Unless something drastic happens, all five state Division I basketball programs may need to win their conference tournament to make it to March Madness.
For sure, UALR and ASU will have to win the Sun Belt, Central Arkansas the Southland and UAPB the SWAC. Those are one-bid conferences.
The first-place Trojans would help themselves by maintaining a top-two conference finish, which earns a triple bye into the tournament semifinals in the Smoothie King Center, which is the home of the New Orleans Pelicans.
The bottom two teams in the 12-team Sun Belt don’t make the tournament, and then three rounds are played at the home sites of the higher-seeded team.