SWAC Tournament Preview: Odds, Schedule, Information & Predictions
Small but proud, the SWAC is one of our nation’s leading producers of 16 seeds. The 2023 SWAC Tournament kicks off today for four days of HBCU basketball in Birmingham.
When is the SWAC Tournament?
March 8th – March 11th
Where is the SWAC Tournament played?
Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, home of the UAB Blazers.
How to watch the SWAC Tournament
Going to have to stream this one. ESPN+ for the first three days and ESPNU for the final.
Who won the regular season title?
Alcorn and Grambling both finished with 15-3 records.
Defending Champ
Texas Southern won last year’s final in a blowout over Alcorn State.
Who will participate
Only the top eight teams. Four schools are done for the year.
How Many teams will the SWAC send to the tournament?
Bracketology has the SWAC as a one-bid league this year.
SWAC Tournament Bracket
Standard bracket, but with the quarterfinals being split up over two days. No reseeding, all on the neutral floor.
SWAC Tournament Odds
SWAC Tournament Preview
Not going too deep because it’s the SWAC and who knows. These teams get absolutely beat up in the non-conference schedule with some very tough high end opponents, so a lot of the stats from early in the season aren’t very telling about how well a team is actually playing or will play.
I was determined to go up against the Grambling Tigers since we often find some upsets in a league where the best and worst aren’t seperated by a terrible lot. Man, it’s hard to make a case against them at the moment though
They closed the season on a nine-game winning streak, boast the top defense in the league and have the 2023 SWAC player of the year in Cameron Christon. KenPom’s Adjusted Efficiency Margin and Torvik’s BARTHAG have a fair sized gap between them and the next team in the SWAC. They make their threes at the highest rate in the conference and defend the perimeter well on the other end.
With very decent size up front for a smaller conference, their fatal flaws will be free throw shooting and turnovers. The later of which has been cleaned up tremendously over the last month.
SWAC Tournament Prediction
I’ll be gambling on Grambling here and you’ll need to hurry a bit on this one as they are the first game up, starting at 3pm ET Wednesday.
My Bet: Grambling State +115
