2022 ASUN men's basketball tournament explained

Year:2022
Conference:ASUN
Division:I
Gender:Men's
Teams:12
Arena:Campus sites
Champions:Bellarmine
Coach:Scott Davenport
Coachcount:1st
Mvp:Dylan Penn
Mvpteam:Bellarmine
Television:ESPN+, ESPN

The 2022 ASUN men's basketball tournament was the conference postseason tournament for the ASUN Conference. The tournament was the 43rd year the league has conducted a postseason tournament. The tournament was held March 1, 3, 5, and 8, 2022 at campus sites of the higher seeds. The winner, Bellarmine, did not receive the conference's automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament due to not being eligible because of a transition from Division II. Instead the regular season conference champion, Jacksonville State, was awarded the conference's automatic bid.

Seeds

All teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. Teams were seeded by their record in conference play, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. The top two teams from each division received byes into the quarterfinals. Kennesaw State got a higher seed than North Florida through the NET ranking tiebreaker.

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. These tiebreakers are also used to separate teams with the same seed from opposite divisions if necessary. This proved relevant when both #2 seeds, Bellarmine and Jacksonville, advanced to the championship game. With both having identical conference records, the tiebreaker was applied, and Bellarmine received home court by virtue of its win over Jacksonville in the teams' only regular-season game.

SeedSchoolConferenceNET ranking[1]
(February 28, 2021)
  1. 1 East
Liberty12–4116th
  1. 1 West
Jacksonville State13–3138th
  1. 2 East
Jacksonville11–5168th
  1. 2 West
Bellarmine11–5220th
  1. 3 East
Florida Gulf Coast10–6189th
  1. 3 West
Central Arkansas7–9319th
  1. 4 East
Kennesaw State230th
  1. 4 West
Lipscomb6–10276th
  1. 5 East
North Florida274th
  1. 5 West
Eastern Kentucky5–11265th
  1. 6 East
Stetson5–11306th
  1. 6 West
North Alabama2–14314th

Schedule

GameTime [2] Matchup[3] ScoreTelevision
First round – Tuesday, March 1 – Campus Sites
16:00 pmE6 Stetson at W3 Central Arkansas73–74ESPN+
26:00 pmW5 Eastern Kentucky at E4 Kennesaw State73–82
36:00 pmW6 North Alabama at E3 Florida Gulf Coast72–81
46:00 pmE5 North Florida at W4 Lipscomb65–74
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 3 – Campus Sites
56:00 pmW3 Central Arkansas at E2 Jacksonville69–79ESPN+
66:00 pmE4 Kennesaw State at W1 Jacksonville State67–78
76:00 pmE3 Florida Gulf Coast at W2 Bellarmine68–81
86:00 pmW4 Lipscomb at E1 Liberty47–52
Semifinals – Saturday, March 5 – Campus Sites
96:00 pmE2 Jacksonville at W1 Jacksonville State54–51ESPN+
105:00 pmW2 Bellarmine at E1 Liberty53–50
Championship – Tuesday, March 8 – Campus Sites
114:00 pmE2 Jacksonville at W2 Bellarmine72–77ESPN
Game times in CT. Rankings denote tournament seed

Bracket

Because Bellarmine won the ASUN Tournament, the conference's top overall seed, Jacksonville State, claimed the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The same would have applied if North Alabama had won the tournament, but the Lions were eliminated in the first round.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: NCAA Statistics - NET Ranking MBB 2/28/2022 . . 4 March 2022.
  2. Web site: 2021 Sun Belt Men's Basketball Championship.
  3. Web site: ASUN Conference. 2022-02-15. ASUN Conference. en.
  4. Web site: ASUN Tournament Betting Preview, Bracket & Odds: 3 Futures, First-Round Preview & More. Keg. Action Network. February 28, 2022. March 2, 2022.