2021 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament

The 2021 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the 2020–21 season in the Southland Conference. The tournament took place from March 9–13, 2021. The tournament winner received an automatic invitation to the 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

2021 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	2020–21
Teams	10
Site	Merrell Center Katy, Texas
Champions	Abilene Christian (2nd title)
Winning coach	Joe Golding (2nd title)
MVP	Damien Daniels (Abilene Christian)
Television	ESPN+, ESPN2
Southland Conference men's basketball tournaments

2020–21 Southland Conference men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Nicholls	14	–	2		.875			18	–	7		.720
Abilene Christian †	13	–	2		.867			24	–	5		.828
Sam Houston State	13	–	3		.813			19	–	9		.679
Stephen F. Austin*	12	–	3		.800			16	–	5		.762
Northwestern State	9	–	7		.563			11	–	18		.379
New Orleans	8	–	7		.533			10	–	15		.400
Lamar	6	–	10		.375			10	–	18		.357
Incarnate Word	5	–	9		.357			8	–	14		.364
Southeastern Louisiana	5	–	10		.333			8	–	18		.308
McNeese State	4	–	10		.286			10	–	14		.417
Houston Baptist	4	–	11		.267			6	–	19		.240
Central Arkansas	4	–	12		.250			5	–	19		.208
Texas A&M–CC	2	–	13		.133			5	–	19		.208
*Ineligible for postseason due to postseason ban
† 2021 Southland tournament winner

Seeds

Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tie–breaker system to seed teams with identical conference records. Only the top 10 teams in the conference qualified for the tournament. The top two seeds received triple byes into the semifinals in the merit-based format. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeds received double byes to the quarterfinals. Stephen F. Austin is serving a postseason ban and did not compete.

Seed	School	Conference	Tiebreaker 1
1	Nicholls	14–2
2	Abilene Christian	13–2
3	Sam Houston State	13–3
4	Northwestern State	9–7
5	New Orleans	8–7
6	Lamar	6–10
7	Incarnate Word	5–9
8	Southeastern Louisiana	5–10
9	McNeese State	4–10
10	Houston Baptist	4–11

Schedule

Session	Game	Time*	Matchup#	Score	Television
First round – Tuesday, March 9, 2021
1	1	5:00 p.m.	No. 8 Southeastern Louisiana vs. No. 9 McNeese State	71–68	ESPN+
	2	8:00 p.m.	No. 7 Incarnate Word vs. No. 10 Houston Baptist	68–80
Second round – Wednesday, March 10, 2021
2	3	5:00 p.m.	No. 8 Southeastern Louisiana vs. No. 5 New Orleans	63–80	ESPN+
	4	8:00 p.m.	No. 10 Houston Baptist vs. No. 6 Lamar	52–62
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 11, 2021
3	5	5:00 p.m.	No. 5 New Orleans vs. No. 4 Northwestern State	79–82	ESPN+
	6	8:00 p.m.	No. 6 Lamar vs. No. 3 Sam Houston State	70–69
Semifinals – Friday, March 12, 2021
3	7	5:00 p.m.	No. 4 Northwestern State vs. No. 1 Nicholls	76–88	ESPN+
	8	8:00 p.m.	No. 6 Lamar vs. No. 2 Abilene Christian	71–93
Championship – Saturday, March 13, 2021
4	7	8:30 p.m.	No. 1 Nicholls vs. No. 2 Abilene Christian	45–79	ESPN2
*Game times in CST. #-Rankings denote tournament seeding.

Source

Bracket

	First round Tuesday, March 9 ESPN+					Second round Wednesday, March 10 ESPN+					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 11 ESPN+					Semifinals Friday, March 12 ESPN+					Championship Saturday, March 13 ESPN2
	8	Southeastern Louisiana	71
	9	McNeese State	68			5	New Orleans	80
						8	Southeastern Louisiana	63
											4	Northwestern State	82
											5	New Orleans	79
																1	Nicholls	88
																4	Northwestern State	76
																					1	Nicholls	45
																					2	Abilene Christian	79
																2	Abilene Christian	93
																6	Lamar	71
											3	Sam Houston State	69
											6	Lamar	70
						6	Lamar	62
	7	Incarnate Word	68			10	Houston Baptist	52
	10	Houston Baptist	80

See also

• 2021 Southland Conference women's basketball tournament
• Southland Conference men's basketball tournament

External links

• 2021 Southland Conference basketball tournament