Showing posts with label CUSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CUSA. Show all posts

Tulane Baseball is in Houston, TX for the Conference USA Baseball Championship. I'm going to keep updating this post over the weekend to keep up with the action. But first...

THE STORY ON TULANE 

The Green Wave's storied baseball program has been in trouble this season. Coach Rick Jones faces the possibility of ending the season with the fewest wins in his 20-year career as head coach. That's never good.

Likewise, 11 seniors will graduate without a single postseason appearance during their time in Uptown --- that is, unless the Green Wave pulls off some magic this weekend.

The top eight C-USA squads make the tournament, and Tulane is seeded a modest #7. Each team is placed in a pod with three other schools - Tulane thus has #2 Southern Mississippi, #3 East Carolina, and #6 Houston on the docket. You can see the whole breakdown on C-USA's Championship Central page.

The top team from each pool advances to the final and plays for a berth into regionals.

GAME 1: TULANE VS. #2 SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI 

 Tulane lost its series against USM's Golden Eagles this season after a trip to Hattiesburg. The Green Wave will look to upset a vulnerable squad in Texas.

This is officially a wild one. Tulane scores in T6 to tie it at 7-7 after giving up 5 runs in the 5th inning.
Southern Miss trying to mount a comeback. 6-4 with Tulane leading in the bottom of the fourth.
Southern Miss at bat in B4 --- Tulane pulls pitcher.
Southern Miss homers, still trailing 5-2.
Greenies score twice in 2nd to move lead to 5-1.
Tulane gets to 3rd inning with 3-0 lead.
Texas is hot.

Tulane men's basketball doesn't take the court again until Feb. 23 against a fairly horrific Rice team. So in the meantime, it's worth taking a look at where the team is, at this stage, compared to previous years.

At 17-9 with five games left in the regular season, it is clear that the Green Wave came back to earth after a dominant non-conference season against weak teams. We all knew that would happen, at some level.

That said, four of the last five games this year are against teams in the bottom half of the Conference USA standings: Rice, UAB, Houston, and East Carolina. The fifth game will feature Tulsa, a team Tulane already beat on the road.

If Tulane were to finish 3-2, this would give the Green Wave a 20-win season, a feat that the team hasn't achieved since 1999. Yep. Take that in. No Tulane squad achieved 20 or more wins in the first decade of this millenium.

Worse yet, in that span, no Tulane team achieved more than 17 wins in a single season. As a result, with five games remaining, the Green Wave has already tied its best mark in quite a while... Here's a breakdown of Tulane's record, all-time.

Wow. While there is certainly more work to be done, it is evident that Tulane is heading in a different direction as it prepares for Big East entry in 2014. And of course, that's good news.

Tulane's Tarrant (from nola.com)
Conference USA teams are now wrapping up their non-conference schedules, so things are about to get much more interesting in the rankings.

At the very least, we are starting to see the conference begin to separate a bit in these last few games of conference play. So without further adieu, we begin with...

12. Rice (3-9; W10 - 12th) - I've been waiting to use this since Christmas, but "Stink... Stank... Stunk..." pretty much describes what is happening with the Owls. They haven't won a game in almost a month. No sign that things will get any better once they open in-conference against Southern Mississippi.

11. Marshall (7-7; W10 - 7th) - Marshall suffered the biggest drop in the rankings. Once upon a time, the Thundering Herd were expected to challenge Memphis for an NCAA berth. Things have changed. Star DeAndre Kane is out, and the team has failed to figure out a game plan in his absence. A loss to Kentucky won't kill you, but getting smacked down by the Delaware State Hornets will. Marshall is looking like a falling star.

10. Tulsa (8-6; W10 - 11th) - Tulsa gets a slight bump because Marshall looks worse, but nothing much to say here. They took a drubbing at the hands of both Creighton and FSU. They added a close win against Buffalo (a 5-9 MAC team) to their resume. I'm guessing Tulsa's record will start to plummet once they hit the conference.

9. UAB (8-6; W10 - 10th) - UAB hasn't really done anything to hurt its case over the last couple of weeks... but it hasn't helped itself either. UAB captured an additional two victories over some bad competition: Northeastern and Georgia Southern. I'm not ready to move UAB up, really, in light of six pretty deserved losses. While UAB has played some competition, it has failed to show that it can contend against a competent team. That will end up hurting them.

