NCAA Basketball Preview: C-USA

 So what's the deal now?  Conference USA is merging with The Mountain West, but only for football or something like that?  Seriously, I can't keep all this crap straight.  Too hard.  I need a flow chart or a Venn diagram or just someone to come sit with me for 20 minutes and explain what's going on.

I guess it doesn't really matter though because that's football and everybody knows basketball is way more important, and I don't think that merger or whatever touches hoops in any way, so C-USA is safe.  Well, kind of safe, as long as you don't count Houston and UCF going to the Big East (I think UCF is part of that, right?), and I don't know if that's like, just football or what.  I think it's a full on move.

Oh never mind.  Let's just get to the boring previews.

1.  MEMPHIS TIGERS.  After a couple of meh seasons, at least by Memphis standards, the Tigers are most definitely back and despite what's looking like and "up" version of C-USA this year it wouldn't be stunning to see them run the table in conference play.  They lose only one contributor from last year's team, which means at this point the team is loaded with ten guys on the roster who were Rivals Top 150s when they came to college.  Actually, with seven players who averaged between 6.6 and 12.3 points per game back from last season (and nobody over that 12.3) this reminds me a lot of those Calipari teams where they were just loaded with super athletic, super talented, interchangeable parts.  Good thing for those who hate Memphis that Pastner is looking like he's on the same "game coach" level as Calipari.

2.  CENTRAL FLORIDA KNIGHTS.  There are some very interesting things happening with UCF, and none of them involve either of the overrated Jordan brothers.  The most interesting thing, to me, is Keith Clanton, who made a huge leap in his sophomore year and was among the C-USA leaders in points, blocks, boards, and FG %.   Guy is a monster, and the Knights will be able to put Michael Chandler, the fifth best incoming center in the country according to Rivals, right next to him this year - and he picked UCF over Kentucky.  With those two, the Jordans, their starting point guard back, and some talented transfers, UCF has a very good chance at grabbing an NCAA bid - or starting out hot as fire and then collapsing like a dying star like last season.

3.  MARSHALL THUNDERING HERD.  It's been two years since Hassan Whiteside jumped to the NBA D-League, but somehow, improbably, Marshall is actually like, really really talented this year (for a C-USA team).  DeAndre Kane was freshman of the year last season, and Justin Coleman was stolen away from Louisville and then did this at their big not Midnight Madness event:  

And I'll just leave it at that.


4.  RICE OWLS.  You probably aren't smart enough to know this, but this is actually a really ballsy call.  Rice has been one of the worst college basketball teams in the world the last few seasons, but last year managed to win five conference games - which equaled their combined total for the previous 3 seasons.  A small step, but still a step in the right direction, and they still have Arsalan Kazemi, who is not that Lion from the Jesus movies but might be the best player in the conference outside of Memphis.  They also add a truly excellent mid-level play-making point guard in Dylan Ennis, who had offers from basically every mid-major and chose to become an Owl.  It's a down year in C-USA this season, so maybe Rice can actually make a postseason tournament.  WHAT AN ADVENTURE!

5.  TULSA GOLDEN HURRICANE.  Justin Hurtt led C-USA in scoring last season and has graduated, but it looks like Tulsa has a player already waiting to take over for him in Jordan Clarkson who scored 12 per game as a freshman last year and closed out last year with seven straight games in double-figures.  Tulsa also returns two other double figure scorers including former UCONN transfer Scottie Haralson, who is the best long-range threat on the Hurricane, and Steven Idlet who gives them an inside presence.  I might actually be underselling them a bit with that much back, but it will take a while to adjust to not having Hurtt around.  Probably one of those teams that is a lot better in February than in November. 

6.  UAB BLAZERS.  The Blazers are a lot like several other C-USA teams in that they have an awful lot of talent from last year that's no longer available - in this case their three top guards are all history - but they have an advantage over many of the other squads because they have a solid base with a couple of very good post players, including Cameron Moore who was their second leading scorer and #2 rebounder in the conference last season, and rather than relying on freshmen or transfers to fill in for the departed they have a bunch of sophomores with some experience.  I don't really see an NCAA berth here, but I wouldn't rule it out either.  I'm like Peter King.  MAYBE.

