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RTC Summer Updates: Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:40:13 +0000

With the completion of the NBA Draft and the annual coaching and transfer carousels nearing their ends, RTC is rolling out a new series, RTC Summer Updates, to give you a crash course on each Division I conference during the summer months. Our newest update comes courtesy of our Conference USA correspondent, Steve Coulter.

Reader’s Take I

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Summer Storylines

Joe Jackson Goes Patriotic: The Memphis guard and MVP of the CUSA Championship was selected as a member of USA Basketball’s U-19 Would Championship squad on June 23. After a week of training camp, Jackson [...]

NCAA Daily Diaries: First Four – Tuesday

rtmsf — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:40:34 +0000

RTC will be covering the NCAA Tournament from cover to cover this year, with correspondents at each of the fourteen sites over the next three weeks. These diaries are intended to give you insights to the games, coaches, players, fans media and everything else that you wouldn’t otherwise have known simply from watching on television. As always, feel free to offer suggestions for feedback in future versions that we can pass along to our correspondents. Here’s Tuesday’s Diary from Dayton…

The First Four, Tuesday – by John Stevens

What a privilege to be in attendance for history. Assuming [...]

RTC Live: First Four — Day One

jstevrtc — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:01:17 +0000

Welcome to…history.

RTC is proud to be in Dayton for the debut of the First Four. No mere kickoff event, this, and certainly no play-in set of games, so don’t even call it that. This is the official first round of the NCAA Tournament. Each of the two days will feature a game between two winners of smaller-conference tournaments followed by a game pitting two of the last four at-larges granted admission. On Tuesday, Solomon Bozeman leads his Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans and one of the best three point shooting teams in the nation (their 39.8% from range was 12th [...]

NCAA Game Analysis: First Four – Tuesday

Brian Otskey — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:00:47 +0000

Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay so we may as well get used to it. The road from 68 pretenders to 16 contenders begins on Tuesday night at the First Four in Dayton, and we’ll be breaking down every game for you throughout. Here’s tonight’s two games, and keep in mind that we’ll have a correspondent with RTC Live at every single game in this year’s Big Dance.

#16 UNC-Asheville vs. #16 Arkansas-Little Rock – Southeast Region First Round (at Dayton, OH) – 6:30 pm ET on truTV.

Primm [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:38:18 +0000

Stephen Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

A Look Back

Conference USA/Fox Deals Hit Road Bump: What was originally believed to be a finalized deal between Conference USA and Fox has hit a road block. The deal between the two organizations was reached last month, totaling in $43 million deal that gives media rights of the conference to the Fox entertainment network. The problem that has risen stems from the conference’s current rights holders—ESPN and CBS College Sports. Both media outlets feel their current contracts with C-USA should allow them to offer [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:35:23 +0000

Stephen Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

A Look Back

Memphis Earns Big Conference Win, Knocks Off Southern Miss.: Although the Tigers have won their last three games by a total margin of 11 points, Memphis has been good enough of late to position itself only a half-game back of the conference lead. The team’s win over Southern Mississippi on Saturday may have been their biggest, knocking the Golden Eagles a game back in the conference standings. Tarik Black, who finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, led the Tigers. Will Barton [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:54:19 +0000

Stephen Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

A Look Back

Three-Team Tie Atop Conference Standings: With UAB’s win last Saturday, the Blazers moved into a three-way tie for first place in the conference standings. Now, UAB, UTEP and Memphis share the top spot in Conference USA with five weeks remaining in the regular season schedule. Tulsa Nips UTEP in 69-68 Thriller: Only days after losing a nail-biter to SMU, Tulsa got its own dramatic victory on Saturday when they knocked off UTEP on Justin Hurtt’s 16-foot jumper that went in with 6.8 second remaining. Hurtt scored 15 of his [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:00:40 +0000

Stephen Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

RTC is interested in learning how to improve our Checking In On… series in each conference. Let us know in the below poll where we can improve this weekly piece (feel free to add specific comments). Thanks.