8. East Carolina (8-4; W10 - 5th) - ECU's stock is also falling. After a solid start, they are starting to drop some ugly games, and there's no sign of stopping in conference play. Here's my personal favorite: an overtime home loss to the Campbell State Fighting Camels. Boom. ECU doesn't seem to have a lot under the hood, and I expect them to pay for it once they hit the better in-conference teams.

7. Southern Methodist (10-5; W10 - 6th) - After a 10-1 start, Larry Brown's Mustangs have come back to earth. Or Conference USA. Or somewhere. They took a loss to Wyoming, a team that is on the cusp of being ranked, so that's not terrible. A 2-4 record since Dec. 15 doesn't look very strong, however. Losses to Wagner and Rhode Island seem to be indicative of this team's problems.

6. Houston (10-2; W10 - 9th) - Houston, Houston, Houston... They boast a rare distinction of holding the best C-USA record and also being the second worst team in Ken Pomeroy's rankings (at 192...). What gives? They've played nobody. And they have been challenged by weak competition (Texas Southern, Prairie Valley, etc.). I expect Houston to follow Tulane's 2011 trajectory: great non-conference play followed by a bunch of early losses in January. Then again... they keep winning, so it's tough to demote them.

5. UTEP (6-6; W10 - 8th) - UTEP is still moving on up. After taking a ranked UNLV to the wire and beating a rock solid Oregon team, UTEP hasn't stopped their resurgence. They smoked a Nebraska team that beat Tulane earlier this year. The down side? UTEP took an ugly loss to Colorado State this week that hurts their case a bit. Still a strong team that has some upside in conference play.

Memphis opens 2013 with a win over Tennessee 
4. UCF (9-4; W10 - 4th) - This is the weakest UCF team in recent memory. That said, no one is really making a case from below to take their spot. The Golden Knights took a loss to South Florida, completing the Florida trifecta of defeats against the Florida Gators, Miami Hurricanes, and South Florida Bulls. Not good. Their offensive efficiency is still solid while their defense continues to give up points to bad teams. UCF will need to re-establish itself in conference play if it wants some relevance this year.

3. Southern Mississippi (11-4; W10 - 2nd) - The way I see it, we have the top three teams and everyone else, right now. Since last ranking, USM lost to a good Wichita team and smoked a Morehead State squad that gave Kentucky some trouble, once upon a time. In a quirky scheduling move, Southern Miss finished 2012 with two exhibition games against junior college teams... Southern Miss will open its 2013 against Rice.

2. Tulane (12-3; W10 - 3rd) - This is the highest I have put the Green Wave so far this season. Tulane is riding a five game win streak with two of their best wins of the year to close out non-conference play: a road win at Alabama and a home beatdown of Wofford. Josh Davis is leading the conference in scoring and adding a ton of rebounds on the side. And... even after a slow first half, Davis likes to do stuff like this:

Tulane has a ton of momentum right now. They respond to slow starts with a dominant second halves, consistently finding a way to win. Tulane will have a chance to prove itself with a home opener against UTEP on Wednesday.

1. Memphis (10-3; W10 - 1st). Memphis is still the top dog in the conference. In short, they haven't given up anything in December. The Tigers successfully dominated a slew of mid-majors before capping off its non-conference season with a solid victory over Tennessee on national TV last night. Until Tulane or Southern Miss can show it can beat the Tigers, Memphis will retain its spot in the driver's seat. With early games against ECU, UAB, and Rice, it seems Memphis won't see a big game until its Jan. 22 matchup with the Green Wave. And while Tulane has dominated with Josh Davis at forward, Memphis's Joe Jackson is the best guard in the conference with a knack for coming up big in vital games (23 against Louisville and 21 against Tennessee).

That's what I'm seeing at the moment. Let me know on the Fear the Wave Facebook if you have thoughts/disagreements.
Josh Davis defends against Alabama 
The road hasn't treated Tulane well much this season. Luckily, the Green Wave has boasted a perfect home record so far.

While winning close road games has proven somewhat elusive, Tulane arrived in Tuscaloosa with an opportunity to turn the tide.

And that they did. Tulane downed a solid but slumping Alabama Crimson Tide in a 53-50 thriller. The offense struggled: a 36% field goal percentage proved that. Nonetheless, clutch shooting and lockdown defense buoyed the team in this grinding matchup.

In the end, Jordan Callahan took the game into his own hands. He nailed back-to-back threes in the final two minutes to hold on to a narrow lead. Josh Davis showed his superstar ability with another clutch double-double: 18 points and 12 rebounds. Rather than fouling Alabama (who held the final possession), Tulane forced Rodney Cooper of Alabama to miss a final opportunity to tie at the buzzer.