7.  SOUTHERN MISS EAGLES.  Another team dealing with some major losses, the Eagles will have to replace leading scorer and rebounder Gary Flowers as well as two of their three starting guards.  Larry Eustachy did what guys like Larry Eustachy do, and went out and grabbed a ton of JuCo players to team up with starting point guard Angelo Johnson - yes the Minnesota kid - who led the team in assists last season.  The JuCos being brought in look good with three guys ranking in the top 150 JuCo players according to Rivals, including #2 Keith DeWitt who was originally a Missouri commit, but you never know what you're getting with Juco players - don't forget this same list had Devron Bostick ranked as a top 5 player (which he could have been if Tubby knew how to use him properly - arg.)

8.  SOUTHERN METHODIST MUSTANGS.  Despite losing one of the best players in C-USA last year, Papa Dia, SMU should still be competitive thanks to four other returning starters.  Robert Nyakundi is clearly the best returner - he was second on the team with 14.3 points and 4.3 rebounds per game last season, and even though he is an excellent outside shooter, hitting 50% from three last seasons, he doesn't live out there and can score from anywhere, not to mention being an excellent rebounder.  Then there's some other guys too.

9.  UTEP MINERS.  UTEP was a pretty fun team to watch last year.  Randy Culpepper could score in bunches and I'm pretty sure is one of the all-time leading scorers for the Miners, Christian Polk had one of the most incredible games I've ever seen against Memphis in the C-USA Championship (27 pts on 11-14 shooting), Julyan Stone was a defensive standout and awesome rebounder, and Jeremy Williams was the team's third leading scorer who I don't remember  Now those guys are all gone.   Basically the whole team is new guys, either from high school or transfers, either JuCo or otherwise, and who knows that'll probably make them competitive here and there but it'll be a tough year. 

10.  TULANE GREEN WAVE.  Tulane loses three starters from last season, but the good news for them is they are at least retaining the most important two - swingman Kendall Timmons and point guard Jordan Callahan (who is probably related to that little wiener from South Dakota State).  Timmons led the team in scoring, rebounding, steals, and blocks last year and can do it all, while Callahan was second in scoring and led the team (and was fifth in C-USA) in assists, so Tulane at least has a good backcourt to build around.  Of course I'm not sure what they're building around them with, since there are only two other returnees from last year's team on the roster.  Josh Davis is a transfer from NC State where he played in all 31 games as a freshman two seasons ago, so that's a good start, and those two guards are going to be good enough to engineer at upset or two at some point this year.

11.  EAST CAROLINA PIRATES.  By ECU standards, last season was a smashing success - they beat Memphis for the first time ever, won two CUSA Tournament games, and were granted an invite to the collegeinsider.com post-season tournament, their first postseason berth since 1992.  Of course, as it goes with these kinds of programs, that was the big shot and now three of their top four players are gone to graduation and it's back to the depths of the conference for the Pirates.  Although there is some reason for optimism - ECU landed transfers from both South Carolina and Missouri.  If ECU can become an attractive "second-chance" transfer school that might be their way to climb up the C-USA pecking order.

12.  HOUSTON COUGARS.  You know what's never good?  When you go 12-18 and lose all three of your double-digit scorers.  Welcome to Houston.   The good news here, however, is that nobody really cares about this year because this is just year #2 for their new coach and he's got recruiting moving in a very good direction.  The Cougars bring in a Rivals Top 150 recruit this year in PF TaShawn Thomas (#113) and have two more on their way next season in PF Chicken Knowles (#47), who chose the Cougars over Missouri and Baylor, and an incredible get in PF Danuel House (#15) who went with Houston and spurned Arizona, Kansas, Ohio State, and Texas amongst others to become a Cougar.  Very impressive stuff here, and maybe a hint that Houston could actually survive in the Big East.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over

And we're done.  That's really all I have to say about that.  Nothing has changed since I wrote this post, so you can head there if you want to read my thoughts on this season further.  There's a lot of interesting basketball going on around the nation, so let's not dwell on the Gophers who I probably won't touch on until the NIT brackets are announced, if then.

