2025 Big South college basketball conference tournament: Bracket, key players and predictions

With the conclusion of the UNC-Asheville/Winthrop game on Saturday, the Big South regular season has come to an end. The conference tournament pairings to see who will represent the Big South in the NCAA tournament have been announced. 

High Point University is the Big South regular season champion. The Panthers ran away from the rest of the field, finishing with a 14-2 league record and three games ahead of co-runners up Winthrop and UNC-Asheville. Preseason polls are often unreliable, but they were pretty spot on for the Big South; three of the four teams predicted to finish inside the top four of the conference did indeed land there.

The final standings of the 2024/2025 Big South standings are below:

1. High Point Panthers: 26-5 (14-2)
2. UNC-Asheville Bulldogs: 20-10 (11-5)
3. Winthrop Eagles: 21-10 (11-5)
4. Radford Highlanders: 19-12 (9-7)
5. Presbyterian Blue Hose: 14-17 (7-9)
6. Longwood Lancers: 18-13 (7-9)
7. Charleston Southern Buccaneers: 10-21 (6-10)
8. Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs: 10-19 (5-11)
9. South Carolina-Upstate Spartans: 6-25 (2-14)

All nine teams from the conference will participate in the tournament. As no team is anywhere close to getting an at-large bid, the tournament champion will be the sole representative from the Big South in the NCAA tournament. Last year’s tournament champion Longwood entered the conference tournament as a five seed with a 6-10 conference record but beat the four, one and two seed en- route to earning the NCAA tournament invite. All games will take place at the Freedom Hall Civic Center in Johnson City, Tennessee. The games will take place on March 5th and March 7th-9th.

Players To Watch

Jordan Marsh (Sophomore guard, UNC-Asheville)

Jordan Marsh is the Big South’s second leading scorer and the leading scorer for UNC-Asheville. The 5’10” guard is averaging 18.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game while shooting 45.2% from the field. Marsh ranks among the top ten in the country in usage according to KenPom; he takes over 35% of the shots for the Bulldogs. UNC-Asheville will go as far as Marsh can take them.

Taje’ Kelly (Senior forward, Charleston Southern)

Taje’ Kelly leads the conference in both scoring (20.8 points per game) and rebounding (9.0 rebounds pergame). He can absolutely take over a game; he has two games this season where he scored 30+ points. He can also pass the ball surprisingly well for a big man. While he only averages 2.1 assists per game, he has multiple games where he’s dished out five or more. Charleston Southern probably doesn’t have a chance of winning the Big South tournament, but Kelly alone makes the Buccaneers worth watching.

D’Maurian Williams (Senior guard, High Point)

There’s several High Point players that could be highlighted as crucial to the Panthers dominant run through the conference, but I’ll go with the do-everything guard Williams. Despite not leading the team in any one category Williams contributes a little everywhere; he’s second on the team in points per game (14.6), third in rebounds per game (3.6), third in assists per game (2.4). He’s also accurate from the free throw line (83.6%) and from long range (40.2% from behind the three point line). He’s a big reason the Panthers are the number one seed, and will be one of the reasons they could cut down the nets in Johnson City.

Teams to Watch

Favorite: High Point University

High Point rolled through conference play and will enter the Big South tournament as the favorite to win regardless of what metric you look at. They enter post-season play on an 11 game winning streak, the second longest in the country as of the writing of this article.  Both the sportsbooks and KenPom have them ranked as far and away the best team in the conference and inside the top 100 in the country. 

Contenders: Winthrop and UNC-Asheville

These teams tied for second and could plausibly give the Panthers a run for their money. UNC-Asheville is responsible for one of High Point’s two conference defeats; the Bulldogs also made the tournament final last year. UNC-Asheville takes care of the ball, ranking in the top 25 in the country in turnover percentage according to KenPom. They also curiously lead the country in block percentage on offense; a team that rarely turns the ball over or gets their shots blocked can be a tough out in a tournament format.

Winthrop plays at one of the fastest paces in the country, which can throw some opponents off even if you’re expecting it. They’re also one of the best teams in the country at drawing fouls (although ironically, one of the worst at making free throws). 

Dark Horses: Longwood and Radford

It seems odd to call last year’s tournament champion a longshot, but Longwood’s sixth place finish will make it tough for them to repeat. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that they were projected to finish third in the league, so the talent is there. Also, they were the only other team to beat High Point in league play, so the ability to elevate their game above what they’ve generally shown is there.

Radford is actually the second best team in the Big South according to KenPom rankings despite the fourth place record. The Highlanders play at a slow pace on offense and try to control the flow of the game. They are also a solid three point shooting team when they choose to shoot them

Predictions

First Round

#8 Gardner-Webb over #9 USC-Upstate

Quarterfinals

#1 High Point over #8 USC-Upstate

#4 Radford over #5 Presbyterian 

#2 UNC-Asheville over #7 Charleston Southern

#3 Winthrop over #6 Longwood

Semifinals

#1 High Point over #4 Radford

#3 Winthrop over #2 UNC-Asheville

Final

#1 High Point over #3 Winthrop

Not the most exciting predictions, but High Point is clearly the class of the conference and should take care of business in Johnston City. The Panthers are currently projected as a 13 seed if they make it; any other team would probably be in the 15-16 seed range.