ASUN men's basketball tournament

ASUN men's basketball tournament
Conference basketball championship
Sport	Basketball
Conference	ASUN Conference (2002–present) Trans America Athletic Conference (1979–2001)
Number of teams	10
Format	Single-elimination tournament
Current stadium	campus sites
Current location	campus sites
Played	1979–present
Last contest	2025
Current champion	Lipscomb Bisons (2)
Most championships	Belmont Bruins (5)
TV partner(s)	ESPN
Official website	ASUN men's basketball

The ASUN Conference men's basketball tournament (formerly known as the Trans America Athletic Conference men's basketball tournament between 1979 and 2001) is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the ASUN Conference, formerly known as the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC) and Atlantic Sun Conference. The tournament has been held every year since 1979, except for 1992–93.

It is a single-elimination tournament and seeding is based on regular season records. The winner, declared conference champion, receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA men's basketball tournament, as long as it is eligible for NCAA-sponsored postseason play. The eligibility issue applied in both 2021 and 2022, with each final featuring a team representing a transitional member of Division I (North Alabama in 2021 ^[1] and Bellarmine in 2022 ^[2] ). Under NCAA rules, a school transitioning from NCAA Division II is not eligible for NCAA-sponsored D-I postseason play (either the NCAA tournament or the NIT) during its four-year transitional period. ^[3] North Alabama began its transition in July 2018 and was thus ineligible for the NCAA tournament or NIT through the 2021–22 season; Bellarmine began its transition in July 2020 and is thus ineligible for said events through 2023–24. Should a transitional school win the tournament, ASUN rules call for the regular-season champion to receive the automatic bid. North Alabama lost its final, making the issue moot for 2021, but Bellarmine won in 2022, giving Jacksonville State that season's automatic bid.

The Atlantic Sun tournament is the earliest of the NCAA Division I men's tournaments and its champion is the first to lock in an NCAA bid.

History

Trans America Athletic Conference

Year	Champion	Score	Runner-up	Tournament MVP	Location
1979	Northeast Louisiana	90–69	Mercer	Calvin Natt, Northeast Louisiana [4]	Fant–Ewing Coliseum • Monroe, Louisiana
1980	Centenary	79–77	Northeast Louisiana	George Lett, Centenary [4]
1981	Mercer	72–67	Houston Baptist	Tony Gattis, Mercer [4]	Hirsch Coliseum • Shreveport, Louisiana
1982	Northeast Louisiana	98–85	Centenary	Donald Wilson, Northeast Louisiana [4]	Fant–Ewing Coliseum • Monroe, Louisiana
1983	Georgia Southern	68–67	Arkansas–Little Rock	Jim Lampley, UALR [4]	Barton Coliseum • Little Rock, Arkansas
1984	Houston Baptist	81–76	Samford	Craig Beard, Samford [4]	Spring Branch Coliseum • Houston, Texas
1985	Mercer	105–96	Arkansas–Little Rock	Sam Mitchell, Mercer [4]	Hanner Fieldhouse • Statesboro, Georgia
1986	Arkansas–Little Rock	85–63	Centenary	Michael Clarke, UALR [4]	Barton Coliseum • Little Rock, Arkansas
1987	Georgia Southern	49–46	Stetson	Jeff Sanders, Georgia Southern [4]
1988	Texas–San Antonio	76–69	Georgia Southern	Frank Hampton, UTSA [4]	Ocean Center • Daytona Beach, Florida
1989	Arkansas–Little Rock	100–72	Centenary	Jeff Cummings, UALR [4]	Barton Coliseum • Little Rock, Arkansas
1990	Arkansas–Little Rock	105–95	Centenary	Derrick Owens, UALR [4]
1991	Georgia State	80–60	Arkansas–Little Rock	Chris Collier, Georgia State [4]	Edmunds Center • DeLand, Florida
1992	Georgia Southern	95–82	Georgia State	Charlton Young, Georgia Southern [4]	Hanner Fieldhouse • Statesboro, Georgia
1993	No tournament
1994	Central Florida	70–67	Stetson	Victor Saxton, UCF [4]	UCF Arena • Orlando, Florida
1995	Florida International	68–57	Mercer	James Mazyck, FIU [4]
1996	Central Florida	86–77	Mercer	Harry Kennedy, UCF [4]	Edmunds Center • DeLand, Florida
1997	College of Charleston	83–73	Florida International	Anthony Johnson, C of C [4]	John Kresse Arena • Charleston, South Carolina
1998	College of Charleston	72–63	Florida International	Sedric Webber, C of C [4]
1999	Samford	89–61	Central Florida	Marc Salyers, Samford [4]	Jacksonville Coliseum • Jacksonville, Florida
2000	Samford	81–68	Central Florida	Marc Salyers, Samford [4]
2001	Georgia State	79–55	Troy State	Thomas Terrell, Georgia State [4]	GSU Sports Arena • Atlanta, Georgia

