2020 Sun Belt Tournament Bracket
Favorite to win: Texas State
The favorite to win the 2020 Sun Belt Tournament goes to Texas State who, after starting 8-8 (1-4), ended the season strong and won 12 of their last 15 games, finishing third in the Sun Belt at 20-11 (13-7). The key for them is to continue strong team defense and doing the little things on offense. Here’s some of the things they do best when comparing to the rest of the Sun Belt: lowest points allowed, 2nd lowest field goal percentage, best free throw percentage, least amount of turnovers, and best turnover margin. As far as scoring, Nijal Pearson is the teams leading scorer nearly averaging 20 points a game while shooting 35% from three on six attempts a game.
Team(s) to watch: Arkansas LR, So. Alabama, and Georgia St.
This conference has been closely contested all season long. According to Team Rankings ,the Sun Belt has four teams with a 15+% chance of winning the Sun Belt with none of them have a chance greater than 27%. So we could realistically see four different teams win the Sun Belt. Arkansas Little Rock won the regular season title, South Alabama has won eight straight games so they are the hottest team, and Georgia State is the back-to-back Sun Belt Champions who seems to turn it on when March comes around. This is going to be a fun week if you’re a March Madness junkie.
Player to watch: Eric Terry, Texas State
He’s the wild card to the whole tournament. Even though he averages only eight points a game he’s had games where he has scored 30, 20, 20, 19, and 19 points. They are 4-1 in those games. While Nijal Pearson is the teams’ best scorer, if Eric Terry can be that reliable No.2 scorer for just three games, I could really see Texas State walking out as Sun Belt Champions and making their first tournament appearance since the 1996-1997 season and only their third overall appearance.
Current tournament teams: 1
As it stands, Texas State is the only team in the projected tournament due to them having the highest odds of winning the Sun Belt. This is a scenario where only the conference champion is going to make it to the dance. So for aforementioned teams who could win the Sun Belt, it’s boom or bust.
Prediction
Even though they are the favorites, I don’t expect Texas State to win the Sun Belt. I am actually picking Georgia State to win the Sun Belt. Not because they have tournament experience, but how they are built that makes them a tournament team. For the smaller schools a combination of high scoring, shooting and defending the three well, forcing turnovers, and being a good free throw shooting team is what works, in my opinion. Georgia State fills all the criteria that I think makes a small school a tourney team. But since this is March I’ll take any outcome as long as it’s…madness.
You can view the rest of our conference tournament previews here.