After Dunk City put this league on the map last March, the 2014 season was highly anticipated.  However, it’s unlikely that the A-Sun will be able to use the momentum because, well, the league just isn’t that good.  Oh, and their best program (no, it’s actually not Florida Gulf Coast), Mercer, is heading to the SoCon next year.  The future of the league depends on the rebuild of ETSU and the continued building of FGCU and USC-Upstate before they get scooped up by a better league.  But, at least we have one more season of some solid basketball at the top of this bottom-feeding league.

All 25 entries have either #1 FGCU or #2 Mercer winning this tournament, with a large majority (15) going with Mercer.  6th-seeded North Florida could be huge for GrossSr and PapaCim, as they have them in the finals.  Dave went huge on Stetson in the quarters.  While Lynch and PapaCim are coming off A-Sun perfection last year, J has historically dominated this league, having won it 3 times – no one else has even shared this title more than once.

CHAMPIONSHIP (March 9th – 18 points)

#1 Florida Gulf Coast vs #2 Mercer
It seems as if the whole A-Sun season has been leading up to this one game with the regular season jockeying for position was to see who would host it.  But, the semifinal round didn’t have feel of predetermination, as both of these teams survived struggles on their home floors, including Mercer outlasting USC-Upstate in double-OT.  But, all that is moot now and it’s 40 minutes for all the marbles.  Last year, FGCU went into Macon, GA, and stole one from Mercer to qualify for the Big Dance, where they got a favorable 15-seed and the rest is, well, history…literally.  Now, Mercer will try to return the favor here (and, I wouldn’t want to see them lined up against me in the first round).

It is incredibly rare in the world of the CTC for everyone to have a shot in a conference championship game, but that is the case here.  15 people have the road Mercer team, while 10 have FGCU (Colton, Doogan, GrossSr, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, RDoc, Stri, Stumpf, WaTers).  No matter what happens here, the 2014 A-Sun will end in a four-way tie.  If FGCU wins, the crown will be shared by Colton, Doogan, Lazarow, and RDoc.  If Mercer wins, Becks, Bry, J, and Scoot will win the conference.

Mercer 68 – Florida Gulf Coast 60
Langston Hall finally gets it done, as Mercer wins their last ever A-Sun game, sending them Dancing for the first time in 29 years.  Hall – the conference POY – had 15 points, 7 boards, and 3 assists in leading his Bears to a big win over defending champs and last year’s tournament darlings, FGCU.  The Bears absolutely dominated the first half, but when they gave it all back in the second half, they didn’t blink and just followed their leader.  Hall hit big jumper after big jumper down the stretch and the Bears just looked like the better team.  This is not the last we hear from Dunk City, though, as after their NIT trip this year, they will have everyone back except for Chase Fieler next year.  And, with Mercer bolting for the SoCon, the Eagles have to be heavy favorites to win this league again next year.

15 people (Alexi, Becks, Bry, Caleb, Chris, Dave, Gersh, GrossJr, J, Lohse, Lynch, Primm,. Scoot, Stritts, Teddy) correctly predicted a Mercer victory here.  The other 10 missed their FGCU title pick in this game.  The 2014 CTC title will be shared four ways – all with perfect brackets and all with a hell of an A-Sun track record.  Becks goes perfect in his first ever A-Sun tournament.  Bry (the 2010 champ) and Scoot (the 2012 co-champ) each pick up their second A-Sun title belts.  And, the amazing J wins a share of – get this – his FOURTH A-Sun title.  J won the outright titles in 2008 and 2009 and shared it with Dave in 2011.  That kid sure knows his A-Sun hoops.

SEMIFINALS (March 6th – 12 points each)

#1 Florida Gulf Coast vs #4 East Tennessee State
The top-seeded Eagles pounded a terrible Stetson team in the quarterfinals in step one in trying to return to the big stage.  As the top seed, they get to stay in their dorm rooms on the beach for the entirety of the conference tournament.  In today’s semifinal, they welcome the ETSU team in from Johnson City, TN.  The Bucs survived a crazy double-OT thriller on Tuesday against Lipscomb.  Now, they have to regroup and see if they can handle a team that loves this time of year.

