The fifth-place finisher in the six-team Sun Belt West, Arkansas-Little Rock (19-16 overall, 7-9 in regular-season conference play, RPI #200), is your 2011 Sun Belt Champion, bound for the NCAA Tournament (almost certainly by way of Dayton) for the first time since 1990, thanks to the last-second heroics of conference player of the year Solomon Bozeman.
What a game! Congratulations to the champs, and good luck in the Big Dance, Trojans.
Like my giant bracket says, Sun Belt West represent!!
The way the tournament played out, with all the top seeds falling early and two non-bye teams playing for the title, made Denver’s first-round pratfall against Florida International (which lost its next game 73-38) all the more frustrating. This really was anybody’s tournament. It could have been the Pioneers’. But they basically forgot to show up.
Ah, well. Maybe next year.