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CONFERENCE USA
The Conference USA tournament was held in Birmingham, Alabama last season and the hometown UAB Blazers were the story for reasons both on and off the court. UAB was making Division I headlines for its decision to terminate the FBS football program along with a couple of other athletic programs. The entire school’s future in Conference USA was up for debate, given that the conference required schools to sponsor football for membership. In the wake of these questions, UAB’s basketball team came together and proceeded to not only win the CUSA tournament but then pull one of the most shocking round of 64 upsets last season, knocking off a 3 seed Iowa State team that appeared to have Final Four potential. Although the Blazers fell in the Round of 32 to UCLA, more good news for UAB came after the tournament, when the school chose to reinstate football and was allowed to keep its Conference USA membership.
Although UAB was the only NCAA tournament team from CUSA last season, the conference did place three schools into the NIT — Old Dominion, UTEP and Louisiana Tech, with ODU advancing to the semifinals. Middle Tennessee, which made a surprising run to the CUSA title game before falling to UAB, represented the conference in the CIT. This season, UAB and Old Dominion should battle things out for conference supremacy, though all five of last year’s postseason participants should be among the conference’s top teams. The surprise team for the season may be Marshall, as Dan D’Antoni is coming closer to fully installing his system of play. As always with this conference, the top couple of teams may merit some at-large consideration — but they will need to make their marks in non-conference play.
Predicted Order of Finish
1. UAB – The Blazers have plenty of scoring options in the backcourt led by Robert Brown. William Lee should continue to develop into a force down low. There is enough depth here to win the conference title.
2. Old Dominion – Trey Freeman is one of the best guards in the conference and will be helped in the backcourt by the likes of Aaron Bacote and Ambrose Mosley. Brandan Stith will have a chance to excel down low, but the Monarchs will need to get him help if they want to win the league.
3. Marshall – Justin Edmonds, Ryan Taylor and Austin Loop all have the talent to star in D’Antoni’s system. If they get the help they need from newcomers, this could be the surprise team of the conference.
4. UTEP – The Miners lost a ton of players, but Coach Tim Floyd welcomes in arguably the best recruiting class in the conference and will get help from Oregon transfer Dominic Artis. If they can gel together, the rest of the league better watch out come February and March.
5. Louisiana Tech – The Bulldogs return Alex Hamilton outside and Erik McCree down low, but pretty much everyone else is gone and a return to the top of the league seems doubtful.
6. Middle Tennessee – The Blue Raiders don’t have any true stars, but will possess a balanced attack that, when combined with Kermit Davis on the bench, may be enough to have them among the league leaders.
7. North Texas – The Mean Green could be another sleeper team in this league, especially if J’Mychal Reese is as good as advertised and Jeremy Combs continues to develop.
8. Florida International – Adrian Diaz is a force down low and should have some help, but the backcourt has too many questions for the Panthers to contend.
9. Western Kentucky – The addition of Illinois transfer Aaron Cosby will help a lot, but it will be too difficult for the Hilltoppers to make up for the losses of T.J. Price and George Fant.
10. Rice – Although there are some talented veterans in the backcourt, the rest of the team is young and still being built. Things do appear headed in the right direction, just not this season.
11. Charlotte – Even though pretty much all of last season’s roster is gone, coach Mark Price has the starting pieces to build a program. The 49ers could be dangerous — next season.
12. Florida Atlantic – The Owls return three players that averaged double figures in scoring, but the talent level still is not here to compete for the conference’s upper division.
13. Southern Mississippi – Doc Sadler’s team should be stronger in the backcourt with the additions of Dayton transfer Khari Price and JC transfer Michael Ramey. However, the Golden Eagles ranked 317th in the nation in rebounding margin last season and this year may be even worse. UPDATE 11/8/2015: Southern Miss has self-imposed a postseason ban for the second straight year while an NCAA investigation continues.
14. Texas-San Antonio – Pretty much every player of note from last season’s sub-.500 team is gone. This could be a very long year in San Antonio.
As intrigued as I am by the Marshall pick (they are Fordhamesque), I don’t know how they finish 3rd with a conference schedule that includes home-and-homes with UAB, Old Dominion, Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. Charlotte is the only team they’d have a chance of sweeping in the regular season.