2025 Southland Conference Tournament

The McNeese Cowboys are one of the biggest conference tournament favorites that you will see at this time of the year as the Southland Conference postseason gets underway. With one bid to the NCAA Tournament available, it will be an uphill climb for the other seven teams that qualified from the 12-team conference.

For the third straight year, this tournament will be held at the Legacy Center in Lake Charles, LA, which means that the Cowboys have the home-court advantage. The tournament will be held in this venue through 2029, a concession reportedly made by the conference to keep McNeese from jumping to another conference.

 

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How to Watch the Southland Conference Tournament

When: March 9-12

Where: The Legacy Center in Lake Charles, LA

Format: Top two seeds get bye to the Semifinals, No. 3 and No.4 seeds get byes to the Quarterfinals

Watch: ESPN U, ESPN+, ESPN2; Championship Game on ESPN2 on March 12 at 5 p.m. ET

College Basketball Odds | College Basketball Betting Splits | Greg Peterson’s Daily Lines | Steve Makinen’s Power Ratings

Southland Conference Tournament Bracket

Southland Conference Tournament Seeds, Teams and Odds

1. McNeese (-500)

2. Lamar (+850)

3. Nicholls (+1200)

4. Northwestern State (+5500)

5. Texas A&M Corpus Christi (+1800)

6. Southeastern Louisiana (+4000)

7. Incarnate Word (+11000)

8. Houston Christian (+15000)

(odds from DraftKings Sportsbook accurate at time of publish)

Favorite To Win Southland Conference Tournament

Per KenPom and Erik Haslam of Haslametrics, McNeese is ranked more than 100 spots higher than the next Southland team (Texas A&M CC). While Bart Torvik has the gap a little bit smaller, this is a team ranked anywhere from the high-50s to the high-60s. They are clearly head, shoulders, knees, and toes above the rest of the conference.

Last year, McNeese was the No. 1 seed with the bye to the Semifinals and won by 19 and then 16 to cut the nets down in front of a home crowd of 4,200 fans. By the numbers, this version of McNeese is very similar to last year’s version, so it would take one of the biggest upsets of the month of March to see the Cowboys fall short of the NCAA Tournament.

Southland Conference Tournament Darkhorse

With such a massive favorite, obviously you would like to avoid that team as long as possible and focus on the bottom of the bracket. Much like last season, McNeese finished the regular season with one conference loss. Southeastern Louisiana beat them last season. Nicholls beat them this season. Nicholls is also the team that McNeese beat 92-76 last year in the Finals.

The Colonels have played the Cowboys the toughest in the two meetings. Lamar also played very well on Mar. 1, as the Cowboys escaped with just a two-point win in a game where they were 12-of-23 from 3, so it wasn’t a fluke from the Cardinals. Torvik and KenPom actually have Texas A&M Corpus Christi ranked as the second-best team in this league.

Lamar gets the benefit of playing one fewer game as the No. 2 seed with the triple bye. Nicholls split with Southeastern Louisiana if that’s who they get in the Quarterfinals.

Frankly, if you really want to bet a darkhorse, just take the underdog moneyline in the title game against McNeese. It’ll be big enough.

Players to Watch in Southland Conference Tournament

Foul trouble is a big thing in the Southland and the gap between starters and reserves isn’t as big as it is in some conferences, so a lot of guys get game time. There are 58 players that average at least 20 minutes per game, while only 10 average at least 30 minutes per game. So it should come as a surprise that Incarnate Word’s Davion Bailey leads the conference with 16.7 PPG. He and Sam Hines Jr. (16.4 PPG) from Southeastern Louisiana are the only two players averaging at least 15 PPG.
Incarnate Word is one of the teams that isn’t super deep, so they actually have three of the top nine scorers in PPG, with Jalin Anderson (14.5 PPG) and Dylan Hayman (14.2 PPG) up there with Bailey. McNeese doesn’t even have a player in the top 10, as Javohn Garcia (12.6 PPG) Sincere Parker (12.4 PPG) lead the way. The Cowboys have so many blowouts that they can give a lot of players some time on the floor.

Betting Pick to Win The Southland Conference Tournament

The -500 price on McNeese implies an 83.33% probability that they win this conference tournament. By virtue of basically being at home, we can look at their home spreads and moneylines against Lamar, Nicholls, and I guess even extend that to Texas A&M CC and Southeastern Louisiana.

Jan. 18 vs. Lamar: -14.5, -1200 (Circa)

Jan. 11 vs. Nicholls: -16.5, -1600 (Circa)

Feb. 22 vs. Texas A&M CC: -12, -900 (Circa)

Dec. 30 vs. SE Louisiana: -13, -1000 (Circa)

The -500 price seems like a lot, but they’ll be a massive favorite in both games.

Pick: McNeese -500

Makinen Power Ratings for Southland Conference

  • The Southland Conference tourney has been a favorite-dominated bracket of late, with small favorites of 4.5 points or fewer doing particularly well, going 27-12 SU and 24-15 ATS (61.5%) since 2014.
  • Higher totaled games of 142 or higher have trended significantly Under of late in the Southland tourney, 24-8 (75%) since 2017.
  • The favorite in the Southland Conference tourney title game is on a 13-3 SU and 11-4-1 ATS (73.3%) run dating back to 2008.

More Steve Makinen Conference Tournament Betting Trends.

Check out the other previews in our 2025 College Basketball Conference Tournament Betting Guide.

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