Coming off the team’s dominating performance in a 66-45 win Thursday night against Missouri to extend the program’s 39 game home win streak, Liberty basketball is being projected as a 15-seed in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracketology.
Lunardi’s bracket has Liberty facing No. 2 seed UCLA in the first round of the West Region. That matchup would be a rematch from the Liberty win over the Bruins on Dec. 29, 2018, 73-58. UCLA head coach Steve Alford was fired shortly after that game.
Liberty is currently 4-3 on the season and has won three straight contests after dropping three straight earlier in the year. Ritchie McKay’s Flames are coming off a 23-6 season last year and 11-2 mark in conference play that saw Liberty earn a 13-seed in the NCAA Tournament before losing to No. 4 seed Oklahoma State in the first round. The Flames won the ASUN regular season title and the ASUN Tournament title for a third consecutive season.
The Flames are pegged as the ASUN’s automatic qualifier while LSU and Iona, who Liberty has already faced this year, are also projected into the Tournament field. Lunardi has the Tigers as a No. 6 seed and the Gaels as a No. 13 seed. A team the Flames could end up playing in the Diamond Head Classic, BYU, is projected into the field as a No. 7 seed.
Lunardi predicts the No. 1 seeds to be Purdue (Midwest, Chicago), Duke (East, Philadelphia), Baylor (South, San Antonio), and Gonzaga (West, San Francisco).
The Flames will look to continue its win streak on Monday night against Delaware State with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. from Liberty Arena and streamed on ESPN+. Liberty will conclude next week’s slate on Saturday, Dec. 11 against Stephen F. Austin at 7 p.m. EST from Fort Worth, Texas in a game that will be carried on FloSports.
