Bry if Prairie View pulls off another upset.
SEMIFINALS (March 14th – 8 points each)
#2 Texas-Southern vs #3 Alabama State
Well, at least now we have done away with all the teams with nothing to play for and we are left with a 4-team tournament for the auto-bid. Texas-Southern, who wiped out Grambling on Wednesday, had a day to rest coming into this semi against a decent Alabama State team that took care of Alcorn State with ease. The winner of this game will be somewhat big favorites in the championship.
This is as big as it gets in the awful SWAC. PapaCim has already lost this game with Alcorn State. The other 24 are perfectly split down the middle on either side of this one. 9 people (Alexi, Becks, Colton, Dave, Doogan, GrossJr, Stri, Stritts, Teddy) have Texas-Southern winning this tournament. Bry, Chris, and WaTers have them going to the finals, but losing there. Of the other 12 that have Alabama State, only Lazarow, Lynch, and Stumpf have them winning it all.
Texas-Southern 73 – Alabama State 61
#5 Alabama A&M vs #8 Prairie View A&M
PVAM was the benefactor of Southern’s embarrassing rollover performance on Wednesday, while Bama A&M took care of another team with nothing to play for, ARPB. Now, these two play for a game on ESPN.
Dave and Lazarow are the only two with a chance to gain any points here, as they both have AAM in the finals. No one has either of these teams winning the tournament.
Prairie View A&M 55 – Alabama A&M 49
QUARTEFINALS (con’t – March 13th – 4 points each)
#3 Alabama State vs #6 Alcorn State
Both of these teams are at least eligible for postseason play, so that’s good. The winner will take on #2 Texas-Southern in the semis.
8 people (Becks, Bry, Dave, Doogan, GrossJr, PapaCim, Stri, WaTers) have the decent upset of Alcorn here. PapaCim has them going to the finals. Alabama State has the potential to bust some brackets in this one, though. Lazarow, Lynch, and Stumpf all have them winning this tournament. 9 others (Caleb, Gersh, GrossSr, J, Lohse, Mac, Primm, RDoc, Scoot) all have them going to the finals, but losing.
Alabama State 64 – Alcorn State 51
#4 AR-Pine Bluff vs #5 Alabama A&M
If UAPB is anything like Southern or MVSU, they will roll over and give up because they have no chance at the NCAA tournament. ‘Bama A&M does, so maybe they’ll get to roll through as if there were byes…oh wait, that’s how they were going to do it before giving these teams a chance to play for pride. The winner will take on the 8th-seeded Prairie View team that benefitted from Southern’s lack of any personal pride on Wednesday night
This is a total CTC toss-up game, as 13 have the underdog A&M, while 12 (Becks, Caleb, Chris, Colton, Gersh, GrossJr, J, Lohse, Lynch, Mac, RDoc, Stri) have UAPB. There are some future-round ramifications here, too, as Mac has UAPB winning this tournament. Becks, GrossJr, Lynch, and Stri has UAPB reaching the finals. Dave and Lazarow both put a finalist at risk here with A&M.
Alabama A&M 69 – AR-Pine Bluff 50
QUARTERFINALS (March 12th – 4 points each)
#2 Texas-Southern vs #10 Grambling State
Texas-Southern was supposed to dominate this league, particularly with Aaric Murray (LaSalle transfer) in the fold. But, they were uneven and inconsistent. They started playing their best ball late, but didn’t come close to catching Southern, who ran away with it. But, the NCAA has upheld their ruling of making Southern ineligible, so Texas-Southern is really just playing a 4-team tournament hoping Southern makes the finals. If so, the other finalist would get the auto-bid regardless of the championship result. Game one of this mini-tournament will be against a Grambling team that is actually showing life and knocked off Jackson State on Tuesday.
6 people (J, Lazarow, Lohse, Mac, Primm, RDoc) have already lost this game with JSU. The other 19 all have Tx-S here, including 9 people (Alexi, Becks, Colton, Dave, Doogan, GrossJr, Stri, Stritts, Teddy) that have TSU winning this tournament.
Texas-Southern 79 – Grambling State 54
TSU has no trouble with Grambling, as they roll into the semis.
19 people got this one right, including 9 that have the Tigers taking this tournament.
#1 Southern vs #8 Prairie View A&M
Southern was dominant in the SWAC this year, but it doesn’t matter because they will not be playing in the NCAA tournament because of academic issues. That impact could go two ways. It could make them less hungry because there isn’t that carrot at the end or it could make them hungrier because this is now their real finale for 2014. The first time we get to see any signs of which one will be in Wednesday’s quarterfinal against a PV team that knocked off Miss Valley State, who is also ineligible.
All 25 people have Southern here with most of the field taking them to win this tournament.
Prairie View A&M 64 – Southern 46
Wow, talk about a total lack of any personal pride. The Southern Jaguars – who are head and shoulders better than anyone in this league, particularly PVAM – found out a couple days ago that they weren’t going to be eligible for the NCAA tournament and so they just flat-out didn’t show up. PVAM is still alive here and is one of the few eligible teams in this tournament.
All 25 people lost this game, including a ton of people who had them winning this tournament.
OPENING ROUND (March 11th – 2 points each)
#8 Prairie View A&M vs #9 Mississippi Valley State
Prairie View was supposed to compete for an upper-division finish, but lost some close games and fell to a pigtail game here. MVSU is ineligible for postseason and didn’t seem to care much about the season finishing only above (and barely) a Grambling team that lost like 1,000 straight games. The winner of this game faces another ineligible, top-seeded Southern.
Only 7 people went with the 8-seed Prairie View. No one has either of these teams beating Southern.
Prairie View A&M 79 – Mississippi Valley State 63
#7 Jackson State vs #10 Grambling State
Grambling went 0-28 in 2012-13 and then lost their first 18 games against D-I opponents this year. So, after 46 straight losses, they – why not – win 3 of their next 6 games, with the 3 losses all rather close. So, I guess they are no longer an automatic win, which is bad news for Jackson State, who could use a few of them after a very disappointing season for them. Grambling is ineligible for postseason play, so I guess they’re just playing “for fun.” The winner takes on #2 Texas-Southern in the quarterfinals.
5 people (Becks, Bry, Colton, Lynch, Stumpf) took a shot with Grambling here. 6 people (J, Lazarow, Lohse, Mac, Primm, RDoc) actually have JSU beating TxS in the quarters.
Grambling State 84 – Jackson State 75
CTC UPDATE
Championship Picks
- #1 Southern (13)
- #2 Texas-Southern (8) – Alexi, Becks, Colton, Doogan, GrossJr, Stri, Stritts, Teddy
- #3 Alabama State (3) – Lazarow, Lynch, Stumpf
- #4 AR-Pine Bluff (1) – Mac
Biggest Upsets
- R1 – #10 Grambling State (Becks, Bry, Colton, Lynch, Stumpf)
- QF – #7 Jackson State (J, Lazarow, Lohse, Mac, Primm, RDoc)
- SF – #6 Alcorn State (PapaCim)
Previous CTC Champions
- 2008 – Waters
- 2009 – Ina (perfect)
- 2010 – Teddy
- 2011 – Lynch
- 2012 – Dave, Doogan, Stri (perfect)
- 2013 – GrossJr, Rikey, Teddy (perfect)
2014 Scores