No one has ETSU winning this game, but Alexi, Chris, Dave, Lohse, Stritts, and Teddy all had Lipscomb here, so they will be rooting for ETSU to zero out this game.  An upset also wouldn’t be that terrible for the 15 people who have Mercer winning this tournament.

Florida Gulf Coast 69 – East Tennessee State 64
Dunk City got put to the test tonight in the first semifinal in the A-Sun.  At home, against a team that survived a double-OT thriller two nights before, the top-seeded Eagles were pushed to the brink, but survived and will now host the Atlantic Sun Championship on Sunday on ESPN2.  Brett Comer and his Lebron mask went for 11 and 4 assists, while Chase Feeler led the way with 22 and 15 rebounds.  ETSU heads back to Johnson City (whose mayor was in attendance in Fort Myers) knowing that they had their chances.

19 people got this one right, and 10 people keep alive their champion.

#2 Mercer vs #3 USC-Upstate
This is going to be a great semifinal battle in Macon, GA.  Mercer hammered Jacksonville on Tuesday in the quarters, while USC-Upstate got by North Florida, setting up this excellent battle.  USC-Upstate played Mercer really well this year, dominating the game in Spartanburg and losing a tight, overtime game here in Macon.  While Mercer is the better team, USC-Upstate has the talent to win this tournament.

Mac, Stri, Stumpf, and WaTers have USCU in the upset here.  GrossSr and PapaCim have already lost this game with North Florida.  The other 19 people all have Mercer here, including the 15 who have them winning this tournament.

Mercer 78 – USC-Upstate 75 (2 OTs)
I watched this game nearly start to finish and loved every minute of it.  It was truly a fantastic game and exactly why low-level college hoops is so fantastic.  The divergence of talent from the top to the bottom of a roster makes for such an interesting brand of basketball.  And, the best part of this game was simply watching the two best players (by far) in the Atlantic Sun trade blows back and forth through 50 minutes.  Mercer’s Langston Hall got the last laugh over USCU’s Torrey Craig with some cold-blooded threes. Upstate will go home and hope to get called by a postseason tournament, but if not, they will know that they really had a chance these past two seasons to do something special and now they may have to rebuild a little – which hurts when you get so close to the top but not reach it.  As for Mercer, they have one more chance to get their star, Hall, to the Dance.  They are heading to Fort Myers for a rematch of last year’s title game that they lost on their home floor.  They will try and return the favor to the top-seeded Eagles on Sunday.  If you haven’t seen an A-Sun game yet – tune in to that one on Sunday – you won’t be disappointed.

Mac, Stri, Stumpf, and WaTers missed the upset pick here with USCU.  GrossSr and PapaCim had already lost it.  The 19 others all picked up the 12 points here for the Mercer victory.  15 people keep alive a shot at 24 more for a Mercer championship.

QUARTEFINALS (March 4th – 6 points each)

#1 Florida Gulf Coast vs #8 Stetson
The funny part about the Eagles run to the Sweet 16 last year is that I had been on this team as a solid low-major team for a while, particularly because my parents have had a place across the street from the FGCU campus for almost a decade now, but I spent the whole time correcting people when they said “how is this team a low-major?” or “how were they only a 15-seed?” or “this isn’t a fluke – they’re THAT good!”  The fact is that they were lucky to get a 15-seed.  I thought they were a 16-seed.  They just didn’t have the results.  But, because of two high-profile wins in March, Coach Edfield parlayed a SECOND-PLACE finish in one of the worst leagues in the country into the head job at USC.  But, that is irrelevant to the 2014 version of Dunk City, which was – again – not as good as people think they are.  They still have Brett Comer (the solid, occasionally spectacular, often out-of-control point guard), Chase Fieler (the shockingly athletic, but not shockingly inconsistent small forward), and Bernard Thompson (a great second- or third-option, but not exactly a lead scorer type).  But, the heart of soul of last year’s nation-capturing team, Sherwood Brown, is gone – and he has not been replaced in any way.  But, they still have the athletes and style of play that works in the A-Sun and on the backs of a big win over Mercer last week, secured the top seed and homecourt advantage throughout this tournament.  I still think Mercer is the better team, but with the home court, FGCU has to be considered the favorite.  And, another perk of the top seed is that they get to open the tournament with a very, very bad Stetson team at home.

