MELBOURNE - With the completion of the 2015-16 regular season on Saturday, the Sunshine State Conference officially unveiled the eight teams that will play in this coming week's 2016 SSC Men's Basketball Tournament.
Unlike the past three seasons when the entire tournament was held at the Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, the higher seeded teams will host quarterfinal round games on Wednesday, March 2, before the final four teams will advance to play in the semifinal and finals at the ICI Center on the campus of Embry-Riddle in Daytona Beach. Prior to playing the past three years in Kissimmee, the tournaments were held at member institutions from 2002-12.
SSC Men's Basketball Tournament Bracket
SSC Tournament Central
SSC Men's Basketball Tournament Record Book
The top eight men's teams in the final league standings will begin their quest for an SSC Championship on Wednesday, March 2 in the quarterfinals. The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, March 5 and the championship game, which is slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 6. The winner of the SSC Tournament receives the SSC's automatic bid to this year's NCAA Division II Tournament.
Florida Southern (10-18, 5-11) will be one of the four league teams playing a quarterfinal game on the road on Wednesday as the Moccasins, who finished eighth in the league standings following its 90-84 home loss on Saturday against Nova Southeastern, will travel to Miami Shores for a 7:30 p.m. game against top-seeded and 23rd-ranked Barry (21-5, 12-4), who finished the regular season with a three-way share of the regular season title with Eckerd and Rollins. The two teams split their two regular season meetings as the Mocs picked up a 74-72 victory in Lakeland on Nov. 18, while the Buccaneers collected a 101-63 win in Miami Shores on Jan. 27.
The Mocs have won four consecutive and 23 all-time SSC Tournament titles since the league began the postseason event in 1978. In fact, besides FSC, only three other schools have won multiple league titles.
Florida Southern has posted a 68-15 all-time record in the SSC Tournament and has won 11 consecutive tournament games since suffering a 70-69 loss to Eckerd in the semifinals of the 2011 tournament. Along with winning 23 titles (1979, 1980, 1981, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), the Mocs have also had four runner-up finishes (1985, 1997, 2002, 2004).
This year's No. 8 seed for the Mocs is its lowest since being the No. 9 seed in 2007. The Mocs have played just game in the SSC Tournament seeded lower than No. 6. In 2007, FSC fell 64-62 to No. 8 seed Florida Tech in the tournament's first round in Boca Raton.
Meanwhile, Barry is making its 25th all-time appearance in the tournament and is 15-24 overall and has had five runner-up finishes (1992, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2015), including falling 93-83 to the Mocs in last year's championship game at the Silver Spurs Arena.
The winner of the FSC-Barry quarterfinal game will face the winner of the Saint Leo-Nova Southeastern quarterfinal game in one of two semifinal games on Saturday, March 5 at 12 p.m. The Saint Leo-Nova Southeastern will be held in Saint Leo on Wednesday, March 2 at 7 p.m.
Saint Leo (18-10, 10-6) earned the No. 4 seed and is making its 31st appearance in the tournament and is 12-30 overall and has had two runner-up finishes (1986, 2012). In the regular season, the Lions swept both games from the Sharks as they won 93-88 in Saint Leo on Nov. 21 and then claimed an 8061 win on Jan. 23 in Davie.
Nova Southeastern (11-15, 6-10) earned the No. 5 seed following its 90-84 win on Saturday in Lakeland over the Mocs and is making its 12th all-time appearance in the tournament and has posted a 5-11 record.
On the other side of the SSC Tournament bracket, No. 2 seed Eckerd (22-6, 12-4) will host No. 7 seed Florida Tech (14-14, 5-11) in St. Petersburg on Wednesday at 7 p.m., while No. 3 seed Rollins (21-7, 12-4) will host No. 6 seed Lynn (12-14, 6-10) at 7 p.m. in Winter Park. Those two winners will play in the second semifinal on Saturday, March 5 at 2:30 p.m.
Eckerd is making its 34th all-time appearance in the SSC Tournament this season as the Tritons have posted a 31-30 record in the tournament, including being eliminated from the tournament the past three seasons by the Mocs, and Eckerd has won three titles (1994, 2004, 2007) and has had three runner-up finishes (1995, 2005, 2011), while Florida Tech is making its 29th appearance and is 10-28 in the tournament and has had three runner-up finishes (1991, 1998, 2000). In the regular season, Eckerd swept the Panthers as the Tritons earned 110-104 overtime win in St. Petersburg on Nov. 21 and then posted a 69-56 win in Melbourne on Jan. 30.
Rollins is making its 36th appearance in the tournament and its first since 2014 as the Tars missed the tournament last season. The Tars are 32-31 all-time in the tournament and have claimed four championships (1992, 2006, 2010, 2011) and has had seven runner-up finishes (1978, 1979, 1980, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2013), while Lynn is making its 18th all-time tournament appearance as the Fighting Knights have posted an 8-16 record and won the championship in 2005 and were runners-up in 1999.
All semifinal and final games will be broadcast on the web at www.sunshinestateconference.org. Each of the four quarterfinal hosts are expected to offer both live stats and live video broadcasts of the games.
At last year's SSC Tournament, Florida Southern picked up a 93-83 win over Barry in the championship game to win its fourth consecutive tournament championship and ninth since 2000.
