The Sun Belt men’s and women’s basketball championships return to the Pensacola Bay Center the next week or so, with teams looking for an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament later this month.
The 2025 championships mark the fifth consecutive year that Pensacola has welcomed the Sun Belt Conference and the championship games.
James Madison men’s basketball defeated Arkansas State, 91-71, in the 2024 championship game. Marshall women’s basketball, under then-first-year head coach Kim Caldwell – who, right after the season, took the job at Tennessee – won over James Madison in overtime for the Herd’s first conference championship.
Here are some storylines to watch for during the week, which begins on Tuesday with the first-round games for both the men’s and women’s brackets. Contests start at 11:30 a.m., which is No. 12 Georgia Southern vs. No. 13 Southern Miss on the women’s side.
Unique bracket with games nearly every day
The 2025 championship brackets are single-elimination games that provide basketball fans at least a handful of games nearly every day from Tuesday to March 10.
For the first six days of the tournament, there will be four games per day – two men’s games and two women’s games – followed by the two championship games on March 10.
All told, for example, a fan could be at Tuesday’s 11:30 a.m. game and stay virtually all day until the second men’s game at 7:30 p.m. with how the games are spread out.
The bracket also gives both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds automatic byes until the semifinal games. On the men’s side, No. 1 South Alabama and No. 2 James Madison won’t hit the court until Sunday evening. For the women’s bracket, that means No. 1 James Madison and No. 2 Arkansas State won’t play until that same Sunday morning/early afternoon.
Troy’s Chanda Rigby makes return to Pensacola
There will be one head coach that, as usual, is making a return to Northwest Florida.
Troy women’s basketball head coach Chanda Rigby is back in Pensacola as the Trojans are the No. 3 seed in the tournament. She won’t see the court until Saturday at 2:30 p.m., however, with a to-be-determined opponent.
Rigby is in her 13th season as the head coach of Troy, which made it to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament Fab 4 last season, falling narrowly to Minnesota. Troy was upset by No. 7 Louisiana in the SBC quarterfinals last year.
“It’s been great to be back in Pensacola, for the people and for the place,” Rigby said after the Trojans fell in the quarterfinals last year in heartbreak fashion, 67-65.
Rigby, prior to her tenure at Troy, was the women’s basketball head coach at Pensacola State, making a pair of NJCAA Final Four appearances in both 2011 and 2012. She won the Sun Belt tournament in 2021, the first year in Pensacola.
While she coached at Pensacola State, her sons went to school at Tate and her husband also coached at Tate.
“Just so much new and so much growth. So much progress. It’s like the best of Pensacola is still here. And the places that needed to rise and come up, that’s what happened,” Rigby said of the city last year. “Everything is on the up. We’re so thankful to have this tournament here. I think it’s definitely the best place to have a championship tournament. The Sun Belt Conference does a great job. Pensacola Sports, those guys are pros. We’re just thankful to be here.”
Pensacola native Neil Hardin back home with Louisiana
Similar to Rigby, another coach will be back, but in his hometown.
Pensacola native Neil Hardin, who’s an assistant for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s basketball team, will be back this year. Louisiana, ranked No. 11 in the tournament, plays right away on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. against No. 14 Louisiana-Monroe.
Louisiana is just two years removed from winning the Sun Belt tournament in 2023. However, Hardin – who graduated from Woodham High and was a student manager for the basketball team before becoming a student manager at Pensacola State – won’t be with Bob Marlin for the first time in awhile.
Marlin, who was a head coach at Pensacola State and won the NJCAA Division I National Championship in 1993, was fired by Louisiana in December. He and Marlin had been together for over 20 years between Sam Houston State and Louisiana.
“Getting to do my job in front of friends and family that normally don’t get to see us play that often, it’s a really cool thing,” Hardin said last season. “It’s a central location and they do a great job of putting it on. But, for the fans, they get to come and experience Pensacola, and they might not have ever done that without the Sun Belt. So I think it helps Pensacola as well.”
South Alabama women’s basketball brings two area alums back home
South Alabama women’s basketball, which is the No. 14 seed in the tournament and plays on Tuesday at 2 p.m. against No. 11 Marshall, has two local alums playing on the team this year.
Navarre’s Rachel Leggett, who was a standout for the Raiders and was the PNJ Girls Basketball Player of the Year in 2021, has starred for the Jaguars throughout the year.
Leggett, in her junior season with South Alabama, is averaging a team-high 13.3 points per game entering the tournament (385 points total) with 5.8 rebounds per game, 1.6 assists per game and 1.5 steals per game.
“Rachel, every single day, is doing something for basketball. Whether it’s grabbing our (graduate assistant) and getting up extra shots, shooting free throws, taking care of her body with coach (Berron) Tyson, endless workouts with Coach (Colby) Davis and Coach (Brooke) LeMar. Rachel, every day, she does something. … She was watching film yesterday before we left,” South Alabama head coach Yolisha Jackson said of Leggett last year. “Every single day she has done something since we got there as a staff, to be a better basketball player. And it shows.”
Booker T. Washington alum Janelle Jones, who’s in her graduate season with the Jaguars, hasn’t seen the court this year with South Alabama. Jones, who was the PNJ Co-Player of the Year during her senior season with the Wildcats, appeared in 21 games and put up 20 points on the year last season.
“It’s great knowing that Janelle, right here from Booker T. Washington, she was able to play and her support system showed up too,” Jackson said last season.
The Sun Belt returning to Pensacola through 2030
With the return of the Sun Belt tournament to Pensacola this year, it also marks the beginning of new contract after this tournament wraps up.
The Sun Belt, in partnership with both Pensacola Sports and Visit Pensacola, announced a five-year contract extension in October, meaning the Sun Belt tournament will be played at the Bay Center through at least 2030.
The extension makes Pensacola the longest-tenured host of the Sun Belt Basketball Championships, which will now span 10 years. It’s also the most frequent, surpassing New Orleans, which hosted the championships from 2014-2020.
“The Sun Belt Conference is excited to extend our partnership with Pensacola. There is no better place for our basketball championships to thrive and showcase the growth of the Sun Belt Conference,” conference commissioner Keith Gill said in a press release in October. “Our student-athletes, coaches and fans have established traditions around starting March Madness in Pensacola – a community that has embraced the rising brand of Sun Belt basketball.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Sun Belt Basketball Championships return to Pensacola this week
