JC at HBCUSportsBlog is the RTC correspondent for the MEAC and SWAC Conferences.

A rebirth in hoops nation is taking place. You can see it in the hearts of mid-major loyalists everywhere, championing the chance for little schools to draw and keep the attention of the college basketball conscience.

There is no better example of this than in the MEAC, whose champion will likely present the best chance for a historically black college to advance in the national tournament. So let’s call this a born day for the underdog, and check out the week that was in the MEAC.

THIS WEEK

With little less than a month to go before the MEAC basketball tournament begins, two teams are picking up where the left off in 2008. Morgan State and Coppin State have emerged as two of the favorites in the latter part of the season, with Morgan having paced the conference for much of the season, while Coppin has mounted its annual late season flurry of conference wins.

This space has long been reserved for advocating better seeding for black college programs in the national tournament. Wouldn’t you rather see the nation’s biggest underdog with more than play in-rights against Mount Saint Mary’s? Maybe you wouldn’t, but that’s only because you haven’t been looking closely at the quality of MEAC basketball from top to bottom.

Let’s take a look at what has the MEAC going full steam ahead in these final weeks.

WHAT’S HELPING

• Seven teams have won at least five of their last 10 games, with the top three in the conference (Morgan St., North Carolina A&T, Coppin St.) having won at at least seven of ten.
• Second place has two teams knotted at 8-5, and third place has three teams even at 7-6. Now that’s what I call parity.

WHATS HURTING

• The conference will be dependant upon Morgan St. to win it all for suitable placement in the national tournament, as they are the only team in the MEAC with a winning overall record (17-10).
• In the last six years, the number one seed in the MEAC has won the conference championship only twice. And of those two occasions, neither time yielded higher than a 16th seed in the national tournament.

WHATS NEXT?

• Coppin State @ Hampton – Saturday, Feb. 21 – The streaking Eagles will look to put more distance between themselves and the Hampton Pirates tomorrow afternoon. 
• South Carolina State. @ North Carolina A&T- Monday, Feb. 23– The interstate rivalry will hold a lot of weight for the Aggies of A&T, as they attempt to hold on for a top seeding in the conference tournament.

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 5:17 pm by rtmsf and is filed under Checking In On, meac. Tagged: conference check-ins, coppin st, meac, morgan st, nc a&t. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.