Dave is the only one that went for the HUGE upset here.  But, that doesn’t mean that there is a ton of support for the league’s top seed and defending champs.  FGCU actually only has 10 people (Colton, Doogan, GrossSr, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, RDoc, Stri, Stumpf, Waters) picking them to win this tournament, despite their homecourt advantage throughout the tournament.

Florida Gulf Coast 77 – Stetson 55
FGCU looked every bit the #1-seed, as they dismantled a hapless Hatter team by a 22-point margin that probably felt like 42.  The Eagles jumped out to a 35-13 lead and never looked back.

Dave missed a big upset pick here, while the 10 that have FGCU pegged as their A-Sun champs should feel fine about this win, but should also temper their excitement because Stetson stinks.

#4 East Tennessee State vs #5 Lipscomb
Both of these teams started conference play very poorly, but came on with big turnarounds.  Lipscomb’s turnaround came a lot later than ETSU’s (and too late to catch them in the standings), but was more impressive, including a big 21-point win over the league’s top team, FGCU, just last week.  This should be an interesting game and, in a league that has a bit of a dropoff after the top 3, should be the most competitive of the quarterfinals.

12 people (Alexi, Caleb, Chris, Dave, GrossJr, Lohse, Lynch, PapaCim, Primm, RDoc, Stritts, Teddy) went with Lipscomb in the minor upset on the road.  A surprising contingent (Alexi, Chris, Dave, Lohse, Stritts, and Teddy) actually have Lipscomb winning back-to-back road games to reach the finals.  Everyone who has ETSU here has them losing to FGCU in the semis.

East Tennessee State 89 – Lipscomb 88 (2 OT)
MADNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!  Welcome to the month of March, my friends.  The Month of Madness!  ETSU’s Jalen Riley, who finished the game with 28 and 10, hit a shot at the buzzer to give us our first overtime of the 2014 CTC.  Then, Lipscomb’s Khion Shankey tied it with a 3 at the end of the first OT and hit another big three to put the Bisons up 2 in the second overtime, but the Bucs hit 3 free throws down the stretch and made back-to-back huge stops to hold on and win what must have been an absolute thriller.  MADNESS!  ETSU now has to regroup enough to prepare for a semifinal trip to Dunk City.

This game was basically split down the middle, so the 13 people with the favored Buccaneers picked up a well-earned 6 points here.  The biggest losers here are the 6 people (Alexi, Chris, Dave, Lohse, Stritts, and Teddy) who had the Bison beating FGCU in the semis.

#2 Mercer vs #7 Jacksonville
After losing at FGCU, Mercer was still in position to win the league outright and secure a very important #1-seed, but they lost at home to North Florida on Thursday and were relegated to the 2-seed and now have an uphill climb to finally get Langston Hall (one of the best unknown players in the country) to the Dance.  The first step is a home game against a bad, but potentially dangerous Jacksonville team.  But, Mercer had no trouble with the Dolphins in the regular season, including a 37-point shellacking in Jacksonville.  This Bears team is – by almost any metric – head and shoulders above the rest of this league, but their stumbling down the stretch cost them the top seed and might force them to win on the road against a good FGCU team in the finals.

In CTC-land, this feels more like the 1/8 game, as no one has Mercer losing here, and 15 of the 25 people have the Bears winning this tournament.  In fact, only GrossSr, Mac, PapaCim, Stri, Stumpf, and Waters have them not reaching the finals, so those five would actually be better off losing this game.

