Charlotte 49ers jockeying for position as Conference USA ‘bonus play’ approaches
The Charlotte 49ers find themselves in an unfamiliar, yet welcome, situation as Conference USA’s “bonus play” schedule approaches.
Charlotte (14-9, 8-4 C-USA) has something tangible to play for when it plays at league-leader North Texas (16-9, 10-2) Thursday, then finishes the traditional portion of the league schedule at Rice (12-13, 4-8) on Saturday.
A victory in either of those games and the 49ers will clinch a spot in the five-team top group of bonus play, which begins next week. And Charlotte would be locked into a top-five seed in the 12-team C-USA tournament, which begins March 11 in Frisco, Texas.
The goal of “bonus play” for C-USA — which usually sends just one team to the NCAA tournament — is to potentially increase the number of teams who qualify for the postseason and improve their seeding, by giving the top teams more quality games at the end of the season.
That the 49ers are even thinking about postseason play is a sign of how much progress Charlotte has made under second-year coach Ron Sanchez. The 49ers have failed to qualify for the conference tournament in each of the past two seasons
“I told the team that all their hard work has put them in a position to experience the conference tournament and they should be very proud of that,” Sanchez said. “But we’re focused on today, and not worrying too much about tomorrow. But it’s a different feeling to be in this spot than from where we were last season, that’s for sure.”
The 49ers still have six regular-season games, though. And next week begins C-USA’s unique “bonus play” stretch, which breaks the league’s 14 teams into three groups. Teams in each group will play each other once over those final two weeks.
C-USA came up with the bonus play concept after the 2017-18 season, when six league teams had 20-plus victories, but only conference tournament winner Marshall received an NCAA bid.
Even after bonus play was instituted last season, the league was again left with just one bid — conference-tournament winner Old Dominion. The Monarchs were one of eight C-USA teams with at least 20 victories, but their metrics were otherwise low.
It’s unlikely that the league will receive multiple bids this season. North Texas is the league’s highest-ranked team in the NCAA’s Net evaluation tool at 88, which is low for a team with at-large hopes. Charlotte is ranked 163rd.
“Give C-USA a lot of credit for thinking outside the box,” Sanchez said. “They’re trying to protect the teams that may have an opportunity to get an at-large bid. The conference has had teams ranked in the top 25 before going into the final week of play that didn’t get an opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament.
“Our commissioner is just trying to find a way to help us. Will it work? I don’t know. But give her credit for trying to find a solution. Because what we’ve done before hasn’t worked.”
By potentially finishing in the top five, the 49ers would play the four other strongest teams in the league bonus play. Sanchez said that, even with the prospects of being an at-large candidate low, playing in the highest group could be of some value.
“There’s pros and cons to it,” Sanchez said. “You want to be playing your best basketball at this time of year. You want to be as sharp as you can and how you test yourself is by playing the best teams in the league.
“But if you want to get more victories for your personal record, you would want it to be different. It just depends on each coach. Most coaches who have solid teams and have the opportunity to play in the regular season want to be as sharp as possible. It’s a matter of perspective.”
Charlotte at North Texas
When: Thursday, 8 p.m.
Where: UNT Coliseum, Denton, Texas.
Watch: ESPN3.
Listen: 730-AM.