Once upon a time, Stephen F. Austin was the king of the Southland. They made the NCAA Tournament four times in five years, and won games in two of those years. (That doesn’t include their 28-3 campaign in 2020, where they beat #1 Duke on the road and were robbed of another shot at the NCAA Tournament by COVID.)
SFA then made a perhaps ill-fated decision to join the WAC. The departure of SFA and several other schools left the Southland Conference near collapse. It may have completely dissolved if one of their biggest brands, McNeese, had decided to bolt. McNeese stayed, but one of the conditions was that the Southland Conference tournaments would be held in Lake Charles for the next five seasons.
With the void created by SFA’s absence, McNeese took full advantage – it hired Will Wade and won the regular season and (home) conference tournaments two years in a row, capped by a Round of 64 win last year.
Wade is gone now, and SFA is back. After a tough first year back in the Southland last year, the Lumberjacks have returned to their old form, winning 20 league games this year under new coach Matt Braeuer. But they’ve been pushed to the limit by McNeese, who hasn’t been willing to cede the crown back to SFA so easily.
What does that all set up? A potential showdown of the old guard and the new bloods in St. Charles for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. But there will be several other challengers who themselves want to represent one of the nation’s most consistently underrated conferences in the Big Dance.
Here’s a look at the tourney teams:
- Stephen F. Austin (27-4 overall, 20-2 Southland):
It’s a huge “Welcome Back!” for the Southland’s contender 1-A. Matt Braeuer’s squad, led by Conference POY Keon Thompson (18.1 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 4.1 apg) and conference first-teamer Lateef Patrick (15.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg) has the league’s most efficient offense but, like McNeese, excels defensively – they are top five nationally at defending the three-pointer, with opponents shooting just 29.4%. They have the league’s defensive POT as well in Jerald Colonel, the best shot blocker in the league (and ninth best in the country) at 2.45 blocks per game Despite being a beacon of consistency at this level, they haven’t been to the NCAA Tournament in eight seasons.
- McNeese (26-5, 19-3):
The Southland’s Contender 1-B is looking to three-peat in the conference tournament, something done only by SFA from 2014-16 and Northeast Louisiana (now UL Monroe) from 1990-93. Their new head coach, Bill Armstrong, is picking up right where Will Wade left off, with the help of their pair of first teamers in Larry Johnson (17.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and Tyshawn Archie (14.3 ppg, 1.7 spg). They force the highest turnover percentage in the entire country at 24.7 percent. These two contenders are about dead even according to Bart Torvik, with SFA coming in at 79th, and McNeese at 80th.
- UT Rio Grande Valley (18-13, 14-8)
It was an excellent season for the Vaqueros, having not finished with a conference winning percentage this high since a .700 (7-3) season in the defunct six-team America South Conference in 1990! The Vaqueros, top-60 in effective field goal percentage offense and defense, are trying to reach their first ever NCAA tournament after nearly 60 seasons at the Division I level behind first team guard Koree Cotton (13.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg).
- Texas A&M Corpus Christi (17-14, 13-9)
For all the talk of the SFA and McNeese dominance, don’t forget about Texas A&M Corpus Christi, who went to the dancing in 2022 and 2023 and are seeking a return. Sheldon Williams (11.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and Nicholas Shogbonyo (12.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg) – the latter of whom missed some time with injury – will rely on some experienced gained from the second-toughest non-conference schedule in the country.
- New Orleans (14-17, 12-10)
You might not have expected New Orleans to finish with more losses than wins after defeating TCU and Tulane, both on the road, in the season’s first three games. Unfortunately, they didn’t win another conference game (albeit with a very difficult schedule) and fought their way to finish just two games over .500 in the league. But this is a dangerous team still. Led by two conference second-team seniors in Coleton Benson (16.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg) and Jakevion Buckley (14.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 5.7 apg), they played three out of their four games against the McNeese and SFA very competitively, including a road win at SFA – the only home loss of SFA’s season.
- Nicholls (13-18, 12-10)
What a story arc it’s been for the Nicholls Colonels. They lost all eight of their Division I nonconference games. But they also won their first seven (!) Southland games. When Nicholls at 8-8, 7-0 conference faced off against preseason favorite and at-large-seeking McNeese (13-3, 6-1), a Colonel win would’ve shaken our understanding of just what we had in the Southland. McNeese ended up dominating and the Colonels largely sputtered from there, going 5-9 the rest of the way. Well-named Jalik Dunkley (12.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg) and the Colonels will want to tap into what worked in a couple of competitive games against McNeese and SFA near the end of the season.
- Northwestern State (10-21, 8-14)
The Demons have a lot of practice playing in close games this year: 13 of their games finished within five points. They would have liked have done better than 5-8 in those games, but there are some good performances to build off in there, including a close loss at SFA and a win over UTRGV.
- Houston Christian (12-19, 8-14)
The undermanned Huskies, despite losing leading scorer Elijah Brooks (12.6 ppg) eight games into the year, clawed their way back into the Southland Tournament for the second straight year by beating Lamar big in the last regular season game. Predictive metrics have this as the worst team in the conference, but getting eight wins on the conference schedule with the resources they have relative to the powerhouses is impressive.