Mercer 85 – Jacksonville 64
Much like top-seeded FGCU, 2nd-seeded Mercer rolled past an overmatched opponent in their home quarterfinal on Tuesday night.  The win was no surprise, but the fact that their stud 2-guard, Langston Hall only had 3 points (0-4 from the floor) is downright shocking.  He is much more than a scorer, though, and showed it tonight with 4 boards and 10 assists.  But, the Bears will need Hall to return to form if they are going to win this tournament.  As for Jax, the Dolphins end another somewhat disappointing season, but they were competitive throughout the year and have something to build on for 2014-15.

Everyone got this right, including 15 people who kept alive their A-Sun champs.

#3 USC-Upstate vs #6 North Florida
USC-Upstate taught us – yet again – the eternal lesson that it’s a whole lot easier to go from bad to good than good to great.  Upstate was a perennial doormat every year in D-1 until about 3 years ago, when they really started to develop.  But, the past 2-3 seasons, they have been a potential league title contender and it just hasn’t manifested itself in any banners.  They still have one of the true studs of the league in Torrey Craig and were still picked by many to win this league in the preseason, so they are still very much in contention for their first trip to the Dance, though they will probably have to win back-to-back road games against the best two teams in order to do it.  To get there, they will have a home date with a North Florida team that looked like the real surprise of the league early, but faded down the stretch.  They did pop up to win at Mercer on Thursday, but they had been struggling coming into that one.

8 people (Colton, Doogan, Gersh, GrossSr, Lazarow, Lynch, PapaCim, Primm) went with UNF in a nice upset pick here; GrossSr and PapaCim actually have them winning again to reach the finals.  Mac, Stri, Stumpf, and Waters have the most at stake with USCU here, as those four all have them going to the finals before losing at FGCU.

USC-Upstate 80 – North Florida 74
USC-Upstate led nearly the entire way and held off a late comeback by the Ospreys to move on to a semifinal date at Mercer on Thursday.  Upstate, who looked like they were going to have a disappointing season in the A-Sun, recovered to finish 3rd and are playing some really good ball and should give the best team in the league all they can handle in the semis.  UNF, who looked like they might be the sleeper of this league, has their season end here in Spartanburg.

8 people missed a really nice upset pick here, while GrossSr and PapaCim become the first CTC’ers of 2014 to lose a conference finalist, as they had the Ospreys going to the finals.

CTC UPDATE

Championship Picks

• #1 Florida Gulf Coast (10) – Colton, Doogan, GrossSr, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, RDoc, Stri, Stumpf, Waters
• #2 Mercer (15)

Biggest Upsets

• QF – #8 Stetson (Dave)
• SF – #6 North Florida (GrossSr, PapaCim)

Previous CTC Champions

• 2008 – J
• 2009 – J
• 2010 – Bry
• 2011 – Dave, J
• 2012 – Gersh, GrossJr, Lohse, Mac, Rikey, Scoot, Stri, Teddy
• 2013 – Lynch, PapaCim (perfect)

Final 2014 Scores

1. Becks – 72* (’14*)
2. Bry – 72* (’10, ’14*)
3. J – 72* (’08, ’09, ’11, ’14*)
4. Scoot – 72* (’12, ’14*)
5. Caleb – 66
6. Gersh – 66 (’12)
7. GrossJr – 66 (’12)
8. Lynch – 60 (’13*)
9. Primm – 60
10. Alexi – 54
11. Chris – 54
12. Lohse – 54 (’12)
13. Stritts – 54
14. Teddy – 54 (’12)
15. Dave – 48 (’11)
16. Colton – 42
17. Doogan – 42
18. Lazarow – 42
19. RDoc – 42
20. Mac – 36 (’12)
21. Stri – 36 (’12)
22. Stumpf – 36
23. WaTers – 36
24. GrossSr – 30
25. PapaCim – 24 (’13*)