By Jonathan Lidskin
After 12 seasons at his alma mater, Scott Cross was fired by UT Arlington. Cross won a lot of games at Arlington including a top 75 KenPom finish and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017. After being fired, Cross spent a season as an assistant at TCU but then landed on his feet at Troy. He has now taken the Trojans to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017.
Troy took down Arkansas State in the Sun Belt title game, mounting a furious second-half comeback. Myles Rigsby and Tayton Conerway combined for 41 to lead the Trojans into March Madness and Thomas Dowd pitched in 14 points and nine rebounds.
Troy was one of four teams to win a share of the Sun Belt regular season title. The four faced off in the semifinals of the tournament in Pensacola, Florida and Troy took down both James Madison and Arkansas State.
In his most recent Bracketology update, Joe Lunardi of ESPN projected Troy as a 14 seed, and Bracket Matrix this morning listed them as a 14 seed as well. With plenty of auto bids still to be clinched, Troy could likely get up to a 13 seed as they are currently 97th in KenPom.