The seedings and pairings for the upcoming Hercules Tires Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Championship have been determined following the conclusion of the conference’s regular-season schedule Wednesday evening, and the Radford Highlanders nabbed the no.-2 seed with their 12-6 conference record.
For this season only, the seedings were determined by a conference-developed ranking index formula with the league winning percentage weighted at 75 percent and the percent of conference games played at 25 percent to address partial team schedules not played to due COVID pauses.
Defending Champion Winthrop captured the outright Big South regular-season championship at 17-1 and is the no.-1 seed in the conference tournament for the first time since 2017. Radford is the No. 2 seed after finishing with a 12-6 Big-South record, followed by Campbell (11-6) at No. 3. UNC Asheville’s 9-5 Big South-record earned the Bulldogs the no.-4 seed above Longwood and Gardner-Webb, who tied for fifth-place in the league standings at 10-10. Longwood received the no.-5 seed based on its 2-0 series sweep of GWU.
Hampton (9-9 Big South) is the seventh seed, High Point is number eight at 6-11, USC Upstate (5-11) landed in the ninth spot, and Presbyterian College is no. 10 (5-12. Charleston Southern (2-15 Big South record) would have been the No. 11 seed but will not compete in the tournament due to a COVID pause.
First- round action begins today Feb. 27, with Hampton hosting Presbyterian and High Point hosting USC Upstate. The winners of the two games advance to Monday’s quarterfinal round, which begin at 6:00 p.m. with Winthrop facing the winner of High Point/USC Upstate and no. – Radford hosting the winner of Hampton/Presbyterian.
At 7:00 p.m., Campbell will host Gardner-Webb followed by UNC Asheville playing Longwood. The semifinals are scheduled for Thursday, March 4, at the home site of the higher seed with the highest remaining seed hosting the championship game on Sunday, March 7. Contingency plans to complete the tournament are in place and will be implemented as appropriate.
Today’s first-round games will be broadcast live on ESPN3 as will the quarterfinals on Monday, March 1. The semifinals on Thursday, March 4, will air on ESPN+ while the championship game on Sunday, March 7, will be televised live on ESPN and broadcast on Westwood One Sports at noon. The Big South’s tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The conference championship schedule is as follows:
First Round – Saturday, Feb. 27 – ESPN3: #10 Presbyterian at #7 Hampton, 2:00 p.m.; #9 USC Upstate at #8 High Point, 4:00 p.m.
Quarterfinals – Monday, March 1 – ESPN3: #8/9 winner at #1 Winthrop, 6:00 p.m.; #5 Longwood at #4 UNC Asheville, 7:00 p.m.; #7/10 winner at #2 Radford, 6:00 p.m.; #6 Gardner-Webb at #3 Campbell, 7:00 p.m.
Semifinals – Thursday, March 4 – ESPN+: semifinal Game 1 – 6:00 p.m. (higher seeded host team); semifinal Game 2 – 7:00 p.m.
Championship – Sunday, March 7 – ESPN at highest remaining seed, 1 at noon.
