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nly a few more before we've covered them all. Our conference preview series continues today with the the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Here's a look at the projected standings, three must-see games and the conference's three most intriguing storylines entering the new season.
This conference must improve across the board
The SWAC has been around for 90 years. Did you realize that? This isn't some group of teams that was tossed together in the past score and is still trying to find its way amid the Division I sea. There are a lot of proud universities ... who can't get off the mat. Each year, the conference struggles when playing teams outside
of the confines of the SWAC, and because of that, the auto berth representative in the tournament almost always plays in the play-in game or receives a 16-seed.
With the format of the NCAA tournament changing, it would behoove the SWAC to get its act in gear and chase after a 15-seed. That must be done in the next six weeks, as wins early outside of the conference will be vital to altering the Selection Committee's scope.
The race for the regular-season crown could be close all year
Voters weren't sure how to evaluate who was the best this season, as five of the top six vote-getters received first-place votes. Only third-ranked Alabama State didn't receive any No.1 love from the league's coaches and media.
So that tells us Jackson State, Arkansas Pine-Bluff (which made The Dance last season), Alabama State, Prairie View A&m, Texas Southern and Alabama A&M all have some goods to take the title. The SWAC will get little-to-no pub this season, so if you're a diehard hoops fan, this is one you'll have to follow via your own volition. But as we mentioned above, this many teams getting some respect early could be a very good sign or very bad sign, as parity could hurt this league more than help it.
You win close, you win big
We've omitted any story lines with star players because, to be honest, we aren't sure who's destined to have a really big year. You can see above our players to watch, but the SWAC truly is one of the team-oriented conferences. And if you perform well in ultra-tight games, you're going to be in the thick of things come late February, even if that's defined by merely 17 or 18 wins total.
Last season, Texas Southern was the highest-scoring team in the league, averaging 67.9 points per game. It needed that to eke out a barely-above-.500 record, 17-17. Alcorn State, a miserable team that went 2-29, put up 60.6. The lowest average came from Southern University, which put up 60.1 points per game. Yet no team had a higher point differential than Southern, as the Jaguars won by an average of 2.2 points per game.
The teams in this league do play defense but don't shoot free throws well. Odds are the team that wins the most games decided by fewer than four points will be the one with the top seed when the conference tournament begins.
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