C-USA Basketball: State of Conference USA — January 13th
Another weekend of conference play is in the books and we are starting to get a better grasp on who’s good, who’s bad, and who’s in…
Another weekend of conference play is in the books and we are starting to get a better grasp on who’s good, who’s bad, and who’s in between.
UAB and ODU are the leaders of the conference at the moment with the Blazers being the only team that hasn’t lost in C-USA play (their first two games against UNT were postponed). UAB played USM and beat them both games but only won the second matchup by four points.
Most teams, along with WKU, are struggling to win both games in a series. Even Rice who swept UTSA dropped a game to UTEP this past week. Defending champs North Texas saw their first conference action and split games against UTSA. The Roadrunners, despite having two perennial scorers, haven’t done well but getting a win against the Mean Green could give them some confidence in the West.
On the East side, ODU took a 3–1 lead after sweeping FAU this past weekend. The Tops split games against Louisiana Tech and now sit in second place of the East. Marshall had to postpone their series against Charlotte and move back their games against the Tops back to the 15th and the 17th.
It’s still frustrating with the Tops seeing how bad their second games against teams have been. The loss against Charlotte is turning out to be major resumé killer after this happened a few days ago.
Losing to D-II school Belmont Abbey is pretty bad and the fact that the Tops blew a game to this team shows that Coach Stansbury and Co. still have a lot to figure out before they even want to think about a C-USA title.
Having high level non-conference wins don’t mean anything if you can’t beat these kind of teams in your conference. Sure wins against Memphis and Alabama look good but losses to teams like Charlotte negate any clout the Tops might have in the polls and at-large talks. The loss to Louisiana Tech doesn’t bother me as much because they’re always a consistently good team in the conference but if the Tops can’t figure out how to play halfcourt offense we could be in for a disappointing second half of the season.
There’s a few games to pay attention to this week but none more important than Rice vs ODU. Both of these teams are leading or towards the top of their side of the conference so seeing who walks away with a win (or two) could give us a clearer picture of who the top team is right now.
WKU vs Marshall is always a fun game to watch and there’s still a lot at stake for this matchup for both teams. We’re all still waiting for WKU to look like the team they were in non-conference play and this Thundering Herd team will be another test for the Tops.
I’m really interested to see if WKU will have an answer to Taevion Kinsey and Jarrod West. Both of them have been a huge part of Marshall’s success and if the Tops continue to struggle guarding the three and not making shots on the other end, the Tops could go from second to middle of the pack in C-USA real quick. I’d love to see them get a sweep but at least one win is necessary to keep them from spiraling down the conference standings.