Rush The Court

Stephen Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

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A Look Back

• Central Florida Shocked By Houston For First Loss: Central Florida certainly didn’t look like a team that deserved to be undefeated in the first half of their Saturday 76-71 loss to Houston. The Knights couldn’t come back from a 36-21 deficit despite scoring 50 points in the second half. UCF struggled from the field, missing 31 shots and finishing 20-51 from the field, including 3-14 from the three-point arc. Houston’s Zamal Nixon led all scorers with 17 points, playing nearly the entire game.
• UAB Wins In Triple OT In Conference Opener: It took three overtimes to decide the winner of UTEP–UAB on Saturday afternoon. In a nationally televised game, the Blazers and Miners went back and forth with UAB coming away with a much-needed 100-97 win in their conference opener. The Blazers had been beaten by more than 20 points earlier in the week by No. 1 Duke. Before that, the team had won five in a row. As for the Miners, they had been winners of ten of their last eleven until Saturday’s loss.
• Conference USA Has Seven Ten-Win Teams: Conference USA has been drawing some serious attention around the nation, as it should, because it hosts seven ball clubs that have already accumulated ten wins. The teams within the conference played a tough non-conference schedule that featured wins against the Big Ten, ACC, SEC (five wins), Big 12, Big East and the Pac-10. In addition, the conference stables the son of the legendary Michael Jordan, Marcus, who has vaulted to the status of  C-USA “Player of the Year,” according to ESPN’s Andy Katz.
• C-USA, Fox Agree To Contract: Earlier this week, Conference USA announced they had ended their TV agreement with ESPN in order to sign a new contract with Fox Sports. The deal starts with the 2011 football season and ends in 2016. According to a report in the Sports Business Journal, the contract will give the league $7 million per year in revenue. The league already makes that much from a television contract it has with CBS. The conference announced in a press release that it would have at least 20 regular season men’s basketball games aired on Fox.
• Tulane gets 12th Win Against SMU To Stretch Streak To Six: Tulane’s December surge has carried into January, as the Green Wave have now won their first two conference games, including Saturday afternoon’s 79-70 victory of the SMU Mustangs. Kendall Timmons led all scorers with 26 points, but three other Tulane players finished in double-digits.
• Thundering Herd Halted By Knights: After winning seven of eight, Marshall was defeated on the road in their conference opener against Central Florida on January 5. Marcus Jordan finished with 26 points, 18 of which came in the second half after the two squads were tied at halftime.
• Struggling Tennessee Pounds Memphis by 19 In Midweek Contest: Tennessee struggled during the later weeks of December, but found their stride against Memphis on Wednesday, beating the Tigers 104-85. The Vols jumped out to an early lead, dominating 49-34 after the first half. Tobias Harris finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Vols.
• Kazemi and Timmons split Player of the Week Honor: Arsalan Kazemi led Rice in back-to-back wins over LSU and TCU and was awarded with conference Co-Player of the Week alongside Tulane’s Kendall Timmons. Kazemi averaged 19.5 points and 12.5 rebounds for the Owls in the wins, getting the club over the .500 mark after early season struggles. As for Timmons, he dropped a career-high 33 points while also grabbing 19 rebounds in a December 30 win over Lamar.
• Top-ranked Duke Blows Past UAB: Nolan Smith dashed the Blazers for 33 points earlier this week as Duke steamrolled UAB 85-64 to continue their undefeated rout of their non-conference schedule. For the Blazers, Jamarr Sanders led all scorers with 21 points, but the team was inconsistent all night, shooting under 40 percent from the field.

