2021 ASUN men's basketball tournament explained

Year:2021
Conference:ASUN
Division:I
Gender:Men's
Teams:8
Arena:UNF Arena &<br />Swisher Gymnasium
City:Jacksonville, FL
Champions:Liberty
Titlecount:3rd
Coach:Ritchie McKay
Coachcount:3rd
Mvp:Darius McGhee
Mvpteam:Liberty
Television:ESPN, ESPN+

The 2021 ASUN men's basketball tournament was the conference postseason tournament for the ASUN Conference. The tournament was the 42nd year the league has conducted a postseason tournament. The tournament was held March 4–7, 2021 in Jacksonville, Florida. Quarterfinals were played at both Swisher Gymnasium and UNF Arena, while the semifinals and finals were held solely at UNF Arena. The eligible winner received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.[1]

When No. 5 seeded North Alabama defeated No. 6 Florida Gulf Coast in the second semifinal game, Liberty was awarded the ASUN automatic bid to the NCAA tournament since North Alabama is ineligible as a team transitioning to Division I.

Seeds

All of the teams, except for Jacksonville, in the conference standings qualified for the tournament. Jacksonville cancelled their season after going 11–13, so they did not compete in the conference tournament. The teams were seeded by their record in conference play, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.

The two tiebreakers used by the ASUN are: 1) head-to-head record of teams with identical record and 2) NCAA NET Rankings available on day following the conclusion of ASUN regular season play.[2]

SeedSchoolConferenceTiebreaker
1Liberty11–2
2Bellarmine10–3
3Lipscomb9–5
4North Florida6–6
5North Alabama7–8
6Florida Gulf Coast4–5
7Stetson7–9
8Kennesaw State2–13

Schedule

GameTime [3] MatchupScoreTelevisionAttendance
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 4
12:00 pmNo. 1 Liberty vs. No. 8 Kennesaw State69–59ESPN+
22:00 pmNo. 4 North Florida vs. No. 5 North Alabama60–68
37:00 pmNo. 3 Lipscomb vs. No. 6 Florida Gulf Coast60–72
47:00 pmNo. 2 Bellarmine vs. No. 7 Stetson70–73
Semifinals – Friday, March 5
52:00 pmNo. 1 Liberty vs. No. 7 Stetson77–64ESPN+
67:00 pmNo. 5 North Alabama vs No. 6 Florida Gulf Coast96–81
Championship – Sunday, March 7
72:00 pmNo. 1 Liberty vs. No. 5 North Alabama79–75ESPN
Game times in ET. Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Bracket

Teams are reseeded after the quarterfinals

Notes and References

  1. 2021 ASUN Men's Basketball Championship . ASUN Conference . 2021-02-22.
  2. Web site: 2020 ASUN Men's Basketball Championship.
  3. Web site: 2021 ASUN Men's Basketball Championship . ASUN Conference . 2021-02-27.