Texas Southern Basketball: Can the Tigers make the NCAA Tournament?

Texas Southern basketball might have ended non-conference without a win but could they still find a way to win the SWAC tournament to reach the Big Dance?

The SWAC is statistically one of the worst conferences in college basketball. The conference does not have much money, so the conference is forced to spend most of their early season on the road, playing against high-major teams, usually for a high payout. The SWAC typically has a tournament team with a losing record and those teams are always highly overmatched. For this season, Texas Southern is the squad that has been beaten up on the most in non-conference.

Texas Southern is usually the best team in the SWAC and has the best talent in this league despite their record. Head coach Mike Davis has built this program using transfers. Davis is the former head coach at Indiana University and he has found his niche at Texas Southern by giving players who have a troubled past a fresh start.

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To date, Texas Southern has played the toughest schedule in the country. The Tigers currently sit at 0-13 and are still projected to make the NCAA Tournament. If Texas Southern does make the NCAA tournament that would rival one of the worst starts of all-time to make the Big Dance. The Tigers may not have a win on the ledger yet but with their schedule, they are going to be battle-tested and ready for the SWAC conference.

The Tigers have the SWAC player of the year on their team in Demontrae Jefferson. He is an elite scorer in this league and never leaves the floor for the Tigers. Jefferson is shooting 42% from the floor, 42% from the three and 80% from the free throw line. Jefferson is the best overall player in the SWAC and, barring a miracle, will win the player of the year going away.

Texas Southern is near the top of the conference in nearly every offensive category. They are second in points per game at 70.2, trailing only Grambling State. Grambling looks to be the one team who can challenge the Tigers for the SWAC crown as Grambling already holds one of the best wins in SWAC history as they beat Georgia Tech earlier this year.

If the Tigers and coach Mike Davis do make the tournament, it will have to be by winning the SWAC tournament to receive the conference auto-bid. The SWAC conference only has 5 all-time wins in the NCAA tournament and Texas Southern has none of them. The fact that still being 0-13 and being favored to make the NCAA tournament shows how much the talent gap in the SWAC conference is.

The Tigers have played 13 straight road games and they have played the likes of Baylor, BYU, Gonzaga, Kansas, TCU, and Oregon. That is a tough schedule for anyone to play, much less a team who is going to be as overmatched as Texas Southern is. As mentioned above, this is going to make this team battle-tested and ready for conference play.

If Texas Southern does make the NCAA tournament, they will be one of the lowest seeds in the tournament and will most likely play in one of the First Four games. They are a talented enough team to beat the team they will be paired up with in the First Four but would get trounced in their next game. It doesn’t appear that the Tigers will have much more success this year in the tournament than they have had in the past, but they may be able to win one game for a shot a top seed.

Next: Mid-major questions for the rest of the season

Mike Davis has done a great job with limited money to recruit and field a team. It has to be tough for a team to take so many buy games, but through it all, Texas Southern has not let their confidence waiver and they continue to play hard in every game. Even if they don’t make the tournament, the teams that the Tigers are willing to go and play should be a model for all of the other teams out there. They do not have to play NAIA or Division 3 games. If teams want to win they will play those teams, but for money and giving your team tests, they should schedule all Division-I teams.