Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Texas Southern, 9:00 PM Eastern, AT&T Sportsnet-Southwest
Texas Southern played a brutal non-conference schedule this season, and failed to win a single game against it. Despite that, Mike Davis’ Tigers were the favorite to win the league entering conference play and we here at HoopsHD had a dream of seeing this team go winless against non-SWAC foes and undefeated against the SWAC. That dream fell apart last week when the Tigers suffered losses at Jackson State and at Grambling State. However, the idea of a team pulling off this remarkable feat this season is not yet dead.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff also failed to win a single non-conference game this year. The Golden Lions were 0-14 on New Year’s Day, with a KenPom rating of 348 out of 351 team. In other words, the only consideration they were receiving was as to whether or not they would be the worst team in D1. Then something remarkable started happening. UAPB won, and won again, and again . . . and now here on January 22, they are 6-0 in SWAC play and have a chance to pull off the amazing feat that their opponent tonight failed in. Of course, they first have to get past their toughest road test of the season. The Golden Lions did pick up a huge win over the weekend, winning at Prairie View behind 39 points from their star player, Martaveous McKnight. If he can keep scoring in the 30’s, and dishing out close to double-digits in assists each game, UAPB may just be able to keep the streak and the dream alive!