Take Our Poll

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 [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 07:24:31 +0000

Steve Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

A Look Back

Knights Thrive Outside Of Conference Play: What a start it has been for Donnie Jones’s Knights. UCF is out to a 7-0 start after beating in-state foe Florida 57-54 last Wednesday in Orlando. Jones, a first-year coach, defeated his old boss, Billy Donovan, in his first signature win since taking over the program. An impressive stat—the Knights missed 14 consecutive shots in the middle of the second half, yet were still able to win by [...]

Set Your Tivo: 12.03.10

Brian Otskey — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 17:30:59 +0000

***** – quit your job and divorce your wife if that’s what it takes to watch this game live **** – best watched live, but if you must, tivo and watch it tonight as soon as you get home *** – set your tivo but make sure you watch it later ** – set your tivo but we’ll forgive you if it stays in the queue until 2013 * – don’t waste bandwidth (yours or the tivo’s) of any kind on this game

Brian Otskey is an RTC contributor.

After an unexpectedly interesting game last night in Lawrence complete with [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:26:15 +0000

Steve Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

A Look Back

Culpepper Ends Starting Streak: Once named the Conference USA Sixth Man of the Year, senior UTEP guard Randy Culpepper returned to the bench last weekend, snapping a streak of 40 games started in a row. The Preseason Player of the Year dropped 24 points coming off the bench and ultimately lead the Miners to a 65-56 win over Michigan. ECU’s Young Reaches 500-assist Plateau: Senior guard Brock Young became the seventh player in conference history to reach 500 career assists during the Pirates’ 81-53 win over UNC Greensboro. [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 23:31:28 +0000

Steve Coulter is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

A Look Back

Kendrick out at Memphis: There may not be a bigger headline from Conference USA this season than the news of Memphis cutting ties with their McDonald’s All-American Jelan Kendrick before the Tigers’ first regular season game. It’s a surprising move for second-year coach Josh Pastner, who cut the start recruit for an overall indifference towards the team. According to reports, Kendrick missed at least two weeks of practice in the preseason for “personal reasons.” In addition, Kendrick had several opportunities to make good with the head coach and [...]

RTC Conference Primers: #9 – Conference USA

Brian Goodman — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:01:57 +0000

Steve Coulter of the DU Clarion is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

Predicted Order of Finish

Memphis (15-1) UTEP (14-2) UAB (12-4) Marshall (10-6) Southern Mississippi (9-7) Houston (8-8) Tulsa (8-8) East Carolina (6-10) Southern Methodist (6-10) Central Florida (5-11) Tulane (2-14) Rice (1-15)

All-Conference First Team

G: Justin Hurtt, Tulsa, Sr. G: Randy Culpepper, UTEP, Sr. (Preseason Player of the Year) F: Wesley Witherspoon, Memphis, Jr. F: Gary Flowers, Southern Mississippi F/C: Will Coleman, Memphis, Sr.

All-Conference Second Team

G: Brock Young, East Carolina, Sr. G: Joe Jackson, Memphis, Fr. G/F: Will Barton, Memphis, Fr. F: Jeremy Williams, UTEP, Jr. F/C: Papa Dia, SMU, Sr.

Memphis has a talented stable of young talent, including the recently-cleared Will Barton. (bouncemag.com)

Impact Newcomers

Morning Five: 10.12.10 Edition

rtmsf — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:34:01 +0000

Unfortunately, there will be more and more of this over the next few weeks as players get back to full practice sessions. Penn State forward Sasa Borovnjak injured his knee last week during a workout and will have to miss the 2010-11 season due to a torn ACL. This leaves head coach Ed DeChellis with only two returning players taller than 6’8, a proposition fraught with pitfalls in the rough-and-tumble Big Ten. Mike DeCourcy brings up the legal doctrine of respondent superior in a roundabout way in describing how the NCAA might evaluate UConn’s (and Jim Calhoun’s) defenses to over $14,000 [...]

Checking in on… Conference USA

jstevrtc — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:42:17 +0000

James Vickers is the RTC correspondent for Conference USA.

In what has been a crazy year defined by change for Conference USA, this past week in Conference USA basketball was no different. A streak ended, there is a new outright conference leader for the first time in four years, and there is a freshman who doesn’t go to Memphis that is grabbing national headlines. Marshall showed its conference-mates that they are a legitimate contender, even if they did go 0-2 for the week. Was losing a game addition by subtraction for Memphis? The Tigers had a streak [...]