Last night there were plenty of games with postseason implications.  Cincinnati now moves to lock status after winning at Marquette, as does Georgia with their win over LSU.  On the flip side, Memphis's loss to East Carolina absolutely sinks them, while Maryland's loss at Miami probably does the same, barring a big run in the ACC Tournament.  As far as team's still up in the air, Michigan State got the win they needed over Iowa - a win that doesn't but them in, but avoiding the loss keeps them from slipping out.  Clemson missed an opportunity by losing to Duke, but at Cameron you can't really expect a win, whereas staying the ACC, Florida State missed their chance to hit lock status by losing at home to UNC on a Harrison Barnes three-pointer.  The Seminoles are still in good shape, but are going to want to win at NC State in the regular season finale to keep the pressure off once the ACC Tourney starts.

The biggest win of the night goes to UAB, who not only kept their at-large chances alive, but did it by picking off Southern Miss on the road, giving them not only another quality victory (RPI 39) they desperately needed but an impressive road win as well.  As long as they don't slip up in the finale against East Carolina (the team that just knocked Memphis from at-large consideration) they should only need a win or two in the C-USA tournament to get a bid.  The biggest loss, aside from those teams that basically killed themselves, was Colorado losing in Ames to Iowa State.  The Buffaloes made some serious strides in recent weeks towards bid-dom, and although this loss doesn't doom them it hurts badly.  Finally, Utah State and Richmond did what they needed to do, beating subpar teams on the road where a loss would have killed their chances.  Both remain alive and in good shape.

Also of note, BYU got crushed at home by a mediocre New Mexico in their first game after kicking Brandon Davies off the team for, get this, having premarital sex.  What a terrible crime, and it's great to see a school destroy their National Championship chances in order to punish a lawless lad, running around with no regard for other people and threatening to destroy the fabric of this great country.  It's about time someone stood up to these college kids who think they can just go around, destroying morals and promoting anarchy.  Good for BYU I say, this should stem the tide.  One down, millions more to go.

As usual during this week, there are a few conference tournaments kicking off today:

NORTHEAST CONFERENCE:  Usually one of the poorer conferences from year-to-year from a basketball playing standpoint, the NEC is a little bit better this year mainly thanks to a couple of decent teams in Long Island and Quinnipiac who went a combined 45-13 this year.  That doesn't mean either team is actually good since the only decent win between the two of them was Quinnipiac's win over Rhode Island, but at least the NEC rep, assuming it's one of these two squads, might be able to stick with their first round opponent for a short while.  Or not.
FAVORITE:  Long Island.  Not since the days of Charles Jones picking fights with Miles Tarver has there been this much excitement for Blackbird basketball.  At 16-2 in conference, 24-5 overall, and playing an excited brand of ball with the 3rd fastest overall pace in all of the NCAA this year, I'm hoping they win.
SLEEPER:  Robert Morris.  They're the third place team, they've won this thing the last two years, and they actually played a bunch of very good teams this year - West Virginia, Pitt, Arizona, Cleveland State - and they beat Duquesne.
W's PICK:  Robert Morris.  They have the experience and they're the best defensive team in the conference. Add in a slow tempo that could wreak havoc with LIU and I think the Colonials take this for the third year running.

MISSOURI VALLEY:  It doesn't seem that long ago that the Valley was getting multiple NCAA at-large berths and was the darling of the mid-major crowd.  They had high hopes again this year, thinking Northern Iowa, Missouri State, and Wichita State all had good shots at grabbing bids, but at this point it looks only Mo State still has a prayer, and even that's a pretty big longshot.
FAVORITE:  Missouri State.  Although Wichita State rates slightly better using nerd stats, Mizz State won the conference and swept the Shockers to do it.  I'd feel a little better about the Bears if they had beaten anybody outside of the conference and hadn't gotten spanked by Valpo in Bracket Busters, but hey, at least they have Cuonzo Martin.
SLEEPER:  Indiana State.  The other three teams I mentioned get most of the press, but the Sycamores quietly finished in third place and swept Northern Iowa, beat Missouri State, and took Wichita to three overtimes before losing.
W's PICK:  Wichita State.  I watched these guys play UCONN to the wire in Maui and in their loss to VCU, and they just seem like they're on a completely different level than the rest of the conference, including Missouri State.  I have no idea how they lost to them twice.