All in all, this game thematically represented a big shift from earlier losses against Nebraska and San Diego. In the final ten minutes - on a court outside of New Orleans - the Green Wave traded blows and refused to surrender the lead.

So what does this mean for Tulane's big picture? Depends how you look at it. As the Alabama blogs noted before this win, Tulane's 10 wins all were previously against teams ranking 221st or worse in Ken Pomeroy's analysis.

Fair point. Tulane has succeeded largely by rocking lesser competition with a great level of consistency. This win definitely changes that perspective a little bit. Alabama ranked 68th in that same measurement of offensive/defensive efficiency and schedule strength. So if nothing else, Tulane acquires a little credibility and confidence.

Photo of the win from @CoachAndyFox on Twitter
That said, Alabama's early season 7-0 rise (which was even highlighted by a few weeks receiving votes in the polls) gave way to a pretty abysmal December. They lost 4 out of their last five (two to tournament teams, Cincinnati and VCU, admittedly). So basically, the Crimson Tide was definitely on the ropes. They needed this win badly.

They aren't playing like an elite team right now, but they had the weapons to win on their home court. They badly needed to win a game like this to route the ship back on course. However, Tulane showed up ready to win this game. Plain and simple. And I don't think you can really diminish the value of that.

Tulane will finish its non-conference season this week with a Jan. 4th matchup against a weak Wofford team. If they can maintain this level of play, they will enter Conference USA with a 12-3 record, 9-0 at the remodeled Devlin Fieldhouse.

While the Green Wave will have to answer some big questions against teams like Memphis, Southern Mississippi, and UTEP down the road, they have established momentum in this midseason. The players don't control scheduling. They took care of business when it counted and will look to translate this into a solid start in conference play.

Tonight, it's all about the roll wave.

Reax on Twitter:



The Big Easy brought its A-game to the Big Apple. Tulane laid a second half smackdown on Hofstra for an 83-62 finish in a road matchup at the Barclays Center - the home of the new Brooklyn Nets.

The story of the day? Another slow start followed by a hot second half. But unlike unfortunate losses at Nebraska and San Diego on the road, the Green Wave showed its mettle and lit up the second half.

Guard Ricky Tarrant was the headliner in this game, stealing the limelight from Josh Davis in a stellar 28 point performance.

Davis continued his trend of consistent great play with 18 points and only a rebound short of a double-double. Jordan Callahan also finished well with 15 points.

Hofstra hasn't been a strong team, for sure. They were 3-7 coming into this matchup. However, they did pull off a nice upset of C-USA's Marshall Thundering Herd earlier this year. Getting out of the Barclays Center with a nice road win was critical to building momentum as the tougher schedule approaches.



The team will have an 8 day break before heading to Tuscaloosa, AL to take on the Crimson Tide. Alabama, of course, had a hot start this season and earned some poll votes in the process. Tulane will have a chance to upset a good team on the road and gain some confidence. Good win, and roll wave.

Green Wave fans, unfortunately, I missed a week of new power rankings last weekend while I was taking my finals. My B. Luckily, most teams had a little mid-December break in their schedules anyway, so we didn't really miss much.

Here's what the Conference USA landscape looks like with only a few games left before the conference schedule begins. Short story: the power teams are starting to emerge while some early risers have begun their descent. Here's what I'm thinking. At number 12...

12. Rice (3-8; W6 - 12th) - The Owls aren't having a good year. They are definitely the bottom feeder of the C-USA. No doubt. They took drubbings by the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds (not a joke name) and a team called Hartford. The Owls picked up a rare win against Chicago State, but nothing else to write home about here.

11. Tulsa (6-5; W6 - 10th) - Tulsa took a bit of a beating against a solid (and ranked) Creighton team, so that's not a big deal. Giving up a big loss to U-Arkansas-Little Rock definitely hurts. Consistency has remained an issue with this team, and I don't see much upside yet with Tulsa.

10. UAB (6-6; W6 - 11th) - After a pretty devastating series of losses to start December, they haven't rallied back much. UAB took a loss to Ruters and squeaked out a win against ULouisiana-Monroe. They don't really have a signature win or anything like it that points towards a run in C-USA, so don't expect much from this team moving forward.

