Over the last few years, Georgia Southern men’s basketball coach Mark Byington has spent the first few months of every season preaching the fact that the Sun Belt has a long and challenging conference schedule and that it is almost always too early to think ahead or start watching scoreboards.

If the fact that the Eagles are in position for a third 20-win season in five years isn’t enough proof of Byington’s knowledge and ability, he’s also been proven right on his yearly mantra. With just two weeks remaining in the regular season the Eagles are in contention, but there are myriad different ways in which the final few games could affect the seeding in the conference tournament.

The biggest news for the Eagles at the moment is that they are still in the hunt for a regular season championship at all.

Georgia Southern (18-10, 10-5 Sun Belt) has been considered one of the better teams in the conference all season, but was sitting at just 6-5 in conference play and right in the middle of the pack following a loss at UL Monroe. Since then, the Eagles have started to catch fire, winning four straight and pulling within a game of the top spot in the standings. To cite another mantra used by coaches every season, Georgia Southern is peaking at the right time.

But there is still plenty of work to be done and a lot of pieces still up in the air.

A regular season championship would be welcomed and would guarantee the Eagles a spot in the NIT tournament, but — in terms of strategy for the ultimate goal of making the NCAA tournament — the real finish line is second place.

In the Sun Belt’s tournament bracket, the bottom two teams are left out altogether. Teams finishing 7-10 will compete in play-in games at campus sites, with the winners moving on to the conference tournament site in New Orleans. The No. 5-6 seeds will play those winners, with the No. 3-4 seeds getting a bye into the quarterfinal round. Meanwhile, the top two teams in regular season play will get an entire week of rest before playing their first games in the semifinal round, with just two wins needed to clinch a national tournament bid.

That’s a prize that has eluded the Eagles for more than a quarter century, but one that is well within reach this season.

Georgia Southern has beaten every team in line for a bye of one sore or another aside from Georgia State, but will get its shot against the Panthers in the regular season finale on March 9 at Hanner Fieldhouse. The Eagles have proven that they can beat any Sun Belt team on any given day, but their ability to consistently do so is the bigger question once the tournament begins.

One of the Eagles’ best showings of the season was a dominating 74-58 home win over Texas State, which is currently leading the regular season title race. The issue for Georgia Southern is that it has been running out a rotation that frequently utilizes just eight players and that — for every spurt that can dominate the league’s top teams — the Eagles also tend to have lulls where they play themselves out of winnable games.

For that reason, the final three games of the regular season are vital. Three wins would guarantee the Eagles one of the top two seeds in the tournament and put them in the best position to win the tournament with the least amount of effort. If Georgia Southern loses one or more of its final games, a nearly unlimited amount of out-of-town results and tiebreakers will determine its seeding in the tournament. And nearly all of those scenarios will force the Eagles to take their thin lineup and win at least three straight games on three consecutive days over 500 miles from home in order to keep their season going and achieve their ultimate goal of reaching the NCAAs.

There may be just three games left to play in the regular season, but as Byington always says, there’s still a long way to go.