Troy University men’s basketball won the Sun Belt Tourney on Monday, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 3-seed Troy men beat No. 4-seed Arkansas State in Pensacola 94-81 in the tournament championship game.
Troy (23-10) will go to the Big Dance for the third time in program history and first time since 2017.
Where, when and who Troy will play in the NCAA first round will be announced Sunday night in the tournament selection show at 5 p.m. on CBS.
Troy was led by Sun Belt Conference player of the year Tayton Conerway, who scored 21 points, 16 of which came in an explosive second half when Troy shot 65% from the field. Conerway is a senior from Centennial High in Burleson, Texas. He transferred from Ranger College, where he was Texas Juco Player of the Year in 2022-2023, putting up 15.7 points per game.
Troy had ended the regular season in a three-way tie for first place with Arkansas State and James Madison.
Two in-state teams are locks for the NCAA Tournament, third-ranked Auburn and fifth-ranked Alabama. Remaining questions for those two SEC powers are how high they will be seeded and who else will be in their bracket. That will largely be determined this week as they play in the SEC tournament in Nashville. Other state teams will compete in their conference tournaments seeking automatic bids for the tourney winners.
One thing that basketball fans in Alabama will be watching is whether the NCAA will bracket in-state teams so that they may face each other. Could Troy face Auburn, Alabama, or another in-state team?
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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