2014–15 Georgia State Panthers men's basketball team

• Georgia State was voted unanimously in the preseason conference coaches poll to win, picking up all 11 votes.[7]
• Junior R. J. Hunter was voted preseason basketball player of the year as well as the conference player of the year.[8]
• R. J. Hunter and Ryan Harrow were both selected for the preseason all conference first team. Curtis Washington was selected for the preseason all conference third team.[9]

Toward the end of the regular season, three teams would find themselves tied for first place. ULM, Georgia Southern and Georgia State were all in a position to win the championship, which brought with it a number 1 seed in the Sun Belt Tournament, as well as an automatic bid to the NIT if that team did not win the conference tournament.[13] Heading into the first matchup against first place instate rivals Georgia Southern, the Panthers found themselves half a game behind, with a win over the Eagles set to push them ahead in the rankings to first place.[14] While the Panthers held the lead for most of the game, including a 6-point lead at the half, the Eagles surged at the end in front of a sellout crowd of 4,325 to win the game, 58–54.[15]

Georgia State celebrating winning the regular season Sun Belt basketball title in spring 2015

The loss set the Panthers back behind both ULM and Georgia Southern. The following Saturday, ULM would beat the Eagles in Statesboro, giving the Warhawks first place in conference, followed by the Eagles and finally the Panthers in third.[16] Following that point, both teams would lose two more games with the Panthers only losing one, creating a three-way tie going into the final week of Sun Belt play.[17] A scheduling quirk would have Georgia State play at ULM on the final Thursday of regular season play, followed by Georgia Southern at home on the final Saturday. Prior to the Thursday game against ULM, it was announced that the Sports Arena, the home court of the Panthers, was sold out for the game against Georgia Southern.[18] The Panthers would go on to beat ULM as the Eagles beat UT-Arlington, pushing the Warhawks out of first place with no chance to recover, and making the final regular-season game at the Sports Arena the determining game for the winner of the Sun Belt regular season title.[19]

The GSU women's basketball game would precede the men's game, with fans pouring in before that game had begun.[20] During the first half of the game, leading Sun Belt scorer Ryan Harrow fell with an injury to his knee, being helped off the court and unable to put pressure on his leg.[21] He would check back into the game with 4:40 remaining in the first half only to be taken back out after 2 and a half minutes for the rest of the game.[21] Without Harrow, the Panthers finished the first half with an 11-point lead.[22] However, after returning for the second half, the Eagles would cut that lead to four with a score of 38–34 after back-to-back three-pointers were scored along with a two-point jumper.[21] R. J. Hunter went on to pull the lead back by scoring 10 consecutive points, after which the Eagles did not threaten again.[21] Sun Belt commissioner, Karl Benson, was on hand to present the Sun Belt trophy to the team after the win, which gave the Panthers back-to-back Sun Belt Basketball regular season titles.[23]

• Ryan Harrow was named the Atlanta Tipoff Club's Georgia Men's College Player of the Year[24]
• R. J. Hunter was awarded the Sun Belt Player of the Week award three times over the course of the regular season[25]
• R. J. Hunter was awarded Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year award for the second year in a row, being the fourth player in Sun Belt Conference history to achieve the feat[26]

• Both R. J. Hunter and Ryan Harrow were given all conference first team honors.
• Kevin Ware was named the Sun Belt Tournament MVP.
• R. J. Hunter was named Sun Belt Male Student-Athlete of the Year by the Sun Belt Conference for the second year in a row.
• Ryan Green was included in the Sun Belt Conference's leadership team.

Due to the Sun Belt Conferences tournament format, only the top eight basketball teams were eligible to compete, with the top two seeds receiving double byes straight into the tournaments semifinals.[27] After competing for the conference regular season title in the final regular-season game, Georgia State and Georgia Southern received those top seeds, respectively.[28] The Panthers faced Louisiana-Lafayette in their first game, the same team that had eliminated them from the title game of the previous season's Sun Belt Tournament. The Panthers would end up beating the Ragin' Cajuns 83–79 after allowing them to come back in the final minutes.[29]

Georgia Southern would beat ULM in their first game, setting the Panthers and the Eagles for a rematch of the unofficial regular season title game.[30] The game would be one of the lowest scoring tournament games since such statistics have been tracked, ending in the Panthers favor with a final score of 38–36.[31] After the final buzzer rang, the Panthers' head coach Ron Hunter rushed off the sidelines to embrace his son R. J. Hunter and began hopping as they met, both falling on the floor. It would be reported later that he had torn his Achilles tendon during the celebration.[32] This, along with the dominating performance of Kevin Ware in the title game, would surround the Panthers in the media during the run up to the NCAA Tournament, where the 14 seed would face third seed Baylor.[33]

The Panthers would face Baylor in Jacksonville, Florida, at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. While the game was kept close throughout the first half, Baylor managed to take a three-point lead at half time by throwing up a buzzer-beating three-pointer that bobbled its way into the basket. After pulling away from the Panthers in the second half, Baylor would watch Georgia State claw its way back into the game in the final two minutes, erasing a 12-point deficit and making it a two-point game with under a minute left. After sending Baylor to the free throw line with less than 20 seconds remaining, the Panthers got the ball to R. J. Hunter, who drained a deep three-point shot with 2.8 seconds remaining to take a 1-point lead.[34] While watching the ball go into the net, coach Ron Hunter, sitting on a stool due to his injured Achilles tendon, fell off the stool onto the court.[35] The Panthers would pull off the upset, beating Baylor 57–56 and continuing into the third round of the tournament. The events on the court would make the team "the darlings of the NCAA Tournament[36]", shooting the Panthers, and especially R. J. and Ron Hunter into fame. Numerous memes and videos would be made in reference to Coach Hunter's fall, while the father-son story would result in news specials and national exposure to the team.[37]

The Panthers faced Xavier in the third round of the tournament, where their season ended with a 67–75 loss.[38]