Tickets for Conference USA 2026 basketball championships at Von Braun Center on sale
HUNTSVILLE – A packed in-person attendance and a national TV audience will be the toast of the town when Conference USA hosts its 2026 conference basketball championships at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center Propst Arena. Tickets are now on sale for the event sponsored by the Air National Guard and can be obtained through Ticketmaster. com and the VBC box office.
Tickets currently available include courtside seats, courtside suites and reserved seats in the lower bowl. The 12-team championship tourney will be held March 10-14.
Ranked as the eighth best conference last year, CUSA’s men’s basketball title chase is led by the defending champion Liberty, which is picked to win the league again after going 28-7 overall and 13-5 in league play last season. Kennesaw State (1914, 10-8 CUSA), who will play in the same arena as part of the Rocket City Classic on Dec. 21 against Alabama, was picked second and is led by the preseason Player of the Year, senior Simeon Cottle. The 6-foot-2 Cottle is the leading returning scorer from a year ago, where he averaged 18.0 points per game, and led the Owls with 32 points in an 80-77 win over New Mexico State in the CUSA quarters.
The Owls also have among its roster former Bob Jones standout Kaden Rickard. The 6-foot-6, 211-pound Rickard is a freshman.
On the women’s side, three teams received first place votes in the pre-season media voting with Louisiana Tech (18-16, 8-10 CUSA) edging out defending champion Liberty for the preseason pick to win the league. Middle Tennessee State is picked third as it received two first place votes. LA Tech returns 71 percent of its scoring and 59 percent of its rebounding from last season.
Liberty (26-7, 16-2 CUSA), the 2025 CUSA Women’s Basketball Champion, was picked to finish second in the league this time around, garnered five first-place votes as well with a total of 125 points. Middle Tennessee (26-9, 16-2 CUSA) rounded out the top three coming off yet another successful season with the Lady Raiders earning Co-Regular Season Champions.
Lady Techster’s Paris Bradley was named the preseason Player of the Year. She returns for her sophomore season after earning CUSA Freshman of the Year honors after averaging a team-high 14.4 points per game. The 5-foot-9 guard played in 34 games and a total of 1,100 minutes a season ago.
Conference USA includes the Gamecocks of Alabama’s Jacksonville State who is seventh among the men in the pre-season poll while the women’s team from the nearby school was picked to finish at the bottom on the 12-team conference.
