Busting Brackets
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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 Jackson State Tigers Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports
SWAC Basketball Jackson State Tigers Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports /

Bracketology

This is the 44th edition of the SWAC Tournament. Last year’s championship was canceled after the quarterfinals due to the ongoing pandemic. Prairie View is the defending champion as the Panthers defeated Texas Southern 92-86 in the finals of the 2019 event for their second-ever tournament crown. Southern has the most SWAC tourney titles with nine, followed by Texas Southern with eight. Grambling is the only program never to win a conference tournament.

The SWAC has never had multiple teams earn an NCAA Tournament bid, and that won’t change this year either. The SWAC, considered one of the worst conferences in D-I, posted a 74-119 combined record this year, including winning only seven of 51 non-conference games and going 0-20 in quad 1 games. As a result, the conference tournament champion is generally seeded 16th, and they usually have to play in the play-in game, which will likely be the case this year as well.

The SWAC has a 6-39 overall record in the NCAA Tournament. However, two of those wins have come in the past 10 years, with Texas Southern advancing to the second round in 2015 and Southern earning a victory in 2013. Southern (1-9) has played a league-high 10 NCAA Tournament games with Texas Southern (1-8) and Alcorn State (3-6) next with nine tourney contests. UAPB (1-1) is the only other program to earn a “Big Dance” victory.