Prairie View A&M is on an historic run as they wind down the regular season with home games versus Southern and Alcorn State on Thursday and Saturday.
Winners of seven straight, the Panthers are on their longest winning streak since the 1972-73 season under former coach Bill Cofield. In addition to the historical aspect, the Panthers still have a lot to play for as they’re battling to move up in the SWAC standings in anticipation of next week’s SWAC Tournament in Houston at the Toyota Center.
Prairie View A&M has a chance to finish with 15 regular season wins if the Panthers win out this weekend. If that happens, it would mark the most regular season wins since winning 16 games during the 2009-10 season. The team’s 11 conference wins mark the most game s won since 2008-09 (12) and the opportunity to finish third place or higher at PVAMU hasn’t happened since a third place finish in 2008-09.
Head coach Byron RImm II ranks third all-time in PVAMU history with 112 wins as he’s behind LeRoy Moore (138-59) and Elwood Plummer (150-341). Since the Panthers joined the NCAA Division I ranks in 1980, Rimm has the most wins in the school’s 35-year history of NCAA Division I action.
SWAC TOURNAMENT SCENARIOS
With only two regular season games left, the Panthers still have a shot at the No. 2 seed if they receive some help and a legitimate shot at the third seed.
With Southern’s loss on Feb. 23, the Panthers are only a game behind SU and the chance to claim third place is at stake against Southern on Thursday.
For the Panthers to claim the No. 3 seed outright, they would need to defeat SU on Thursday and Alcorn State on Saturday while hoping for Texas Southern to defeat SU on Saturday. If PVAMU defeats SU on Thursday but SU defeats TSU on Saturday, then the head-to-head tiebreaker comes into play between both teams as the only way the Panthers would be able to claim the seed if they defeat SU by more than 12 points due to SU defeating PVAMU by 12 in the SWAC opener.
If Alabama State splits their weekend series in addition to a sweep by PVAMU and a split by SU, the three-way tie scenario comes into play as the first criteria to determine the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds would be the best record amongst the three teams.
If PVAMU sweeps this weekend, SU drops both games and Alabama State splits, PVAMU and Alabama State would tie for the No. 2 seed and since both teams claimed two-point wins over each other, PVAMU would claim the No. 2 seed based on them splitting with TSU while ASU dropped both games.
With the way the standings are setting up, the Panthers are assured of finishing no lower than fourth place.
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