Power Rankings

1. Central Florida (14-1, 1-1). Saturday afternoon’s lost hurts for sure, but the Knights are still the toast of the conference after winning its first 14 games. Marcus Jordan is playing as well as anybody in the conference.
2. Tulane (12-3, 2-0). The Green Wave is surging currently and it’s playing as if it’s are the best team in the conference. Kendall Timmons is entering the Player of the Year conversation, averaging team high’s in both points (17.1) and rebounds (9.4). His 2.7 assists and 2.1 steals are very respectable as well.
3. Memphis (12-3, 1-0). Everyone knows the Tigers are the most talented team in the conference, yet they are struggling hard right now, barely escaping East Carolina over the weekend. The team needs to find leadership and get healthy or they could miss the NCAA Tournament once again.
4. UTEP (13-4, 1-1). Clearly tried their best to stay perfect in conference, but succumbed in the third overtime to UAB. The Miners are still contenders as long as Randy Culpepper is on the court. The senior scored 34 points on Saturday.
5. UAB (11-3, 1-0). UAB is a balanced scoring team, however, Cameron Moore and Aaron Johnson have been a two-man show all season with Moore dominating the glass and Johnson controlling the open floor. Much was the same in UAB’s win over UTEP, where Moore finished with 29 points and 14 rebounds, while Johnson went for 26 points and 14 assists. The team finished with just 20 assists.
6. Southern Miss (12-3, 1-1). It’s hard to believe that a team as solid as Southern Miss might be the sixth-best team in the conference. Gary Flowers has been sensational this season, scoring 21.2 points a game while grabbing 7.7 rebounds. The team is #12 in the nation in rebounding through Saturday’s games. However, they are coming off a thirty-point loss against Marshall, which looks bad.
7. Marshall (11-4, 1-1). The Herd got a big win at home Saturday evening, crushing Southern Miss 95-65, however, they have two big tests coming up against Memphis (January 15) and West Virginia (January 19). If they are going to compete, the offense needs to run as smoothly as it has this season. The Herd is averaging 76.3 points per game.
8. Houston (9-6, 1-1). The Cougars got itself back on the map by knocking of UCF. Houston uses nine to ten guys a game and that depth has helped them immensely, as they have seven players scoring more than six points per game.
9. Tulsa (8-7, 1-1). The team has some nice wins over Stanford and TCU as well as closes loses to Wichita State and UNLV. Still, the team has struggled to be inconsistent. In addition they only have four players—Justin Hurtt, Steven Idlet, Scottie Haralson and Jordan Clarkson—who seem capable of playing at this level.
10. Southern Methodist (9-6, 0-1). The Mustangs are one of the worst teams in the nation in rebounding despite Papa Dia’s presence. The senior forward has been the team MVP thus far, grabbing 8.4 rebounds a game to along with his 16.8 points a game.
11. East Carolina (8-7, 0-1). Strong effort in game one against Memphis is a good sign for a team that has now lost five of its last six. Once a team in the middle of the conference standings, the Pirates have returned to the bottom.
12. Rice (8-8, 0-2). Sophomore Arsalan Kazemi is making a strong case to end up on the first team all conference. The 6’7 forward and Iranian native has scored in double digits every game this season and has finished with a double-double eleven times.

A Look Ahead

• Central Florida Travels To Southern Miss In Early Marquee Conference Battle: The Knights need to rebound from their first loss of the season, but it won’t be easy against an up and coming Southern Miss team that seems poised to make the NIT at the very least. If UCF wants to prove its legitimacy, they will have to deal with the adversity of overcoming a loss. The game is Saturday afternoon.
• Tulane Hosts UTEP In Matchup of Major Individual Talents. Wednesday’s game between the Miners and the Green Wave could be the second great conference game of the year (the first was UTEP’s 3OT loss to UAB). Nobody is hotter in the conference then Tulane’s Kendall Timmons, while the Green Wave need to worry more about stopping the Miners’ Randy Culpepper. Both players have dazzled thus far.
• Memphis In Rankings Jeopardy: The No. 22-ranked Memphis Tigers could be unranked for the first time this season after a rough week that featured a blowout loss to instate rival Tennessee and a bad-looking win against bottom dweller-East Carolina. The Tigers have struggled on offense, dealing with injuries and transfers throughout the season.