Flip a coin.

That may be as good a way as any to predict the winner for the 70th CIAA men’s basketball tournament that commences Feb. 24 in Charlotte, N.C.

There is no clear dominant team this winter and Time Warner Cable Arena has proven to be an equal opportunity venue since the tournament set up shop there in 2006.

In nine previous tournaments in the Queen City, there have been eight different champs.

Livingstone College’s Blue Bears won the title last year for first time in the North Carolina university’s history.

Before that, Bowie State University prevailed in 2013, WinstonSalem State University in 2012, Shaw University in 2011, St. Augustine’s University in 2010, Johnson C. Smith University in 2009 and 2008, Elizabeth City State University in 2007 and Virginia Union University in 2006.

That’s a far cry from yesteryear when the CIAAhad become something of a VUU/Norfolk State University Invitational.

Between 1968 and 2006, VUU won 13 times and NSU 11 times. The Spartans left the CIAA for the MEAC in 1996.

Virginia State University, under second year coach Lonnie Blow, probably has its best chance to win the tournament since 1988, when the Trojans won their last crown under Coach Harold Deane.

VSU’s only other title was in 1947. It made the finals in 1957, 1963 and 1981.

The Petersburg-area university started the week atop the Northern Division standings and is pretty much assured to make it into the Feb. 26 quarterfinals.

Virginia Union University’s bubble popped long ago.

The longtime juggernaut has lost its first-round tournament game five straight years and will have to survive a play-in game to reach the quarterfinals.

MVP: Just as there is no overpowering team, there is no easy Player of the Year choice. Strong consideration, however, might go to VSU senior guard Lamar Kearse, averaging 15 points, four rebounds and 2.5 assists, while hitting 49 of 100 3-pointers.

In the beginning: The first CIAA tourney was in 1946 at the 2,000-seat Turner’s Arena in Washington, with North Carolina College, now N.C. Central University, defeating Virginia Union University in the finals.

Get used to it: The tournament will remain in the Queen City through at least 2020. Next year, the league is moving its administrative offices to Charlotte following a long stay in Hampton.

The CIAA this year has booking rights to 3,000 hotel rooms to try and curtail price gouging.

Tickets and hotel accommodations can be booked through the CIAA website, www.theciaa.com.

Starting in 2017, preliminary games will be at the 9,605-seat Bojangles’ Coliseum, 2700 E. Independence Blvd. in Charlotte, to lower costs and to create a more intimate atmosphere.

Time Warner Cable Arena is the home of the NBA Charlotte Hornets. It opened in 2005 and seats 19,077 for basketball.