9. Houston (8-2; W6 - 8th) - The good news? They boast the best record in the conference right now. The bad news? They don't look good. They took an extra overtime to beat a bad Texas Southern team at home. They took a loss to Prairie View earlier this year, and they have won by two points or less to San Jose State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. I think this team looks worse by the week, and in spite of a great non-conference record, they will see a sharp drop once we get into conference play. Think about Tulane last year after starting off with a 10-0 run. I'm not betting on Houston right now.

From MinerRush.com
8. UTEP (4-5; W6 - 9th) - UTEP is one of only two losing teams in C-USA. But it's the same old story. UTEP played a few good teams and were outmanned big time early this year. And as we know, most in-conference teams didn't play anyone yet... ya-da-ya-da-ya-da. BUT. UTEP is starting to show some life. They took the Oregon Ducks to three overtimes a couple nights ago to pick up a hard fought win. They also lost 62-60 to the #21 UNLV Rebels. Make no mistake, UTEP isn't a powerhouse, but they are picking up speed and will look to improve in conference play.

7. Marshall (7-5; W6 - 7th) - Though UTEP will soon overtake Marshall in the power rankings, I'm going to hold them at 7th this week. Since the last rankings, they took care of Coppin State and Savannah State and suffered a loss to a great #11 Cincinnati team. They lost to the team they were supposed to and beat the teams they should beat. So we'll keep them there for now.

6. SMU (8-3; W6 - 3rd) - December hasn't been good to Larry Brown's Mustangs. After starting the season 8-1, they haven't won since Dec. 1. The Mustangs took a beatdown against Rhode Island on the road and lost a relatively close one to Utah. SMU is poised to keep sinking as their schedule gets tougher.

5. East Carolina (7-2; W6 - 6th) - The Pirates get a little bump this week. Since last ranked, they went 1-1. They beat Gardner-Webb at home and also took a struggling but #21 ranked UNC to the wire in a 93-87 loss. That said, we've seen the Tar Heels falter this week against a rough Texas team, so don't get too excited. ECU is playing solid basketball on par with the middle-weights of Conference USA.

4. UCF (7-3; W6 - 2nd) - I'm not liking the Golden Knights right now. They took a 22 point defeat at home to Miami (of 'the U' variety), which is necessarily killer. Miami is a good team. But UCF isn't a bracket buster this year, at this point. That's not really the problem though. They have played a close home game against Bethune-Cookman and barely beat Old Dominion on the road. So far, UCF looks much more vulnerable than in years past, and they haven't shown much spark yet.
Josh Davis in action. From NOLA.com
3. Tulane (9-3 - W6 - 5th) - Tulane is on a bit of a hot streak right now. They smoked a bad Texas Pan-American team but did it in style: the entire bench was able to hit the floor in that game. They followed it up the next night with a 15 point home win against an alright Pepperdine squad. The Green Wave is 9-0 in its new fieldhouse. They are solidly beating middle of the road teams, especially those that can't stack up against the talents of Josh Davis and sharp shooter Jordan Callahan. There are two big questions for the Green Wave as they try to ascend into the upper echelon of C-USA. 1) Can they win on the road? So far, the answer has been no. They are 0-3 after underperforming against Georgia Tech and giving up winnable matchups against San Diego and Nebraska. 2) Can they play tough ball against UCF, Southern Mississippi, and Memphis? Last season, an injury-plagued Green Wave had nothing left for the conference schedule. For Tulane to establish itself as a top-notch program in this conference, it will need to rattle these teams for the first time in years.

2. Southern Mississippi (8-3; W6 - 3rd) - Right now, it's Memphis/Southern Mississippi and then everyone else. They had a tough run with losses against a ranked Arizona team and a solid Louisiana Tech. They battled back with big wins against Grambling and Georgia State. The next two games will show us what kind of team the Golden Eagles are: Wichita State and bracket buster Morehead State.

1. Memphis (7-3; W6 - 1st) - You want to think that Memphis has finally got it. They fell apart at the Atlantis Tournament, looked bad for a bit after that, and then finally got some steam. Then they do something like last night: make a game against the Lipscomb Bisons into a close battle... Even good teams falter, but inconsistency is killing the Tigers. Anyway, the Tigers showed their teeth a bit in a fairly close game against rival Louisville. That said, Conference USA is lacking a powerhouse team this year. Simple as that. Nevertheless, it's still Memphis's conference to win at this point.

That's my breakdown this week. Thoughts? Disagreements? Leave comments on our Facebook or on the post.