AMERICAN EAST:  Outside of perennial garbage conferences the SWAC and MEAC and the brand new Great West (which includes a school from New Jersey) this is the worst conference in America.  Can you feel the excitement?
FAVORITE: Vermont.  They're the #1 seed, they play good defense, and um, they beat Iona.  Woo hoo.
SLEEPER:  Maine.  On Jan. 29th, the Black Bears looked like a juggernaut at 8-1 in conference play with non-conference wins over UMass and Penn State and wins over both Vermont and Boston, their two toughest competitors.  Since then, they've gone 1-7, and I can't find any evidence of an injury or reason.  So I'll say if they can figure out what's going on - and it's a senior laden team so I think it's possible - they could definitely win this.
W's PICK:  Boston.  The AEC generally comes down to Vermont vs. Boston every year, and this year the Terriers hold the upper hand after sweeping Vermont in the regular season.


TONIGHT'S BUBBLE GAMES

Tennessee @ South Carolina - The Vols have a ton of good wins, but have enough bad losses that they still can't quite feel safe.  A win here would likely seal the deal.

UCLA @ Washington - The Bruins are in, but Washington, who once looked like the class of the Pac-10, is still reeling a bit.  A win over an NCAA lock like UCLA would go a long way, and would probably be enough to guarantee them a bid.

Also keep an eye on the Big South semifinal between Coastal Carolina and VMI.  Coastal Carolina has been the class of the conference all year, but are facing some off court issues.  The program is being investigated by the NCAA which led to the suspension of leading scorer Desmond Holloway (sweet name).  If they can get through this tournament and have the team whole in the NCAAs they could do some damage, but I picked VMI as a sleeper in the Big South so this is a dangerous game, especially with everything else going on.

Week in Review: 1/25/2010

TAILS NEVER FAILS!  What the hell, who calls heads?  I thought everybody knew this.

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  UCONN.  Last week UCONN lost to Michigan, their third straight, and everybody was like lol wut?  This week the Huskies have finally started turning it around starting with a convincing win over St. Johns and culminating in a huge win on Saturday, and upset of #1 Texas in Storrs - all with their head coach gone for medical reasons.  The St. Johns game was billed as a possible upset due to Calhoun's leaving and the uppitiness of St. J's, but UCONN had no trouble, winning 75-59 behind big days from Kemba Walker (17 pts on 7-12 shooting), Stan Robinson (18 on 7-9), and Jerome Dyson (21 on 8-14).  That same trio did it again against Texas, combining for 68 of the team's 88 points in the upset.  I think this is a pretty dangerous team that's flying under the radar right now.  That three game losing streak wasn't pretty, but this is the same team that hung right with Kentucky on a neutral court and at Duke and Georgetown this year.  Pay attention.  

2.  NC State.  The results of Saturday's game at Maryland are irrelevant, the Wednesday win over Duke is huge for this program and the fans, who I can only assume were starting to question Sid Lowe in a very large way.  With Duke and UNC reaching dynasty statuses and Wake kind of coming and going but always being relevant, NC State was suddenly the black sheep of the Raleigh-Durham triangle.  The Wolfpack haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 2006, have only reached the sweet 16 once in the last twenty years, were 2-9 in the last two years against fellow Raleigh-Durham teams, and haven't had a player you have heard of since Julius Hodge.

Luckily for the once proud program, it appears that this win wasn't just a fluke, and they are finally heading back in the right direction with talented freshmen PF Richard Howell (double/double vs. Clemson) and SF Scott Wood (31pts vs. Florida State) and one of the best players you've never heard of in PF Tracy Smith who is averaging 17 pts and 9 rebounds per game this year and should be back next year since he's just a junior.  Add in a great recruiting class Lowe has secured for next season, I predict the Wolfpack to be back in the NCAA Tournament next season.

