First of all, I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday.

Once we get past Christmas, my thoughts always start turning toward conference play, and one of the great stories so far in college basketball is unfolding in Conference USA. It’s not getting a lot of attention nationally yet, but SMU is 7-1 under first-year coach Matt Doherty.

I’ve always believed Doherty can coach, and he’s proving it big-time in Dallas. Don’t expect SMU to be an NCAA Tournament team this year, but the Mustangs do have a legit victory over Dayton, a nice win over Illinois State, and last Thursday they beat cross-town rival TCU. Given where they were, it’s a remarkable turnaround.

On Thursday, SMU plays at Oklahoma, the team Memphis beat in the first round of the Maui Invitational. Don’t be surprised if SMU pulls an upset.

By the way, SMU is currently 17th in the RPI. Though that number will probably be much different by the time they play Memphis on Feb. 3, they’re clearly the league’s best hope for a second NCAA team if they can keep winning. And Memphis will play SMU twice, which could be very good news for Memphis’ RPI.

The reason they’re playing twice, by the way, is that Doherty put in a request to the C-USA office to play Memphis twice when he got the SMU job.