The middle of the pack isn't giving up much ground as Conference USA continues to improve its collective record against weak non-conference opponents. That said, here's my breakdown of C-USA in week 6:

12. Rice (2-5; W5 - 12th) - The Rice Owls aren't looking any better. This week, they added a home loss to Drexel and an 8 point victory over Houston Baptist to their resume. On the bright side, they doubled their season win total, so that's pretty legit... Nothing to see here. Moving right along...

11. UAB (4-5; W5 - 9th) - UAB's stock continues to drop. A blowout defeat against UNC is not a season ender, but UAB failed to rebound four days later when they suffered another blowout loss against Middle Tennessee State. At this point, UAB's dragon lacks teeth, and it's starting to show as their schedule gets tougher.

10. Tulsa (5-3; W5 - 11th) - Tulsa gets a slight bump since they didn't shoot themselves in the foot. They went 1-1 this week. Their blowout victory against Missouri State was nice, but they took a loss against a pretty solid Wichita State Shockers team. We'll see what Tulsa has down the road, but they haven't shown much fight thus far, to be honest.

9. UTEP (2-4; W5 - 8th) - UTEP was off this week, but Houston is starting to look like better squad after adding a few nice wins. The Miners will take on Idaho State this week, so don't expect them to post a big time success immediately. They will take a shot at both ranked UNLV and Oregon after that, so we'll watch the Miners for later this month. We won't really know how good UTEP is until we get into conference play. Their non-conference schedule was way tougher than most teams in C-USA; that said, they didn't capitalize on any upset opportunities. Lot of questions left here.

8. Houston (6-2; W5 - 10th) - They finished this week 1-1. They took a loss against Texas A&M, but a win against TCU makes their resume look a little bit brighter. Houston's record is good, but the team still has some work to do to show its strength. Ken Pom rates their schedule strength as the second easiest in basketball so far. Not good.

7. Marshall (5-4; W5 - 4th) - Marshall's early season strength is looking more like a mirage. They took a beating against Charlotte and narrowly pulled out a 3 point win against a mediocre UNC-Wilmington team this week. Even some of their early successes look a little less valuable at this point. They beat Villanova early, but so did everyone else now. Two overtimes to beat a bad Hofstra team that SMU just rocked also doesn't do much for me. I'm thinking Marshall's stock is falling.

6. East Carolina (6-1; W5 - 7th) - East Carolina is up to 6-1. Even Ken Pomeroy's computer sees Tulane and East Carolina in a dead heat, so I am going to give my Green Wave the benefit of the doubt here. ECU has some spark; they are nationally in the top 30 for scoring. They have a week off while they prepare for an in-state game against their enemies at Chapel Hill.

5. Tulane (7-2; W5 - 6th) - Tulane went 2-0 this week with solid wins over Navy and Nicholls St. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Neither Navy nor Nicholls St. had much to contend with. BUT. Tulane is still perfect on their home court. So there's that. At any rate, Tulane has some cupcakes on the schedule before a tough road matchup at Alabama on Dec. 30. That game will give us a better sense of where Tulane is in the grand scheme of things.

4. Southern Mississippi (6-2; W5 - 2nd) - I'm only going to drop the Golden Eagles a couple spots despite going 0-2 this week. Their loss against a lame New Mexico State team was pretty disappointing. That said, they rebounded and stayed close with #8 Arizona until the final minutes while on the road. They kept it interesting, and that's pretty good for Conference USA.

3. Southern Methodist (8-1; W5 - 5th) - The Mustangs like to win. Larry Brown's team improves to 8-1 after a beatdown victory at Hofstra and another victory against Utah. Not too shabby. There's not much to say about a relatively bland offense and defense, but the Mustangs have clicked so far. They'll keep racking up non-conference wins against a Mickey Mouse schedule while they're at it. Good stuff.

2. UCF (4-2; W5 - 3rd) - The Golden Knights added one more win in a blowout against a nobody Florida Tech team. So there. Until SMU plays someone or UCF decides to throw a wrench into their season, I don't think there will be much movement at the top.

1. Memphis (5-2; W5 - 1st) - Memphis wrecked a fairly solid Ohio Bobcats squad in a game that finally made the Tigers look like a team that deserved to Battle For Atlantis. Or Battle 4 Atlantis. Or #Battle4Atlantis. Or whatever the stupid reality show name tournament they faltered in early this season was called. So the Tigers have that going for them. On the 15th, they will take on a stellar Louisville team though. We'll see how that goes.

Although no Conference USA team will see action today, nine teams will hit the court tomorrow in non-conference play with a few interesting matchups. By and large, the Conference USA power rankings have stayed fairly stable.

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.



