ASUN Basketball: 2020 conference tournament preview and predictions
By Logan Butts
March Madness is here! Let’s take a look at the favorites, sleepers, players to watch, and most exciting potential matchups in the ASUN Basketball Tournament.
There seems to be a pattern forming in the ASUN. In the 2017-18 season, FGCU was the top team throughout the regular season, were the favorites heading into the conference tournament, and they were upset at home by the clear second-best team in the league, Lipscomb, in the ASUN Basketball Championship Final. In 2018-19, the same scenario played out, except with Lipscomb moving up into the favorite spot and Liberty playing the part of the spoiler.
Now, in 2020, Liberty has been the overwhelming favorite to win the conference all season long. They just locked up the regular-season title and the number one seed in the ASUN Tournament. And this time around, North Florida is lurking as an obvious spoiler. The Ospreys are senior-laden and have already given Liberty one of their four regular-season losses, in Lynchburg, Virginia no less (and they almost beat them a second time!).
Outside of the top two, the ASUN is thoroughly mediocre, to say the least, which is something else that has become a recurring theme in this league. There are a pair of dark horses lurking, but no one else in the league is over .500 for the season. There are only two other teams (Lipscomb and Stetson) that are above .500 in league play.
With the ASUN Tournament beginning on March 3, let’s take a deeper look at one of the first conference tournaments to tip-off.