3.  Purdue.  A three-game losing streak and a .500 conference record made this a very big week for the Boilers, and they responded.  The 69-59 weekend win over Michigan in West Lafayette wasn't that big a deal, especially since Beilein had suspended Manny Harris for the game due to "an act of unsportsmanlike conduct" at practice this week (which I can only assume involved bitch slapping Zack Novak).  The real big win came on Tuesday, with Purdue going into Illinois and coming out with a 84-78 key road win over the Illini.  Lose that game, and they're suddenly 3-4, lost 4 in a row, and everything is shaky.  Instead, everything is back on the right track for JaJuan and friends.  That was a must win against Illinois, and they went out and took care of business.  

4.  Syracuse.  They keep winning, this week over Marquette at home and at Notre Dame, and I was quite wrong about Wesley Johnson who is actually an absolute beast (22 and 8, 22 and 15 this week).  Must be nice to root for a team that wins.

5.  UAB.  Another team that just keeps winning, and they're doing it in dramatic fashion.  Earlier this year they beat Middle Tennessee State on a layup with 12 seconds left, Arkansas on a dunk with one second left, and SMU by one after coming back from being down 24 in the second half, but this week may have been the most dramatic yet.  The Blazers beat Southern Miss and Marshall both by one point, and both on Aaron Johnson buckets with 7 seconds or less remaining.  The Marshall win was huge, coming on the road against a fellow C-USA title contender and unbeaten Herd, leaving UAB tied atop the standings with just Tulsa.  Non-conference wins over Cincy and Butler will hold up, and the team's only two losses were road games, so they are set up in decent shape for an at-large.  Their next three games are against fellow contenders Tulsa, UTEP, and at Memphis and if they can win 2 of the 3 things look very good.  


WHO SUCKED

1.  Vikings.  Forget about the 4th and 1 call (probably correct), the pass interference call (brutal), or the Meachem catch call (beyond brutal), the Vikings pissed this game away in about 20 different ways.  Take your pick between the fumble, the fumble, the fumble, the 20 men in the huddle call, or the beyond stupid Favre interception at the end of the game.  Seriously, if he just tucks the ball and runs he probably has 8-10 yards of room (and this is probably intentional and the way the play was designed) and Longwell gets a chance to win it from 48 or so (although he'd probably just miss).  That gunslinger mentality that Favre kept the lid on all season finally came back to bit the team in the ass, and that's an awfully big bite.  Like a dusky shark. 

2.  Gopher basketball.  Thoughts located here.  I don't have the energy to write about this again after watching that Vikings game.

3.  Marquette. The Golden Eagles were pretty much everyone's poster child for the potential NCAA tournament team who had bad luck and whose record didn't reflect how good they really were this year.  They were 11-6, but their losses were mostly close and mostly to good teams.  A loss by four to NC State after leading by 11 at the half.  A loss by 1 to Florida State on a Soloman Alabi jumper with twelve seconds left.  An insane loss by one at West Virginia on a ridiculous buzzer beater by Da'Sean Butler and two losses to Villanova, both by just two points.  Well, forget all that.  Marquette lost to DePaul Wednesday night in what was DePaul's first Big East victory in their last 25 tries.  That's not a misprint.  It was the Blue Demons first conference win since January 3rd, 2008 - Johan Santana was still Minnesota Twins' property.  Safe to say that Marquette isn't a good team that had some bad luck anymore.  They may play some good teams tough, but not being able to close against a good team and losing to a crap team isn't exactly a positive sign.

4.  Washington.  Another week, another Pac 10 team spiraling out of control, bringing the conference down with it.  This time it was the Huskies, at one time the favorite to win the league, who had an absolutely disastrous road trip to Los Angeles.  On Thursday they dropped a game to UCLA on a last second half-court heave, and then got absolutely destroyed on Saturday by USC - losing 87-61.  Seriously, the Pac-10 is going to get one bid this year outside of the conference tournament winner, and if Cal ends up winning that then there is a very real chance they only get a single bid.  Barring any prolonged winning streaks, at this point the only teams with a chance are Cal, Washington, USC, Washington State, and Arizona State.  Cal is pretty much already in, but there are major flaws with everybody else - especially USC, since they have a self-imposed postseason ban right now.  Washington has dropped to 3-5 in the conference and lacks any kind of signature non-conference win.  Washington State is just 4-4 in the Pac, but again, has nothing resembling big win, and Arizona State - second in the conference at 4-3 - just got destroyed by Arizona at home.  So, yeah, this conference is garbage.   

