Liberty Basketball

Liberty has automatically qualified for the 2021 NCAA tournament before taking the floor in Sunday's Atlantic Sun Conference championship game because its opponent, North Alabama, is not yet eligible to take part in the Big Dance.

ESPN's Myron Medcalf noted the NCAA's four-year rule, which prohibits teams transitioning to Division I from taking part in the tournament for that time period, prevents the Lions from being part of the field, even if they upset the Flames to win the conference title.

North Alabama is a surprise finalist in the A-Sun. It entered the tourney as the No. 5 seed after a seven-game losing streak, which ended with a win over Lipscomb in its regular-season finale, dropped the squad down the conference standings.

The Lions knocked off North Florida and Florida Gulf Coast to reach the final, showcasing the form they'd displayed earlier in the season when they raced out to a 10-3 record before the losing skid.

FGCU coach Michael Fly was impressed with UNA in the semifinals.

"They were unbelievable," Fly told reporters. "We played, man, zone, some junk ... threw everything at them ... they keep making shots. When you score 81 points and shoot 48 percent, you're supposed to win that game. We couldn't get stops. I don't think we played poorly. They were just better than us."

Meanwhile, Liberty has cruised to the final as the top seed with double-digit victories over Kennesaw State and Stetson. It won both regular-season meetings with North Alabama by the same score, 74-54.

The Flames are currently projected as a No. 14 seed for the NCAA tournament, per Bracket Matrix. A win in the conference final could potentially move them to the 13 line.

Liberty was down 54-50 with 7:36 left in its semifinal against Stetson before exploding for 27 points down the stretch to pull away for a 77-64 win. Head coach Ritchie McKay was happy with how his team responded to the challenge from the Hatters.

"When you are the No. 1 seed, I think there is an added pressure to you getting the desired outcome, and it just doesn't happen like that in college basketball, especially when you are on a neutral floor," McKay said. "The way we played from that point on I thought is a reflection of the kind of young men that are in our program."

Tip off in the Atlantic Sun championship game is set for Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Liberty women's basketball player Asia Todd announced she is entering the transfer portal after school president Jerry Falwell Jr. sent a racist tweet that included an image of a facemask with a photo of a person in blackface and a person wearing Ku Klux Klan attire.

"Due to the racial insensitivity shown within the leadership and culture, it simply does not align with my moral compass or personal convictions," Todd said. "Therefore, I had to do what I felt was best within my heart and stand up for what is right."

Todd, a freshman, averaged 8.6 points and 1.3 assists in 31 games for Liberty this past season (25 starts), shooting 41.6 percent from the field and 41.3 percent from three. 

The message in Falwell's since-deleted tweet read, "I was adamantly opposed to the mandate from Governor Ralph Northam requiring citizens to wear face masks until I decided to design my own. If I am ordered to wear a mask, I will reluctantly comply, but only if this picture of Governor Blackface himself is on it!"

Falwell claimed in a follow-up tweet that he had been trying to make a political point about Virginia's blackface scandal in 2019 after images surfaced of Gov. Northam in blackface from his 1984 medical school yearbook:

Alumni of the school have called for Falwell to resign, while three Liberty staff members have resigned, including LeeQuan McLaurin, the school's director of diversity. 

"Some draw a direct line between the start of President Falwell's divisive, insensitive, and unapologetic approach to politics and that drop," McLaurin wrote about the school's declining population of black students, from 10 percent in 2007 to just 4 percent in 2018, according to Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News. 

In a letter written by 35 faith leaders and former Liberty athletes to Falwell urging him to step down, per Elana Schor and Sarah Rankin of the Associated Press, they said he has "belittled staff, students and parents, you have defended inappropriate behaviors of politicians, encouraged violence, and disrespected people of other faiths," adding that his "heart is in politics more than Christian academia or ministry."

They also wrote he has "repeatedly violated and misrepresented" Christian values. 

BR Video

Take a bow, No. 12 seeds.

The Liberty Flames defeated the No. 5 Mississippi State Bulldogs 80-76 in Friday's first-round game in the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament. The victory means the No. 12 seeds went 3-1 in the first round, with the Flames, Oregon Ducks (over Wisconsin Badgers) and Murray State Racers (over Marquette Golden Eagles) all advancing.         

The only loss for a No. 12 seed came in heartbreaking fashion, when the New Mexico State Aggies lost to the Auburn Tigers by a single point in the Midwest Region.

Liberty's Caleb Homesley was dominant with 30 points behind five made three-pointers, while Lovell Cabbil Jr. added 18 points, five assists and two steals.

Cabbil also drilled the biggest shot of the game with a go-ahead three-pointer in the final two minutes to put his team ahead for good.

The Flames will play the winner of the clash between the No. 4 Virginia Tech Hokies and No. 13 Saint Louis Billikens in the East Region's round of 32 on Sunday.