Liberty and Lipscomb are the favorites in the Atlantic Sun Tournament, which runs from March 4-10 with all games at campus sites.
One of the first conferences to begin March Madness is the Athletic Sun tournament, which kicks off on March 4. Unlike a lot of the other conferences, which have all of their teams come to a neutral site to fight for an automatic bid to March Madness, the A-Sun teams play the tournament out at campus sites.
That means home court is a massive advantage for the top seed, which this year belongs to Lipscomb. The Bisons (23-6, 14-2 in A-Sun play) clinched the top spot by winning a tiebreaker over Liberty (25-6, 14-2), and they have pushed themselves in non-conference play, scoring a road win over TCU back in November while also playing Louisville, Belmont (twice, one home and one away), Clemson, and America East favorites Vermont.
Lipscomb will host 8th seed Kennesaw State (6-25, 3-13), and if they win they will get the winner of the 4/5 matchup between Florida Gulf Coast (14-17, 9-7) and NJIT (20-11, 9-7). Florida Gulf Coast does have a win over the Bisons this year, so that could be a tricky game for Lipscomb.
The other side of the bracket will be headlined by Liberty, which is a tough out thanks to its stingy defense, which ranks fifth in the nation by allowing only 60.5 points per game. The Flames will start off their tournament with a home date against Jacksonville (12-19, 5-11), with the winner of the 3/6 matchup between North Florida (15-16, 9-7) and North Alabama (10-21, 9-7) waiting in the wings.
The event will take place over three rounds, with first round action coming on March 4 and the semi-finals on March 7. The championship game will be held on March 10 at the campus of the highest seeded team remaining, and that matchup will be televised on ESPN.
Print out your full A-Sun bracket here and settle in for the first of many conference tournaments over the next several weeks.
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