And... That was a close one. Tulane men's hoops narrowly defeated Southern University on Saturday night in what proved to be a tough home matchup. While Southern defeated Grambling in its historical football rivalry, the basketball team came close to pulling off a remarkable upset.

While Tulane established a 17 point lead at one point, the second half was all about Southern. The Jaguars outscored Tulane 44-32 in the second half, yet came up short in a 68-65 loss.

The Green Wave should be happy to get out of Devlin with a W, taking their season home record to 4-0 (and overall record to 4-2).

Josh Davis, once again, threw down a solid double-double with 20 points and a game leading 16 rebounds. The junior is averaging almost 20 points per game and roughly 10 rebounds while also leading the squad in assists.

Jordan Callahan and Ricky Tarrant also contributed 16 points apiece. However, Tomas Bruha struggled with only two rebounds and three points credited to the seven footer.

Luckily, home court has been good to Tulane thus far, and the team won't leave campus again until Dec. 8. They will take on Louisiana-Lafayette on Nov. 27.


Tulane faces off against in-state opponent Southern University tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a power ranking of Conference USA teams as we continue to get deeper into non-conference play.

12. Rice Owls (1-3) - Pretty simple here. The Owls are off to a 1-3 start against a comparatively very easy schedule. Not a lot of hope in the early season. They also got pounded this week by Georgia Tech, the only somewhat significant team they have seen so far.

11. Houston (4-0) - There, I said it. Sure, 4-0 looks pretty, but they have played a horrible schedule. Their four opponents have a combined win total of 2 victories. Not an average. Total of two wins over four teams. The have four more cupcake games before they take on Texas A&M, the first from a conference of note. So don't be shocked if they are off to a 7-0 run.

10. East Carolina (4-0) - Another undefeated team without much substance. ECU scheduled the Mickey Mouse teams upfront before they head to #9 UNC midway through their non-conference schedule.  They have played two close games against weak opponents already. Only a matter of time before the Pirates come back to earth.

9. Tulsa (4-1) - C-USA is a conference of a great records so far. But Tulsa is a textbook case of some underlying weakness. Tulsa is looking OK thus far until you see the 20+ point drubbing they suffered at the hands of the Cal State Northridge Matadors. Life comes at you fast.

8. UAB (3-2) - Their two losses came to ranked Creighton and Illinois St. They have UNC and Rutgers coming up soon, which should be additional tests. They are playing one of the tougher non-conference schedules of the conference.

7. Marshall (2-3) - Marshall had high hopes coming into this year but has struggled so far. A tough loss to South Dakota State and a 2OT defeat against Hofstra definitely have limited the Thundering Herd's expectations.

6. Tulane (3-2) - The Green Wave clashed with Nebraska in the finals of their preseason tournament but came up short in the 1:05. Had Tulane pulled it off, they would have real momentum in the early season. Luckily, the team will play a series of easy teams to get rolling once again. Josh Davis is thriving in his leadership role, and Jordan Callahan has been effective. Let's see where this goes.

5. UTEP (2-3) - The Miners' record looks weak, but their losses came against Arizona, Oklahoma, and Clemson. For whatever reason, UTEP missed the memo on avoiding major conference opponents, but the Miners look like a competitive team moving forward.

4. SMU (5-0) - The Larry Brown era is starting with a bang for the Mustangs. 5-0 looks great, and there isn't too much ahead of them before conference play. Ken Pomeroy's computer is still saying they have the third easiest schedule in C-USA, so it's tough to give much weight to this team just yet.

3. Central Florida (3-2) - You can definitely excuse their loss tonight to #7 Florida, but a drubbing by Middle Tennessee St. definitely makes you wonder about the Knights' viability. UCF will have to gain some steam as they rebound from a chomping by the Gators.

2. Memphis (2-3) - Yeah. Definitely bold to put the Tigers at #2 in C-USA. They are always the conference leader come March, after all, and they started this week with a #16 national ranking. Well... a lot can change in a week. It's tough to justify the Tigers as the conference top spot right now after suffering beatdowns by VCU and Minnesota at the Battle for Atlantis. Memphis is playing bad basketball, and until they get their groove back, their resume consists of a win against North Florida and a squeezed home victory against Samford. Yuck.

1. Southern Miss (5-0) - USM is looking solid right now, especially with two overtime wins in away games (Western Kentucky and Georgia) already. An away visit to #10 Arizona in two weeks will likely bring them back to earth, but a solid foundation to the season so far.

That's all for now. We'll do another update next Saturday.

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