The Conference USA Tournament will tip off Wednesday at the FedEx Forum in Memphis and two things are certain: one, regular-season champion Memphis is red hot and is the clear favorite; two, anybody in this league can beat anybody.
It should be quite a dance.
There is a good chance that this tournament will unfold according to form ... host Memphis and runner-up Southern Miss meeting Saturday morning for the championship. If that happens, so be it and
it will still be entertaining. Memphis and Southern Miss split during the regular season and it was close, close, close both times. Memphis won 60-58 in this FedEx Forum and Southern Miss won 75-72 in Hattiesburg.
Of course, the way the league has gone this season, this tournament might not unfold according to form. There are upsets waiting to happen at every turn. The top four seeds - Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulsa and UCF - will sit back Wednesday, waiting and watching, while the remaining eight teams go at it.
UTEP coach Tim Floyd said, "We have two teams that I think are definite 'ins' in the NCAA Tournament in Southern Miss and Memphis. We have teams that have shown they are capable of beating those teams, which should make for a very interesting tournament. I think what's great about our league is that as good as it is, 23 of the top 25 scorers in the league will be returning next year, which bodes well for the future."
Fifth-seed UAB will take on 12-seed Tulane, sixth-seed Marshall will go against 11-seed SMU, seventh-seed Rice will face 10th-seeded East Carolina and eighth-seed UTEP will battle with ninth-seed Houston.
It would certainly be a shock if Tulane upended UAB. Tulane has not won a game since Feb. 4, when the Green Wave inexplicably ripped Houston 75-54. Tulane finished 3-12 in league play and was 15-15 overall. SMU is not playing well, either, so it would also be a surprise if the Mustangs got past the hard-rebounding Thundering Herd of Marshall.
But Rice and East Carolina should be good and UTEP and Houston should be a war.
Floyd said he believes Houston is playing its best basketball right now, and the Cougars have won four of their last five, including a 73-71 win over Southern Miss.
"They're scoring the basketball and they're figuring out what they have to do to get stops," Floyd said of the Cougars. "They have one of the premiere young big players in the league in TaShawn Thomas, who I think is going to be special. Jonathon Simmons, over the course of the last two weeks has been, in my opinion, the best small forward in our league. They're still getting really good play from Joseph Young and Alandise Harris, who most people picked as an all-league player going into the season."
Top-seed Memphis awaits the UTEP-Houston winner. Two-seed Southern Miss will get the winner between Rice and East Carolina. Third-seeded Tulsa will meet the Marshall-SMU winner and UCF will get the UAB-Tulane survivor.
UTEP, of course, is the only C-USA team to beat Memphis in the FedEx Forum this season. Southern Miss should survive either Rice or East Carolina, but Tulsa against Marshall could be very interesting, and a UAB-UCF faceoff could also be very interesting.
"We're excited to go play," Miner freshman Julian Washburn said on the eve of his first conference tournament. "We still feel like we can play with anybody and we feel good about our matchup with Houston. As for playing Memphis next, well, we figure we will have to play them at some point - so the earlier the better."
Obviously, anything can happen between Wednesday and Saturday morning's CBS televised championship game. That is, as they say, why they play the games.
No one right now looks more menacing than Memphis on its home floor. The Tigers have reeled off four straight dominating wins since that 60-58 loss to UTEP on Feb. 18.
But, on further reflection, perhaps there are three things certain in this tournament: one, Memphis is red hot and a clear-cut favorite; two, anybody in this league can beat anybody; and three, it should be interesting.
It should be quite a dance.
There is a good chance that this tournament will unfold according to form ... host Memphis and runner-up Southern Miss meeting Saturday morning for the championship. If that happens, so be it and
it will still be entertaining. Memphis and Southern Miss split during the regular season and it was close, close, close both times. Memphis won 60-58 in this FedEx Forum and Southern Miss won 75-72 in Hattiesburg.
Of course, the way the league has gone this season, this tournament might not unfold according to form. There are upsets waiting to happen at every turn. The top four seeds - Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulsa and UCF - will sit back Wednesday, waiting and watching, while the remaining eight teams go at it.
UTEP coach Tim Floyd said, "We have two teams that I think are definite 'ins' in the NCAA Tournament in Southern Miss and Memphis. We have teams that have shown they are capable of beating those teams, which should make for a very interesting tournament. I think what's great about our league is that as good as it is, 23 of the top 25 scorers in the league will be returning next year, which bodes well for the future."
Fifth-seed UAB will take on 12-seed Tulane, sixth-seed Marshall will go against 11-seed SMU, seventh-seed Rice will face 10th-seeded East Carolina and eighth-seed UTEP will battle with ninth-seed Houston.
It would certainly be a shock if Tulane upended UAB. Tulane has not won a game since Feb. 4, when the Green Wave inexplicably ripped Houston 75-54. Tulane finished 3-12 in league play and was 15-15 overall. SMU is not playing well, either, so it would also be a surprise if the Mustangs got past the hard-rebounding Thundering Herd of Marshall.
But Rice and East Carolina should be good and UTEP and Houston should be a war.
Floyd said he believes Houston is playing its best basketball right now, and the Cougars have won four of their last five, including a 73-71 win over Southern Miss.
"They're scoring the basketball and they're figuring out what they have to do to get stops," Floyd said of the Cougars. "They have one of the premiere young big players in the league in TaShawn Thomas, who I think is going to be special. Jonathon Simmons, over the course of the last two weeks has been, in my opinion, the best small forward in our league. They're still getting really good play from Joseph Young and Alandise Harris, who most people picked as an all-league player going into the season."
Top-seed Memphis awaits the UTEP-Houston winner. Two-seed Southern Miss will get the winner between Rice and East Carolina. Third-seeded Tulsa will meet the Marshall-SMU winner and UCF will get the UAB-Tulane survivor.
UTEP, of course, is the only C-USA team to beat Memphis in the FedEx Forum this season. Southern Miss should survive either Rice or East Carolina, but Tulsa against Marshall could be very interesting, and a UAB-UCF faceoff could also be very interesting.
"We're excited to go play," Miner freshman Julian Washburn said on the eve of his first conference tournament. "We still feel like we can play with anybody and we feel good about our matchup with Houston. As for playing Memphis next, well, we figure we will have to play them at some point - so the earlier the better."
Obviously, anything can happen between Wednesday and Saturday morning's CBS televised championship game. That is, as they say, why they play the games.
No one right now looks more menacing than Memphis on its home floor. The Tigers have reeled off four straight dominating wins since that 60-58 loss to UTEP on Feb. 18.
But, on further reflection, perhaps there are three things certain in this tournament: one, Memphis is red hot and a clear-cut favorite; two, anybody in this league can beat anybody; and three, it should be interesting.
