Winning on the road in Conference USA has never been a strong suit of the the Green Wave. Last season, armed with all-conference players like Josh Davis and Ricky Tarrant, they only managed the feat a grand total of two times.

On Saturday night, the Green Wave held on for a clutch 86-80 victory against UAB to find its first win in Alabama since 2007. Additionally, they managed to hold the lead for much of the game and ultimately grind out a victory with several players in foul trouble.

Tre Drye had a breakout game, highlighted by 21 points at 7-9 from the field (he also grabbed 9 rebounds and 3 steals). Louis Dabney nearly matched him with 20 points. Freshman Cameron Reynolds even came off the bench to add another 11.

This marked a solid all-around performance for the team after a disappointing 27-point loss to Middle Tennessee State.

It also brought the Green Wave back into sixth place in Conference USA at 6-5 on the season. Their next matchup will bring a strong UTEP Miners squad back to Devlin on Feb. 20.

As Tulane has beaten every team with a worse record (6 victories) so far this year, the Green Wave should be able to handle the UTSA, Florida Atlantic, and FIU games that follow. However, the regular season will end with another matchup against the dreaded Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles.

UAB has shown flashes of greatness this year, upsetting the UNC Tar Heels while they were still ranked and most recently crushing USM by 24 points. While UAB isn't a contender in the conference, this was definitely a needed boost after some tough defeats.

For tonight, great work to the team, and roll wave.

Also, check out the sick UAB locker room in the picture above... just a side note. But yeah, go Tulane!

I caught a question on Twitter as to who, exactly, will be in Conference USA next season and beyond. Unlike the Big East - errr, whatever legal entity currently exists as the league/runs its website/etc. - which has a nice breakdown of changes, Conference USA doesn't seem to clarify that.

Instead, C-USA still has a big ol' map of what the deceased conference looks like.

So this article will clarify what C-USA will look like for the next two seasons, and I hope you find it helpful. Please note, my visitors from the future... this only reflects the league up to 3/25/2013. I have no clue if the NCAA will devolve into a Walking Dead-eque zombie world in April.

First thing's first. Here is where we are today.

Conference USA 2012-2013 All Sports Lineup: 

1. East Carolina
2. Houston
3. Marshall
4. Memphis
5. Rice
6. Southern Methodist
7. Southern Miss
8. Tulane
9. Tulsa
10. UAB
11. UCF
12. UTEP

Next, on July 1, 2013, several schools have already dissolved their contractual ties to C-USA and depart for the Big East** (meaning, the conference that won't ever be called the Big East that also doesn't have the Catholic 7 basketball schools).

Departing for 2013-2014: 

1. Houston
2. Memphis
3. SMU
4. UCF

The membership will look like this in 2013-2014. It's split among the two football divisions that will be created for next year.

C-USA 2013-2014: 

East Division 

1. East Carolina
2. Florida Atlantic
3. Florida International
4. Marshall
5. Middle Tennessee State
6. Southern Mississippi
7. UAB

West Division 

1. Louisiana Tech
2. North Texas
3. Rice
4. Tulane
5. Tulsa
6. UTEP
7. Texas at San Antonio

AND THEN. In the grand finale, Conference USA will lose two schools, at this point.

Departing for 2014-2015 

1. East Carolina (Football Only to Big East)
2. Tulane

Thus, C-USA will lose six football teams and five basketball teams under the current realignment scenario.

There you have it. That's what Conference USA will transform into over the next couple of seasons.

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.

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.

Just because fall break has arrived at Tulane doesn’t mean that there won’t be football. The Green Wave takes on UTEP this week at the Mercedes Benz Superdome, fresh off of a heartbreaking loss to Syracuse. Tulane showed more poise and resilience in that game than it had the rest of the season. Nonetheless, a last second field goal put Syracuse into the ‘W’ column, and leaves Tulane looking for a victory to stop the three game losing streaking they have fallen into.

Not unlike the Green Wave, the Miners are coming off of a tough loss of their own two weeks ago. After leading 25^th ranked Houston 14-0, they allowed the Cougars to claw their way back into the game, eventually winning. The 49-42 shootout was certainly exciting.

The coming matchup features two sub-.500 teams, both of whom are looking to stop losing streaks. Let’s take a look at the numbers.

What we see is that the numbers are remarkably similar. UTEP is 42^nd in the nation in passing, averaging 255.5 yards per game. The Green Wave is not far behind that, averaging 235.5 yards per contest, and ranked 55^th in the category. A similar tale can be told with regards to the ground game. Tulane and UTEP are essentially even in this category, ranked 84^th and 85^th respectively, averaging just over 123 yards per game.

So clearly, the offenses are pretty evenly matched.

On the defensive side of the ball, the story again remains the same; Tulane and UTEP are hovering right around the same numbers. Tulane allows an average of 34.0 points per game, while UTEP allows 32.6. As would expect, these are not stellar defenses. In the turnover war, Tulane has the advantage though. With 6 interceptions to UTEP’s two, Tulane has a distinctly more ball-hawkish secondary than UTEP.

That said neither team has been wowing with their defensive play.

So where does that leave this matchup?

Tulane showed the kind of heart and enthusiasm that fans have been expecting from them all season against Syracuse. Look for the Green Wave to carry that energy into the matchup against UTEP. They know that this game is essentially a must-win if they want their already slim bowl chances to stay alive. The Miners won’t roll over though, that’s for certain.

UTEP’s offense is highly potent, and so Tulane will have to work hard on defense to contain them. It’s not a one-dimensional offense like Army was, so that should benefit Tulane’s defense. If they can transition the flashes of excellent play they showed against Syracuse into at least most of the game, Tulane has a good chance of winning this game.

Prediction:

I think Tulane is going to win this football game. It will probably be a shootout, but Tulane matches up nicely with UTEP. The numbers seem to indicate that UTEP has a slight advantage in the passing game, but they’ve also played a much softer schedule, which is saying something. Sophomore Orleans Darkwa is also finally starting to break out of the slump that plagued him early in the season, meaning that the offense can be more two-dimensional than it has been in past weeks. This should open things up for the passing game.

My prediction is 42-31 Tulane.