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SWAC Basketball: 2021 Conference Tournament preview and predictions

By Daniel Benjamin

NEWARK, NJ - DECEMBER 22: Head coach Byron Smith of the Prairie View A&M Panthers in action against the Seton Hall Pirates during a college basketball game at Prudential Center on December 22, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NJ - DECEMBER 22: Head coach Byron Smith of the Prairie View A&M Panthers in action against the Seton Hall Pirates during a college basketball game at Prudential Center on December 22, 2019 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /
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SWAC Basketball Texas Southern Tigers John Walke John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
SWAC Basketball Texas Southern Tigers John Walke John Reed-USA TODAY Sports /

The 2021 Southwest Athletic Conference championships will feature eight of the league’s 10 teams and will take place at Bartlow Arena in Birmingham (Ala.). The Cricket Wireless SWAC Basketball Tournament will run from March 10-13 and be televised by the ESPN family of networks.

The Prairie View A&M  Panthers (14-4) and the Jackson State Tigers (11-5) were crowned SWAC co-champions as each squad finished undefeated. Prairie View and Jackson St. didn’t play each other this season, as a result, the Panthers earned the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament with a 13-0 record. The Tigers are the second seed after closing out the league schedule at 11-0. PV has now won at least a share of the league crown in three straight seasons, while this is JSU’s first title since 2009-10.

Texas Southern (13-8,10-3 SWAC) is the third seed. Grambling State(11-11, 9-6) is the fourth seed, with Southern (8-10, 8-8) is the fifth seed, and Alcorn State (6-12, 6-7) is the sixth seed. Alabama A&M finished seventh in the conference at 4-9, followed by Alabama State (4-14), Arkansas Pine Bluff (3-12), and Mississippi Valley State (2-13). However, UAPB (4-20 overall) and MVSU ( 2-21) are in the SWAC Tournament, as the seventh ad eighth seeds, respectively, due to Bama State and Bama A&M being ineligible.

Biggest surprise: Jackson State has to be the biggest surprise as the Tigers were projected to finish fourth in the conference preseason poll. JSU not only claimed a share of its first SWAC title in more than a decade, but the Tigers posted just their second winning record under eighth-year head coach Wayne Brent, and they did so, returning just over 56% of their scoring from a year ago.

Biggest disappointment: Southern was projected to finish behind Texas Southern in the preseason as the Jaguars returned a lot of experience and 67% of their scoring production from last year’s 17-15 squad. Plus, Southern went just 3-7 on the road and suffered setbacks to North Carolina Central (neutral) as well as Alabama A&M and Alabama State on the road. The Jags did have several player’s miss significant time this year, however.