Atlantic Sun basketball: 2018 Conference Tournament preview

Atlantic Sun Bracketology

Of course this conference will only have one bid, but it’s important to know where the automatic bid will be going in the NCAA Tournament. Starting in February, Busting Brackets performs a weekly Bracketology, with just recently becoming a bi-weekly affair.

In the latest one, Florida Gulf Coast (the projected automatic bid) was a 16 seed, playing the No.1 seed Xavier in the Midwest region. Good news for fans is that they avoid the “play in” game.

This was a down year for the Atlantic Sun as a whole, with no one getting a solid win (top-100 win). Add to that Florida Gulf Coast had no good wins of their own in the non-conference, and a 16 seed was going to be the team’s fate. Of course, any other winner would be a 16 seed as well, possibly even in that “play in” game.

But college basketball fans should be excited about a possible 1-16 battle involving the Eagles. This is a team filled with upperclassmen from the high-majors that have the athleticism and scoring to keep up with the top programs in the country.

Of the other projected 16 seeds (Wagner, Winthrop, Nicholls State, Southern and Savannah State) the Eagles are clearly superior in talent. Could FGU win the historic game? Might be the closest talent-wise we’ll ever see between a “1” and a “16”.