There are four conference tournaments tipping off around college basketball Wednesday, and I’m going to focus on the Big South, as regular-season champion High Point could be a team that could make something of a Cinderella run in the NCAA Tournament if it gets back there. In Friday’s quarterfinals, it faces the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game between South Carolina Upstate, which is -10.5, and Gardner-Webb. Every tournament game will be played in Johnson City, Tenn. KenPom ranks the Big South 22nd out of the 31 DI leagues.
Bet on the Big South conference tournament and more at BetMGM:
Wednesday’s play-in game tips off at 7:30 ET and shouldn’t be much of a mystery which advances considering No. 9 seed Gardner-Webb might be one of the five-worst programs in the country with three total wins, two vs. non-Division I schools. KenPom ranks the Bulldogs No. 361 out of 365. They are third-worst nationally in scoring defense at 86.3 points per game and were outscored by an average of 17.9 ppg.
That being said, Gardner-Webb’s lone Div. 1 win was at home against South Carolina Upstate, 67-65, on Jan. 23. The schools met again in the regular season in Spartanburg, and the No. 8 seed Spartans won 71-61. They had lost six straight in the series. KenPom has them at No. 297. In that finale, Upstate saw the return of guard Karmani Gregory (15.8 ppg) from a minor turf toe issue. He had 22 points.
It’s the second straight year these teams will meet in the play-in/first-round game. The roles were largely reversed in 2024-25 and Gardner Webb rolled 83-63. The SportsLine Projection Model has it 77-70 this time for South Carolina Upstate.
What is interesting about this league entering the postseason is that UNC Asheville’s Mike Morrell is the only coach in it who has won this tournament (2023). High Point dominated the league last season on the way to the regular season and conference titles to earn a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers lost by 12 to No. 4 Purdue.
All that success led Creighton to hire away head coach Alan Huss – that has not gone well – and he was replaced by Flynn Clayman, who spent the past two seasons working under Huss as the associate head coach and offensive coordinator.
High Point was even more dominant in the Big South this year with its only loss coming by 17 at second-place Winthrop on Jan. 14 but getting payback by two points on Feb. 21 to earn a third straight regular-season title and No. 1 seed in the Big South Tournament. Hight Point is the first Big South member to win three consecutive outright titles since Winthrop did it from 2004-07.
The Panthers’ 27 regular-season wins overall are a Big South record, breaking their own mark of 26 last season. Twenty-two of those wins have been by double-digits — 13 by at least 20 points and three by at least 40. They play fast under Clayman, averaging 90.7 points per game, third in the nation. The last Big South member to average 90.0 points in a campaign was VMI in 2008-09.
You may have heard of one High Point player in Cam’Ron Fletcher, who is third on the team in scoring (13.4 PPG) and first in rebounding (6.8 RPG). The graduate transfer previously played at Kentucky, Florida State and Xavier. He is one of eight transfers on essentially an entirely new roster from last year.
CBS Sports bracketology has High Point, with a NET ranking of 76, as the Big South tournament winner, a No. 12 seed in the Big Dance’s Midwest Region and facing No. 5 St. John’s. I’m telling you right now — if High Point is in one of those always dangerous 5 vs. 12 games, I will be looking hard at the Panthers regardless of their opponent.
Bet college basketball futures at FanDuel and get $100 in bonus bets if your first bet wins:
Big South Tournament model win rate
Odds via DraftKings.
- No. 1 High Point 71.3% (-250)
- No. 2 Winthrop 10.1% (+450)
- No. 7 Charleston Southern 5.0% (+2500)
- No. 3 Radford 4.8% (+1300)
- No. 4 UNC Asheville 3.9% (+2000)
- No. 5 Longwood 2.8% (+3000)
- No. 6 Presbyterian 1.6% (+3000)
- No. 8 USC Upstate (0.6%) (+6500)
- No. 9 Gardner-Webb (0.0%) (+50000)
Bet on college basketball at DraftKings:
The only team that I and the oddsmakers give much of a shot at winning this tournament other than High Point is Winthrop (NET ranking of 129), which has won this event by far more than any school but hasn’t done so since 2021 and lost in the 2025 final. The Eagles have lost only two games by a total of four points in 2026. But when I say Winthrop can win, it comes with a major asterisk.
That would be a 6-foot-10 asterisk in the form of senior center Logan Duncomb, likely the Big South Player of the Year. He is fourth in the league in scoring (18.4 PPG), second in rebounding (9.0 RPG) and first in field-goal percentage (59.2%) but in major doubt for the event with a foot injury suffered on Feb. 26.
Duncomb, originally an Indiana transfer, missed the finale and was seen using a mobility scooter to get onto the court to be honored as part of Senior Day festivities with a boot on his left foot. That does not sound promising and seems unlikely he will play in Friday’s quarterfinal vs. No. 7 Charleston Southern – so I might look at the Buccaneers against the spread, in that one if not to outright win.
When I starting writing this, High Point was around -150. Now it’s -250 but still the choice.
Add Comment