Monday Conference Championships Preview

Two more teams from the Southern Conference and Sun Belt will punch their tickets to the NCAA Tournament. Will the favorites prevail?

Following today’s games, we will have a total of 6 of the field of 68 set for the NCAA Tournament as two teams from the SoCon and Sun Belt will guarantee themselves additional games this postseason.

• Samford vs ETSU

• James Madison vs Arkansas State

Samford vs ETSU

The Cinderella story of the SoCon Conference Tournament belongs to ETSU who enters the Championship game as the 7 seed. It’s be a journey of upsets for the Buccaneers who started off with a 98-66 blow out win against VMI, then proceeded with upsetting 2 seeded UNC Greensboro 73-62 and then 3 seeded Chattanooga 85-84 in a thrilling overtime win on Sunday evening.

It’s been a team effort thus far for ETSU. Against UNC Greensboro Ebby Asamoah dropped 24 points and 6 rebounds, while Quimari Peterson followed up with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal. Against Chattanooga Peterson led the way with 27 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2 steals, while Asamoah followed up with 21 points and 2 rebounds.

In the overtime win over Chattanooga, ETSU overcame a 38-27 deficit at halftime to outscore the Mocs 52-41 in the second half. With 26 seconds left, Chattanooga was up 79-77 with possession of the ball. It looked like the Mocs would be able to just hold on and wait for ETSU to foul, however, Trey Bonham turned it over on a Quimari Peterson steal who was able to lay it in to tie the game at 79 a piece. Overtime itself was a little lackluster as ETSU outscored Chattanooga by a margin of just 6-5. Needless to say, there was some rough shooting in overtime in this one.

For Samford, the Bulldogs entered the SoCon tournament as the general favorites to win and the one seed. They handedly defeated Mercer 70-57 in the quarterfinals, then Furman 84-77 in the semifinals. Furman kept it close the majority of the game, but the Bulldogs were just too much behind Achor Achor’s monster 28 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks performance on 12-15 shooting from the floor.

Entering today’s game, ETSU is 19-15 on the season and 8-10 in conference, while Samford is 28-5 overall and 15-3 in conference. In the season series, the Bulldogs swept ETSU in a 75-72 win at ETSU and a 87-71 dominate victory at home. There is no doubt that Samford is the favorite in this one, but this is March. We’ve already seen one team with a sub .500 record in conference win their tournament in the Big South with Longwood. The same could happen this evening, but it’d be a shame not to watch Samford play in the big dance because they have the makings of being a true bracket buster.

Tune in tonight at 6pm CDT on ESPN2.

James Madison vs Arkansas State

We thought that we were going to get a third rematch of Appalachian State vs James Madison in the Sun Belt Championship, but Freddy Hicks of Arkansas State said no with an ice cold buzzer beater to send the Red Wolves to the finals.

A lot of people wouldn’t know it, but Arkansas State has been silently on fire in recent weeks. Coming into the Championship game today, the Red Wolves have won 8 out of their last 9 games, including two wins against Troy and a 100-87 win over an Ohio team that was been hot in MAC play as of late. We’ve said it before and we will say it again, for Mid-Major teams like this, all that matters is peaking at the right time.

The Red Wolves knocked off an excellent Louisiana team 89-62 in the opening round of the quarterfinals then delivered us an incredible 67-65 victory on Sunday evening over Appalachian State. Caleb Fields led the way with 23 points, 6 assists, and 3 rebounds, while Freddy Hicks followed up with 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists along with the game winning shot.

For the majority of the game, the Red Wolves led. At halftime, App State was down 39-29. However, App State was able to claim a 62-61 lead at the 4:38 mark in the second half. It was back and forth for the remaining minutes in the game that delivered the thrilling end we previously mentioned as Arkansas State completed the 67-65 upset.

For James Madison, there isn’t much to say here. The Dukes are 30-3 on the season and the only team to beat them twice was just eliminated in the semifinals in Appalachian State. The Dukes and Red Wolves matched up just once in the regular season which saw a 77-73 JMU victory at Arkansas State.

There is no doubt that James Madison is obviously heavily favored in this one. They are 30-3 on the season and 15-3 in conference with two losses to App State and one to Southern Mississippi. Meanwhile the Red Wolves are just 19-15 on the season and 11-7 in conference. Both teams have been on fire and this has the makings to be an incredible game this evening.

Tune in to ESPN at 6pm CDT today.