*** - SFA is serving a postseason ban and is thus not eligible for the SLC or NCAA Tournaments
3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: Gavin Kensmil, Sr., Stephen F. Austin
Coach of the Year: Joe Golding, Abilene Christian
Newcomer of the Year: Ty Gordon, Sr., Nicholls
Freshman of the Year: Bryce Monroe, Sam Houston St.
For Coach of the Year, you really could not go wrong with Golding (finished top 100 in KenPom without any true stars, tied with Nicholls in the loss column), Nicholls’ Austin Claunch (got the 1-seed while meshing a bevy of transfers), or SHSU’s Jason Hooten (another top four finish despite turning over a huge chunk of the roster). I’ll confess to liking the symmetry of having an award go to each of the conference’s clear top four.
Season Storylines:
We often lament that the regular season does not earn teams enough of an advantage in mid-major conference tournaments, but that complaint does not apply to the Southland. Like the WCC, the Southland uses the “mega-ladder,” as I have dubbed it, where the top two teams get byes to the semifinals, and every pair below them in the standings must win an extra game to capture the championship.
The chief beneficiaries this year are Nicholls and Abilene Christian, who survived a four-team brawl atop the league to nab those coveted spots. Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin were the other two top-tier squads, and SFA is ineligible for the postseason due to athletic department improprieties.
That sets up well for Nicholls, who need only beat one middle-tier foe to reach the title game. Abilene Christian and Sam Houston State are likely on track to brawl in the semifinals, a worthy rubber match for two squads after a hard-fought split of the regular season series.
The entire league is brutal to win multiple games in a row thanks to its clear identity: most games are played in transition, and defensive pressure is a stable of all the top squads (Abilene actually leads the entire country in defensive turnover rate).
For that reason (and general talent gap issues), I can’t really offer you any dark horses, unfortunately. Central Arkansas did not even qualify for the tournament after star point guard DeAndre Jones went down with a knee injury in early January, and promising squads Lamar and McNeese State simply have not been able to put it together this year. I stubbornly like the makeup of Lamar’s roster, but the Cardinals are stuck on the SHSU/Abilene half of the bracket, so a Cinderella run is incredibly unlikely.
Tournament Preview
Tournament Predictions
(9) McNeese St. over (8) Southeastern Louisiana
(7) Incarnate Word over (10) Houston Baptist
(5) New Orleans over (9) McNeese St.
(6) Lamar over (7) Incarnate Word
(5) New Orleans over (4) Northwestern St.
(3) Sam Houston St. over (6) Lamar
(2) Abilene Christian over (3) Sam Houston St.
(1) Nicholls over (5) New Orleans
(2) Abilene Christian over (1) Nicholls