By: Anthony Del Fiacco, KCOU Sports

The Atlantic Sun conference tournament kicks off tonight at 7:00 pm across various campus sites. Being one of the weaker conferences in Division I, you rarely, if ever, see news from the eight-member league reach the public spotlight. However, anyone who fondly remembers the Flordia Gulf Coast’s unprecedented run to the 2013 Sweet 16 knows every now and then the A-Sun has a trick up its sleeve. Now, I’m far from an expert in all matters under the Atlantic Sun. I’m far from a college hoops expert, period. But as the proud owner of a “Dunk City” t-shirt, courtesy of a friend attending FGCU, I felt more qualified as anyone in the KCOU sports department to type out this conference championship preview.

(All games will be played at the higher seed’s home court.)

#1 North Florida vs. #8 Stetson

As the A-Sun regular season champs, having earned an impressive 12-2 conference record, the Ospreys of UNF are your tournament favorites. They’re an offensive power, averaging 76.1 ppg and shooting 47.2% from the field. They’re only projected to be a 16-seed according to Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, but chances are they won’t face any road bumps in this tourney until later rounds.

Pick: UNF

#2 Florida Gulf Coast vs. #7 Jacksonville

And here are those aforementioned FGCU Eagles now. Seniors Brett Comer and Bernard Thompson are all that remain of the high-flying 2013 “Dunk City” squad and are looking for one last dance. They’re excellent around the glass, ranking 23^rd in the nation in offensive rpg rebounds and 32^nd in defensive rpg. UNF may have handed them two double-digit losses this season, but should the Ospreys get their wings clipped on the way to the final, the Eagles are the best bet.

Pick: FGCU

#3 USC Upstate vs. #6 Kennesaw State

Fun fact #1: Upstate boasts the conference player of the year in senior Ty Greene. Greene, who led the A-Sun in scoring, and the Spartans handed UNF both of its losses in conference play. So if they can get past a possible semifinal date with FGCU, there’s no bigger threat to the tournament’s favorite.

Fun fact #2: All I know about Kennesaw State is that it’s located in Georgia, and I only know because I was in Georgia for the SEC football championship just last December. Ok, maybe this fact isn’t all that fun. Let’s move on.

Pick: Upstate

#4 Northern Kentucky vs. #5 Lipscomb

This is a match between two schools with awesome mascots (the Norse and the Bison, respectively.) That’s it, that’s almost all I know about these two. They split the season series in two blowouts and hold identical 13-16 records. Lipscomb may have played Mizzou close in the first half of their Jan. 3 meeting, but given this historically bad season for the Tigers I don’t know how much I can gauge out of Lipscomb from that one performance. I’ll just flip the coin here.

Pick: Lipscomb

Semifinals and Championship

Given none of these later round matchups are set in stone, I’m going to eschew the analysis for hypothetical. Seems like a waste of good font. After all, college basketball in March is sheer insanity: Stetson could knock off UNF tonight and I wouldn’t give it much thought. Anyway, here are my remaining picks:

North Florida over Lipscomb

Florida Gulf Coast over USC Upstate

Florida Gulf Coast over North Florida