Since this is a weekly feature, I am going to indicate where we had each team last week for some comparison. That is what W4 (Week 4 Ranking) means, from this point on.
Here's what I'm seeing.
12. Rice Owls (1-5; W4-12th) - The Owls are still the bottom dwellers following two more losses this week. They've been competitive against virtually no one so far, and it doesn't seem like the future is looking any brighter for this team.
11. Tulsa (4-3; W4-9th) - Tulsa's stock is falling after a 1-3 stretch against some bad teams. Their only win in the past two weeks came against Jacksonville St., with three blowout losses sandwiching that victory. They showed some heart in the early season but will likely stick near the bottom of the conference.
10. Houston (5-1; W4-11th) - They are 5-1, but every team in C-USA has a winning record at this point (except UTEP/Rice). The issue is that they have played the second easiest schedule in college basketball right now and gave up a loss this week to Prairie View, which I assume is a stop on the Oregon Trail educational computer game. Probably the one where you can hunt buffalo, but I'm still researching.
9. UAB (4-3; W4-8th) - In fairness, UAB is playing about the same level of basketball as last week. Houston is just playing a little better right now. They played an OK game against an alright TCU team en route to a loss, but they have a few major conference teams coming up (namely North Carolina). Should be a few tough battles for this team.
8. UTEP (2-4; W4-5th) - UTEP's stock just keeps falling. They had some early season hopes, but they don't look like much right now. In fairness to the Miners, they played the toughest schedule of any C-USA team so far (40th in the country). Yet, the Miners haven't made any opportunity count, and they are getting blown out by teams like Vanderbilt. They need to change momentum and fast.
7. East Carolina (5-0; W4-10th) - ECU played one game this week and won. Their bump comes from a few teams showing their flaws in the meantime. To me, this is a very similar team in the early season to Tulane. They face undefeated Charlotte on Saturday for their first test of the season.
6. Tulane (5-2; W4-6th) - Tulane won both games this week. But that isn't the story. They let a rough Southern U. team dominate the second half in a game in which they once held a 17 point lead for a scary final two minutes at home. Then the Freret Street rivalry against Loyola wasn't exactly a blowout. Tulane seems to have the pieces in place for a solid year (Josh Davis leads C-USA in scoring and rebounds), but the Green Wave isn't firing on all cylinders quite yet.
5. Southern Methodist (7-1; W4-4th) - It's tough to not put them lower, but no team below SMU really justified a bump this week. The record looks great, but there's not a lot of substance. Their offense and defense are fairly bland despite Larry Brown's influence. They had a nice win over Utah, but it was offset by a 13 point loss to Arkansas-Little Rock. I'm not quite ready to put a lot of faith in this team yet.
4. Marshall (4-3; W4-7th) - It's tough to place Marshall, honestly. Their offensive capacity is stellar. They are scoring (top 30 in the country) and rebounding (top 24 in the country), but it's not totally clicking in the early season. A win over Morehead State helps their cause, but they will face a hellstorm this month involving West Virginia, Kentucky, and Cincinnati. Yikes.
3. UCF (3-2; W4-3rd) - Nothing to see here. The Knights had the week off. They have three cupcake games before they play Miami at home. This should let them pad their record a bit.
2. Southern Miss (6-0; W4-1st) - Southern is playing solid basketball. They have a trip to #9 Arizona coming up but not a whole lot else (maybe Morehead St. will be a tough matchup, but that's it). Not a lot of flash with this team, but they shoot well (.481 field goal percentage).
1. Memphis (4-2; W4-2nd) - The Memphis Tigers move up to first because they chose not to shoot themselves in the collective foot this week. Of course, that mission has been tough for the Tigers in the early season. Embarrassing their program in the Battle 4 Atlantis was step one. They then decided to make a game against Northern Iowa a defensive grind but managed the win. Today, however, they beatdown a bad Tennessee-Martin team and looked like a contender again. The conference is Memphis's to lose, and this season will depend on whether they can rebuild from their early season failures.
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