Ragin’ Cajuns top seeded for Sun Belt men’s basketball tournament in New Orleans

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Complete Bracket

NEW ORLEANS – The seeds and matchups for the 2018 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Basketball Championship, presented by First Bank and Trust and hosted at Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, have been determined following the conclusion of the conference’s regular season on Saturday evening.

The championship begins on Wednesday, March 7 and concludes with the title game on Selection Sunday, March 11. The first-round, quarterfinal and semifinal games are set for live coverage on ESPN3 with Sunday’s championship game slated for live coverage on ESPN2. All games will be available on the WatchESPN app.

Louisiana (26-5, 16-2 Sun Belt) entered the final week of the season having already clinched the outright regular-season title and secured the No. 1 seed and a first-round bye. The Ragin’ Cajuns claimed their first Sun Belt regular-season title since sharing the 1999-2000 title with South Alabama and their first outright regular-season title since joining the conference in 1991-92.

For the fourth time in the five seasons, Georgia State (21-10, 12-6) earned a first-round bye with the No. 2 seed. Georgia Southern (20-11, 11-7) secured the No. 3 seed and UTA (19-12, 10-8) secured the No. 4 seed to round out the first-round byes to the quarterfinals.

The championship tips off on Wednesday, March 8 with a quartet of first-round games, starting with No. 8 seed Coastal Carolina (14-17, 8-10) vs. No. 9 seed Texas State (7-11, 14-17) at 11:30 a.m. CT and No. 5 seed Appalachian State (14-17, 9-9) vs. No. 12 seed Little Rock (7-24, 4-14) at 2 p.m. CT. The night session features No. 7 seed Troy (15-16, 9-9) vs. No. 10 seed South Alabama (14-17, 7-11) at 5 p.m. CT and No. 6 seed ULM (15-14, 9-9) vs. No. 11 seed Arkansas State (11-20, 6-12) at 7:30 p.m. CT.

The winners of Wednesday’s first-round games advance to Friday’s quarterfinals with games slated for 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. CT. Saturday’s semifinals are scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. CT and Sunday’s championship game is set for a 1 p.m. CT.

2018 SUN BELT MEN’S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Schedule
Wednesday, March 7 (First Round) 
Game 1 – #9 Texas State vs. #8 Coastal Carolina (ESPN3), 11:30 AM
Game 2 – #12 Little Rock vs. #5 Appalachian State (ESPN3), 2:00 PM
Game 3 – #10 South Alabama vs. #7 Troy (ESPN3), 5:00 PM
Game 4 – #11 Arkansas State vs. #6 ULM (ESPN3), 7:30 PM

Friday, March 9 (Quarterfinals)     
Game 5 – Game 1 Winner vs. #1 Louisiana (ESPN3), 11:30 AM
Game 6 – Game 2 Winner vs. #4 UTA (ESPN3), 2:00 PM
Game 7 – Game 3 Winner vs. #2 Georgia State (ESPN3), 5:00 PM
Game 8 – Game 4 Winner vs. #3 Georgia Southern (ESPN3), 7:30 PM

Saturday, March 10 (Semifinals)   
Game 9 – Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner (ESPN3), 11:30 AM
Game 10 – Game 7 Winner vs. Game 8 Winner (ESPN3), 2:00 PM

Sunday, March 11 (Championship) 
Game 11 – Championship Game (ESPN2), 1:00 PM

Championship Seeds and Conference Records
1. Louisiana (16-2)
2. Georgia State (12-6)
3. Georgia Southern (11-7)
4. UTA (10-8)
5. Appalachian State (9-9)1
6. ULM (9-9)1
7. Troy (9-9)1
8. Coastal Carolina (8-10)
9. Texas State (7-11)2
10. South Alabama (7-11)2
11. Arkansas State (6-12)
12. Little Rock (4-14)

Tiebreakers
1. The records among three teams tied for fifth place were Appalachian State (2-1, .667), Troy (2-2, .500) and ULM (1-2, .333). With the best winning percentage among the three tied teams, Appalachian State earned the No. 5 seed.

With Appalachian State removed from the three-team tiebreaker, the two remaining teams revert to a two-team tiebreaker. ULM and Troy split their regular-season series (1-1) so the tie must be broken by comparing the teams’ winning percentage vs. the teams occupying the highest positions in the regular-season standings:

vs. Louisiana – ULM 0-2 (.000), Troy 0-2 (.000)
vs. Georgia State – ULM 1-0 (1.000), Troy 2-0 (1.000)
vs. Georgia Southern – ULM 1-0 (1.000), Troy 0-2 (.000)
With the better winning percentage vs. Georgia Southern, ULM earned the No. 6 seed and Troy received the No. 7 seed.

2. Texas State earned the No. 9 seed over South Alabama by virtue of the Bobcats’ head-to-head win over the Jaguars on Jan. 4.

About the Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference continues to establish itself as a force to be reckoned with in competition.  The 2016-17 athletic season showed that the Sun Belt Conference takes a back seat to no other league in its competitive balance and in proving itself deserving of its status as a member of the NCAA’s highest conference tier.

The Sun Belt has gone 8-3 in bowl games the past two years, which makes the Sun Belt’s winning percentage the best among all conferences. In fact, over the past four years no one ranks higher in bowl winning percentage than the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt also had the most wins and best win percentage among the “Group of Five” peer conferences, including victories over teams in the two top-rated leagues in the final computer rankings.

During the recent 2016-17 academic year, Sun Belt member institutions awarded over $50 million in scholarships to more than 3,100 student-athletes, while also providing life experiences such as team building, domestic and foreign travel, community service, mentoring and recognition through honors and awards.

Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana, ULM, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy will give the league 10 football members and enable the Sun Belt to inaugurate divisional football play and stage a conference championship game in 2018. Little Rock and UTA compete as Sun Belt members in all sports other than football.
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