We hope everyone had a great holiday – over the weekend, we had a few check-ins, so here goes…
Atlantic 10 – Joe Dzuback (READ MORE)
A10 coaches have no illusions that the conference’s reputation (however good among the non-BCS conferences) will carry a bubble team into the field of 65. While few subscribe to former Temple head coach John Chaney’s “Anyone, Anywhere” philosophy, everyone recognizes the virtue of playing invitational tournaments and having a healthy dose of road games on the resume. Most of their OOC resume-building games may come from traditional rivalries and invitational fields, but the road games, at worst, help their squads prepare for the hostile crowds they will face when playing conference opponents. How did the conference members do this OOC season? (…)
Mountain West – Andrew Murawa (READ MORE)
For the most part, it was just a really ugly week for the MWC. Aside from BYU’s win in the Vegas Classic and UNLV’s success in the first couple rounds of the Diamond Head Classic (and really, despite their names, neither of the fields at those tournaments deserved the “Classic” label), there was carnage all around. New Mexico survived an upset bid by Creighton, only to slip up at Oral Roberts for their first loss of the year. Utah lost to Illinois State and Pepperdine (yes, Pepperdine, a team who improved their record to 4-10 with that win over Utah). Air Force fell to Northern Arizona. TCU got drilled by Houston. San Diego State looked lost against Arizona State. Colorodo State couldn’t take advantage of a weakened UCLA team. And, Wyoming fell apart in the second half at Northern Iowa, and in the process the MWC lost the inaugural MWC/MVC Challenge (although, given the results, perhaps they ought to switch the conference billings in the title) 5-4. (…)
WCC – Michael Vernetti (READ MORE)
All the top dogs took their lumps last week, while dark horse Loyola Marymount continued its rise in both confidence and the conference standings. The Lions leap-frogged sagging San Diego to take over fifth place and served warning on Santa Clara that its fourth-place berth may not be safe. And, in case you missed it or thought it was a media hoax, Pepperdine upset Utah 76-64 on Wednesday night (Dec. 23). (…)
Atlantic Sun – Ryan Dunn (READ MORE)
The Florida Gulf Coast Eagles have not had much success since their transition to the Division I level to this point. However, this current stretch might be their most successful that includes one of their best wins in program history. Just the other night the Eagles knocked off Big East member DePaul in front of their home crowd. The win was the first for the Eagles against a Big East opponent. FGCU has now won four games in a row which is their longest streak since becoming a Division I member. (…)
NEC – Ray Floriani (READ MORE)
Mount St. Mary’s lead guard Jeremy Goode moved into 11th place on the NEC’s all-time assist ranking. Goode has 509 career assists and counting. Drafton Davis who played for Marist in the late 80s is the all time leader with 804. Goode incidentally is one of the candidates for the Bob Cousy Award given to the nation’s top point guard. (…)
Patriot League – Michael Hurley (READ MORE)
The Patriot League has gotten some national recognition over the past two weeks. The hottest team in the league received a vote in the Associated Press Top 25 for the second consecutive week and, for the second straight season, Marquis Hall was nominated for the Bob Cousy Award, an award given to the top collegiate male point guard across all divisions. Finally, an upset by a league doormat over a Big East team brings some legitimacy to the league. (…)
Big South – Mark Bryant of Big South SHOUT (READ MORE)
The ten teams of the Big South may take some solace in the fact that they can soon take out their frustrations on one another. Every team got a taste of conference play with one or two games earlier in December, but it’s going to be full-tilt league games with the arrival of the New Year. That said, they still have to get there — the last week of 2009 includes foes like Florida (for PC), Auburn (CSU), NC State (Winthrop), and, believe it or not, Texas (GWU). (…)
WAC – Sam Wasson of bleedCrimson.net and Travis Mason-Bushman of Vandal Nation (READ MORE)
The WAC has picked up a little steam in the non-conference now that they have finished facing the tougher opponents and has a non-conference record of 65-42. In the past week of play it posted a 17-7 record in non-conference play. Unfortunately the league had plenty of wasted opportunities to notch RPI-boosting wins and as a result the highest rated team in the RPI is Louisiana Tech at #69 and they are the only team with a Top 100 RPI. Nevada is the next closest at #102. With most of the team wrapping up their non-conference play in the next week against weak opponents, the league as a whole is the 14th rated league according to conference RPI, much lower than they had hoped for heading into the season and even behind the Colonial Athletic, Conference USA, West Coast Conference and Horizon League and just ahead of the Mid-American and Big Sky. (…)
Big Sky – Glenn Junkert (READ MORE)
The Montana State Bobcats — a pre-season pick as one of the favorites in the Big Sky — turned a 2-3 November record topsy turvy with a workmanlike 5-2 December record that included two homecourt wins in early league play and a creditable last-second 58-56 loss to Boise State in Boise. The Cats are getting remarkable balance from starters Bobby Howard (13.3 PPG), Marquis Navarre (11.6 PPG), Erik Rush (13 PPG), and Branden Johnson (10.3 PPG), while limiting opponents to 66 PPG.