Atlantic Sun/ASUN Conference

Year	Champion	Score	Runner-up	Tournament MVP	Location
2002	Florida Atlantic	76–75	Georgia State	Thomas Terrell, Georgia State [4]	UCF Arena • Orlando, Florida
2003	Troy State	80–59	Central Florida	Ben Fletcher, Troy [4]	GSU Sports Arena • Atlanta
2004	Central Florida	60–55	Troy State	Dexter Lyons, UCF [4]	Curb Event Center • Nashville, Tennessee
2005	Central Florida	63–54	Gardner–Webb	Gary Johnson, UCF [4]
2006	Belmont	74–69OT	Lipscomb	Justin Hare, Belmont [4]	Memorial Center • Johnson City, Tennessee
2007	Belmont	94–67	East Tennessee State	Justin Hare, Belmont [4]
2008	Belmont	79–61	Jacksonville	Shane Dansby, Belmont [4]	Allen Arena • Nashville, Tennessee
2009	East Tennessee State	85–68	Jacksonville	Kevin Tiggs, ETSU [4]
2010	East Tennessee State	72–66	Mercer	Micah Williams, ETSU [4]	University Center • Macon, Georgia
2011	Belmont	87–46	North Florida	Mick Hedgepeth, Belmont [4]
2012	Belmont	83–69	Florida Gulf Coast	Kerron Johnson, Belmont [4]
2013	Florida Gulf Coast	88–75	Mercer	Brett Comer, FGCU [4]
2014	Mercer	68–60	Florida Gulf Coast	Langston Hall, Mercer	Alico Arena • Fort Myers, Florida
2015	North Florida	63–57	USC Upstate	Demarcus Daniels, North Florida	UNF Arena • Jacksonville, Florida
2016	Florida Gulf Coast	80–78OT	Stetson	Marc-Eddy Norelia, FGCU	Alico Arena • Fort Myers, Florida
2017	Florida Gulf Coast	77–61	North Florida	Brandon Goodwin, FGCU
2018	Lipscomb	108–96	Florida Gulf Coast	Garrison Mathews, Lipscomb
2019	Liberty	74–68	Lipscomb	Scottie James, Liberty	Allen Arena • Nashville, Tennessee
2020	Liberty	73–57	Lipscomb	Caleb Homesley, Liberty	Vines Center • Lynchburg, Virginia
2021	Liberty	79–75	North Alabama	Darius McGhee, Liberty	UNF Arena • Jacksonville, Florida
2022	Bellarmine	77–72	Jacksonville	Dylan Penn, Bellarmine	Freedom Hall • Louisville, Kentucky
2023	Kennesaw State	67–66	Liberty	Terrell Burden, Kennesaw State	KSU Convocation Center • Kennesaw, Georgia
2024	Stetson	94–91	Austin Peay	Jalen Blackmon, Stetson	Edmunds Center • DeLand, Florida
2025	Lipscomb	76–65	North Alabama	Joe Anderson, Lipscomb	Allen Arena • Nashville, Tennessee

