The brackets indeed worked out like I expected. On Wednesday, the schedule is as follows.
Noon - Tulsa (7) vs. East Carolina (10)
2:30 - UTEP (6) vs. SMU (11)
6:00 - Marshall (8) vs. Tulane (9)
8:30 - Southern Miss (5) vs. Rice (12)
Memphis will play Thursday at 6 p.m. against the winner of Marshall/Tulane.
Though Ken Pomeroy hasn’t posted his updated RPIs this morning, Memphis fans should be rooting for Marshall, at least from an RPI perspective. Marshall should be somewhere in the 130s today when the numbers come out, while Tulane is somewhere around 170.
In the semifinals, Memphis would play either Southern Miss or UCF. Southern Miss has a better RPI by some 30 spots, but that would clearly be a more difficult game for Memphis than UCF, which really doesn’t match up athletically with the Tigers.
A couple more interesting bracket notes:
- If Tulsa gets by East Carolina, the Golden Hurricane will get UAB in the quarterfinals. That’s a rematch of their game in Birmingham on Wednesday. Though UAB won, 84-70, multiple people have told me that Tulsa could have and perhaps should have won that game. Tulsa is playing probably as well as anybody in the league right now outside of Memphis, having won 7-of-9 down the stretch (the losses were at Memphis and at UAB). I would not be shocked if Tulsa makes it through that game and all the way to the final.
- UTEP has an interesting draw. First, it faces an SMU team that the Miners lost to last Saturday in Dallas. Then, if they get by that one, they’ll play Houston, whom they beat last night. Houston now is completely off the bubble with that loss, and they need to win the league tournament to get an NCAA bid. I think the Cougars will turn the tables on a neutral court.
in Tiger Basketball
Responses to “C-USA Tourney thoughts”
March 10th, 2008 at 8:55 am
There has been some talk of UAB getting in the big dance. I’m not sold. That beat down the Tigers put on them Saturday certainly didn’t help their cause.
Does everyone think they are in regardless? Do they need to at least make the C-USA championship game? Or do they have to win it all to get in?
March 10th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I think that loss really hurts UAB’s chances. They are 1-2 against top 50 teams and 1-2 against teams 51-100. If weak conference schedule hurts Tigers who are 30-1, what does that say about 20-9 UAB?
Another Conference USA Tournament with the Tigers expected to reach Saturday’s 11 AM tipoff. I can’t stand the way the conference has sold its soul to TV for Comcast televised conference games, CSTV and 11 AM Championship Finals. I remember when Metro Conference Tournament games were televised on CBS on Sunday afternoon. Boy has our conference affiliation come a long way. At least our championship wasn’t held over this past weekend competing for air time against Divistion Two hopefuls CBU and Harding. Tigers need to get a plan together to get into a competitive basketball conference that also has competitive football teams.
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