5.  Wichita State.  I wrote about the Shockers last week and how they were angling for an at-large but needed to avoid losing the games they should win and needed to net a big one somewhere.  They got their big one, knocking off Conference Stud Northern Iowa, and were looking very good and I was all ready to write them up as being awesome this week.  Instead they farted it all away.  I happen to know our very own Rockies Guy is a big Drake guy as well, so he should be proud of his boys for beating the piss out of the Shockers (78-64) and single-handedly putting an end to their at-large aspirations (as they did to Illinois State the weekend prior).  Alls well, though, because it's fairly clear to me at this point that Wichita State has a destiny - a destiny to come to Williams Arena this year.  Mark it down - March 16, 8:00pm, Williams Arena - Gophers vs. Shockers.  CATCH THE FEVER!

NCAA Hoops Preview: CONFERENCE USA

Calipari is gone, taking most of an incredible recruiting class with him, and Memphis lost enough talent to be a top 10 team all on their own, meanwhile three other C-USA teams are geared up for a run at the title.  What this means is that looking at this conference is not as simple as penciling in Memphis for the first time in a whole lot of years.  It's wide open.



1. MEMPHIS.  It was very tempting to pick one of the other schools that look poised to knock off the Tigers, but don't forget the guys they have coming back were still signed by Calipari when he could get nearly anyone he wanted, you just don't remember because they were behind so much other talent.  Wes Witherspoon is a 6-8 combo guard/forward play anywhere do anything type guy, and he was #34 on the Rivals 150 when he came out.  Junior guards Willie Kemp and Doneal Mack were #s 53 and 47 when they came out, and forward Pierre Niles was #117.  And don't forget Elliot Williams who transferred from Duke - he was #16.  So yeah, there's plenty gone, but there's still plenty around.   

2.  TULSA.  If you were going to put up a blueprint for a mid-major to make some noise in a season, the Golden Hurricane would be it.  Senior point guard who can score and control a game?  Check, Ben Uzoh.  Monster center who dominates the paint, offensively and defensively?  Check, Jerome Jordan.  A bunch of juniors and seniors who are quality role players and know their responsibilites?  Yep, all over the place.  They have gotten a little press already (I think Katz or somebody had them on their early Top 25), and it's worth noting that the C-USA tournament is in Tulsa this year.

3.  UTEP.  I almost had the Miners in first (which explains why I had a UTEP photo at the ready), but then I remembered that I was mostly putting them there because I have an irrational love of Derrick Caracter, the fat discipline problem who got booted from Louisville - yes, he's at UTEP now.  If he has it together, they will be very tough on the front line, and also return Randy Culpepper, a 17.5 point per game scorer who, although being very Robet Vaden-like, really seemed to hit his stride in the Miners' run to the CBI championship game.

4.  HOUSTON.  I'm not a huge fan of the Cougs this year, but any time a team returns two 18+ ppg senior guards you at least have to pay attention.  Of course, they also lose all the size they had without much coming back to replace it, but you know Penders can coach, you know they're going to play up tempo, and you know they will probably give a few teams fits this year.  Houston is playing in the Great Alaskan Shootout this year, which will be a good litmus test to see where they stand.

5.  MARSHALL.  Randy Moss U returns four starters from last season's 6th place team, although they do lose their top scorer.  The Thundering Herd's strength lies in the backcourt, where they get most of their scoring including Chris Lutz who scored 37 against Tulane and recently won a roster spot on the Phillipines' National Team (note:  I have no idea how impressive this is or isn't.)  Marshall also brings in the best recruit in C-USA not going to Memphis in center Hassan Whiteside (#87 rivals 150), a 6-11 center who should compliment the perimeter guys, although it sounds like his academics might not be in order.

