2018 Men's Basketball Championship Seedings Finalized
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – The official seedings and pairings for next week’s Big South Conference Men’s Basketball Championship are now finalized, and Radford -- predicted to finish seventh in the preseason poll -- is the No. 2 seed based on its current RPI of 140 through all college basketball games played of Feb. 24. Winthrop lands in the No. 3 seed as its current RPI is 170. The teams tied for second in the Big South standings at 12-6, and the tiebreaker procedure reached the final step of each team’s RPI due to no advantage in the previous steps.
OFFICIAL BRACKET
CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
UNC Asheville is the No. 1 seed and will host the quarterfinals and semifinals March 1-2. Tickets are now on sale through Asheville’s ticket office and by clicking here. First round action begins Tuesday night, Feb. 27 with No. 7 High Point hosting No. 10 Longwood at 7:00pm, while No. 8 Charleston Southern will host No. 9 Presbyterian College also at 7:00pm. The two first round games on Feb. 27 will be broadcast live on the Big South Network and Roku.
Campbell is the No. 4 seed with its 10-8 conference record, while Presbyterian College (4-14) is the No. 9 seed and Longwood (3-15) is the No. 10 seed.
A four-way tie for fifth-place featured Liberty, Gardner-Webb, High Point and Charleston Southern all finish at 9-9 in league play. The first multi-team tiebreaker of collective head-to-head records did not create an advantage as each team went 3-3 against the other. Moving to the top of the standings, Charleston Southern fell to the No. 8 seed as it went 0-2 against Asheville compared to 1-1 for the other three. The remaining three-way tie between Liberty, Gardner-Webb and High Point was broken by the combined record against second-place Radford and Winthrop, with the Flames receiving the No. 5 seed with its 2-2 head-to-head mark compared to 1-3 for both GWU and HPU. That reduced two-way tie between Gardner-Webb and High Point was settled by ninth-place Presbyterian due to no advantage head-to-head or against the top eight teams in the standings. Gardner-Webb swept the Blue Hose to collect the No. 6 seed, while High Point went 1-1 to fall to the No. 7 line. The top six teams earned byes into the quarterfinals.
Radford and Winthrop tied for second-place at 12-6, and the tiebreaker procedure reached the final step of each team’s RPI due to no advantage in the previous steps in the following order: head-to-head (teams split the season series, 1-1); collective record vs. team(s) occupying the highest position in the final regular-season standings on down: UNC Asheville (both teams split with AVL, 1-1), Campbell (both teams split with CAM, 1-1), 9-9 four-way tie of Liberty, Gardner-Webb, High Point, Charleston Southern (both teams combined for 5-3 records), Presbyterian (both teams swept PC, 2-0) and Longwood (both teams swept LW, 2-0). If procedures fail to establish an advantage, the team with the highest ranking in the most recent College Basketball RPI Report will be awarded the better seed.
First round action begins Tuesday night, Feb. 27 with No. 7 High Point hosting No. 10 Longwood, while No. 8 Charleston Southern will host No. 9 Presbyterian College. The winners of both contests advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals round, which begins at 1:00pm at Kimmel Arena with the No. 2 seed facing the winner of High Point/Longwood, followed by the No. 3 seed vs. No. 6 Gardner-Webb at 3:00pm. The 7:00pm game will feature No. 1 UNC Asheville vs. the winner of Charleston Southern/Presbyterian, with No. 4 Campbell playing No. 5 Liberty at 9:00pm.
The two first round games on Feb. 27 will be broadcast live on the Big South Network and Roku. The 2018 Big South Men’s Basketball Championship will continue with the quarterfinals on Thursday, March 1 and semifinals on Friday, March 2 with both days being carried live on ESPN3 and WatchESPN. The Championship game will be contested Sunday, March 4 live on ESPN at 1:00pm. 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 – Tuesday, Feb. 27 – Big South Network/Roku
Game 1: #10 Longwood at #7 High Point, 7:00pm
Game 2: #9 Presbyterian at #8 Charleston Southern, 7:00pm
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 1 – ESPN3
Game 3: #2 Radford vs. #7/10 winner, 1:00pm
Game 4: #3 Winthrop vs. #6 Gardner-Webb, 3:00pm
Game 5: #1 UNC Asheville vs. #8/9 winner, 7:00pm
Game 6: #4 Campbell vs. #5 Liberty, 9:00pm
Semifinals - Friday, March 2 – ESPN3
Game 7: Semifinals – Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 6:00pm
Game 8: Semifinals – Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 8:00pm
Championship - Sunday, March 4 – ESPN
Game 9: Championship – Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 1:00pm