Broadcasters

Year	Network	Play-by-play	Analyst
2024	ESPN2	Mike Corey	Richard Hendrix
2023			Tim McCormick
2022			Bob Valvano
2021	ESPN	Anish Shroff	Jon Sundvold
2020		Mike Corey	Jon Crispin
2019		Anish Shroff	Cory Alexander
2018
2017	ESPN2	Kevin Brown
2016		Tom Hart
2015
2014		Jason Benetti
2013 [5]		Roy Philpott	Dereck Whittenburg
2012 [6]		Adam Amin	Bob Valvano
2011 [7]		Mark Jones
2010 [8]		Rob Stone	Tim McCormick
2009 [9]	ESPN	Eric Collins	Bob Valvano
2008
2007 [10]	ESPN2	Jon Sciambi	Bucky Waters
2006	ESPN	Lou Canellis
1998		Dewayne Staats	Len Elmore

Performance by school

School	Championships	Championship Years
Belmont [a]	5	2006, 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012
UCF [a]	4	1994, 1996, 2004, 2005
Arkansas-Little Rock [a] [b]	3	1986, 1989, 1990
Georgia Southern [a]	3	1983, 1987, 1992
Florida Gulf Coast	3	2013, 2016, 2017
Liberty [a]	3	2019, 2020, 2021
Mercer [a]	3	1981, 1985, 2014
College of Charleston [a] [c]	2	1997, 1998
East Tennessee State [a]	2	2009, 2010
Georgia State [a]	2	1991, 2001
Lipscomb	2	2018, 2025
Northeast Louisiana [a] [d]	2	1979, 1982
Samford [a]	2	1999, 2000
Bellarmine	1	2022
Centenary [a]	1	1980
Florida Atlantic [a]	1	2002
Florida International [a] [e]	1	1995
Houston Baptist [a] [f]	1	1984
Kennesaw State	1	2023
North Florida	1	2015
Stetson	1	2024
Troy [a]	1	2003
UTSA [a]	1	1988
TOTAL	46

Teams in bold are ASUN members as of the upcoming 2024–25 NCAA basketball season.

• Among other current ASUN members:
  • Jacksonville and North Alabama have advanced to the tournament final but have yet to win a championship.
  • Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, and Eastern Kentucky have yet to advance to the tournament final.
  • West Georgia will play its first ASUN season in 2024–25.

Footnotes

1. No longer a conference member.
2. Branded athletically as Little Rock since the 2015–16 school year.
3. Now athletically branded as Charleston.
4. Known since 1999 as Louisiana–Monroe (in full, the University of Louisiana at Monroe). For athletic branding purposes, the school typically uses "ULM", but accepts "Louisiana–Monroe".
5. Now athletically branded as FIU.
6. Known as Houston Christian since September 21, 2022.

See also

• ASUN women's basketball tournament

References

1. "Liberty claims first tournament berth of 2021 as opponent is ineligible" NBC Sports. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
2. "Division I newcomer Bellarmine wins Atlantic Sun championship but ineligible for NCAA tournament". ESPN.com. March 8, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
3. "Why Merrimack must sit out March Madness in its historic season and is in first place in its conference" CBS Sports. Retrieved 2022-03-08.
4. "2013-14 Atlantic Sun Record book, page 6" (PDF). ASUN Conference.
5. "Championship Week Presented by DICK'S Sporting Goods Schedule". March 4, 2013.
6. "Championship Week: Coverage of a Record 137 Men's Games Begins March 1 | ESPN MediaZone". Archived from the original on March 1, 2012. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
7. Dick's Sporting Goods Schedule
8. "Championship Week Begins Thursday, March 4 | ESPN MediaZone". Archived from the original on April 12, 2010. Retrieved December 17, 2010.
9. "20090226_ChampionshipWeekBeginsMarch5". Archived from the original on March 7, 2009. Retrieved March 1, 2009.
10. "What to Watch: College basketball lovers rejoice". Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved March 1, 2009.