6.  TULANE.  At this point it's now a total crapshoot, as the remaining teams are all pretty much bottom of the barrel.  The Green Wave get the nod at the top of the scrap heap simply because they are the best defensive team of the bunch, and they return a three-year do everything starter at point guard in Kevin Sims.  They also add Juco transfer wing Aaron Holmes, who was ranked #117 on Rivals list coming out of high school in 2006.

7.  SOUTHERN METHODIST.   Slightly better than the rest due to a returning backcourt of Paul McCoy and Derek Williams, who averaged over 25 points between the two of them last year and both of whom had positive assist-to-turnover ratios, a rarity amongst the guards in the bottom tier of this conference.  They also return power forward and former transfer from Georgia Tech Mouhammad Faye, who closed out last season with four straight games scoring in double figures and played for Senegal in the FIBA Africa Championships, averaging 17 points per game.  Oh, and if you were expecting Matt Doherty to turn SMU around through recruiting, it ain't happening thus far.

8.  SOUTHERN MISS.  Partyboy Larry Eustachy seemed to have the Golden Eagles moving in the right direction, but then 3-time All C-USA guard Jeremy Wise decided to jump into the NBA draft (note:  he wasn't drafted) and that knocks the team back down a peg.  With three other starters gone, the new talent Eustachy is bringing in has to help immediately.  Minneapolis boy Angelo Johnson will likely start at the point right away, and there are three new JuCo players who are all ranked in the top 60 by Juco Junction, with Gary Flowers ranked #1 in the country.  As with all Jucos, you never know what you're gonna get.

9.  CENTRAL FLORIDA.  UCF loses Jermaine Taylor, last year's C-USA scoring leader at 26.2 ppg and returns not much outside of 3-point specialist Isaac Sosa, who shot 45% behind the line last year to lead the conference.  The Knights do bring in a nice class, including a trio of 3-star players who collectively had offers from teams such as South Carolina, Alabama, Providence, Iowa, Stanford, and Butler.  One of the newcomers will bring increased media attention - Michael Jordan's son Marcus.  At least until he quits like his quitter brother.

10.  RICE.  Do you know who Rice's coach is?  It's Ben Braun.  The same Ben Braun who had a good amount of success with Cal not that long ago.  It's going to be quite a task to turn the Owls around (they were 10-22 last year, Braun's first season), but he's already starting to make inroads.  He signed a couple of three-stars this year (no small feat for Rice) in PG Tamir Jackson, who also had an offer from UAB, and power forward and likely terrorist Arsalan Kazemi from Iran, who had offers from Cincinnati and Maryland and may or may not be related to the lion from Narnia.  It's still a long road ahead, but looking to get better.

10.  UAB.  Everything was aligned for UAB to make a run at Memphis last year, and at least make the NCAA tournament.  Oops.  And now everybody is gone, with the Blazers losing more than 75% of their scoring from last season and 90% of their shots with Robert Vaden finally graduating.  The recruiting class fell apart as well.  UAB had a verbal from both Rivals #2 DeMarcus Cousins and were thought to be in the lead for hometown PG and #23 prospect Eric Bledsoe, but both ending up signing with Kentucky, as Mike Davis still can't beat Calipari.  After losing out on almost every other recruiting battle, the cupboard is pretty bare.  Transfer Elijah Milsap, who I think is Paul's brother, transferred in from LA-Lafayette and will pretty much instantly become the Blazers' best player.

12.  EAST CAROLINA.  One of the worst defensive teams in all of college basketball last year (ranking 336/344 in defensive efficiency) did very little to address that, at least in terms of signing anybody of relevance.  They also lost their two best players to graduation, with not much behind them to step up.  The bright side is they have junior point guard Brock Young who was second in the country in assists last season with 7.6 per game - the only problem is there is nobody left to score.


So there you have it.  Will C-USA be a multi-bid league this year?  Will Memphis finally be dethroned or can Josh Pastner pick up right where Calipari left off?  Has Derrick Caracter finally grown up?  With coaches like Tom Penders, Ben Braun, Matt Doherty, and Larry Eustachy in the conference, when will it's national profile start to rise?  Will Arsalan Kazemi blow up a stadium?

It's going to be an interesting year in C-USA.