After a big win over Arkansas State this past weekend, the Troy Trojans men’s basketball team is tied for first place in the Sun Belt Conference, a fact that means more this season than ever before. 

The 2025 Sun Belt Basketball Tournament will see a new format that presents an almost Gauntlet style of seeding. The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the conference will earn byes all the way to the the Tournament Semifinals in Pensacola, Fla., on March 9. Every seed below that has to play more games to reach that point. The two bottom seeds, for example, would need to play a total of six games just to reach the conference championship. 

“It’s extremely important,” men’s coach Scott Cross said of the seeding. “My focus right now is obviously on winning a championship. That’s the No. 1 goal right now and the No. 2 goal would be to get one of those top two seeds in the tournament. No. 1 and No. 2 have the advantage over everyone else. If you’re one of the lowest seeds you have to win seven games or something like that (to win a championship).”

While the tournament is certainly a bigger obstacle for lower seeded teams, Cross said he likes the format because it rewards the top teams in the conference.

“I love the way it’s setup, it favors the top seeds, which are the teams that have been the most consistent in the regular season,” he continued. “It rewards you and makes games like this Thursday extremely important. There are no games you can take for granted from here on out. You can’t take any games off and or you’ll find yourself having to play three or four games in the tournament instead of just two to win a championship.”

Troy is tied with South Alabama, Arkansas State and James Madison for that top seed. 

“It puts us in a position where we control our own destiny,” Cross emphasized. “It won’t be easy for us, we have four games left and we have to be locked in and focused on each one of them. It’s nice to be in this position this late in the season, to control our own destiny.” 

The Trojan men have to contend with Louisiana this Thursday, Feb. 20, for another pivotal conference game at home at Trojan Arena at 6 p.m. Troy defeated Louisiana 74-56 just last week. Troy then hosts Coastal Carolina for another conference game at home on Saturday at 3:33 p.m.

“It’s awesome to have these next two at home,” Cross said. “You want to win them all but having your home fans behind you gives you that extra boost when you need that big defensive stop. Louisiana has had some big wins this season and Coastal beat JMU. They’re not a team you can overlook either.” 

Troy Athletics is going all out this week with a number of promotions and giveaways for the pivotal home games. General admission tickets for Thursday’s game against Louisiana will be just $3 and children can get in free by ordering tickets online with promo code “YOUTH.” All kids in attendance will be given a free book in honor of National Clean Out Your Bookcase Day, as well. White Troy Basketball shirts will also be given out free for the first 600 fans in attendance. 

For Saturday’s game against Coastal, general admission tickets will be $5 and any fan that can show a ticket to the Troy Baseball game against Northwestern State will get a free general admission ticket. 

On Saturday, there will be a number of vendors in attendance to celebrate Mardi Gras with free samples from vendors like Baumhowers, Publix, Jambalaya Girl, CBs, Blue Bell, Goldfingers, Dominos Pizza, Texas Roadhouse, Moe’s BBQ, Coca-Cola, Alabama Peanut Producers, Sweet B’s, Walnut Cookie Co., Rike’s Tacos, Trojan Donuts, Preston’s Steakhouse and Smoothie King. 

For the first 2,500 fans in attendance, free Troy Mardi Gras beads will also be given out. 

The Troy men aren’t the only ones eyeing a top seed as the women’s team currently sits in third place behind James Madison and Arkansas State. 

“We’re coming off a good week of two home wins and we have four games left going down the stretch,” women’s coach Chanda Rigby said. “There’s a lot of excitement, we’re currently in third place and we really want to win these last four games that might give us a chance to get back into second place. The importance of getting back into second place means you get those byes all the way to the semifinals.” 

Rigby said she sees both the positives and negatives of getting a bye all the way to the semifinals, however.

“There are so many ways to look at it. If you are the first or second seed then you only have to win two games to win a championship, which is huge,” she said. “However, if you look at the football playoffs (this season) I really felt like those byes had an affect in those games. I think it had an affect on us the last few years with byes, too.

“If you’re sitting around an arena cold and watching other teams play, the winner can come in hot and with a lot of confidence. So, in that way it could be a disadvantage.” 

The Troy women have a talented ULM team to contend with this Thursday, Feb. 20 on the road.

“I’ll continue to say this, ULM has one of the top three talented rosters in the Sun Belt,” Rigby emphasized. “Their transfer portal class are players that came from Florida State, Clemson, Mississippi State. They are very talented, they just have not been able to put it together in the win column yet and we don’t want them to be able to that this Thursday when we go either.”