Conference USA Basketball Weekly Review

Scores

Wednesday, January 11

Tulsa 59, UTEP 48

Memphis 60, Southern Mississippi 58

UCF 74, Houston 63

Marshall 61, UAB 59

Rice 68, SMU 52

Saturday, January 14

UTEP 70, SMU 64 (OT)

Rice 50, Tulane 49

Marshall 65, UCF 64

Memphis 89, Houston 55

Tulsa 70, East Carolina 67

Southern Mississippi 59, UAB 55

This past week in Conference USA, a few very familiar events took place, reaffirming a number of truths about basketball in this far-flung, Southern-flavored league.

First of all, Alabama Birmingham lost close games. The Blazers lost by three points to Memphis on Saturday, January 7, which made it that much more important for coach Mike Davis's club to bounce back the following week. Instead, the Blazers played a very sad and familiar refrain once again... actually, that's not technically accurate. UAB played its sad song TWICE more, not once more, falling by two points to Marshall and then by four to Southern Mississippi. UAB's offense is perpetually stuck in the 50s, unable to generate effective crunch-time possessions that generate top-quality looks at the basket. UAB gravitates to the perimeter shot, but in order to win conference slugfests against relatively comparable opponents, the Blazers have to find a way to get to the rack and then the foul line. It's just not happening, however, and that's why this season - given a measure of new urgency by the death of program patriarch Gene Bartow - is falling far short of expectations.

One of the particularly nagging elements of UAB's miserable week is that its second loss came against a Southern Miss team that has had its own problems closing the sale in C-USA. Southern Mississippi has been coached for more than half a decade by Larry Eustachy. You might remember Eustachy from his time as the head coach at Iowa State. Powered by stars such as Marcus Fizer and Jamaal Tinsley, Iowa State went to the Elite Eight in the 2000 NCAA Tournament before being stopped by eventual national champion Michigan State. Eustachy had a promising career ahead of him. However, bouts with alcoholism - which led to embarrassing behavior in public - led to Eustachy's termination at Iowa State, and after that humiliation, the disgraced coach returned to the bench at Southern Mississippi, a program with no basketball tradition but a job offer. Eustachy has made USM competitive in Conference USA, but whenever a big game arrives, the Golden Eagles simply can't break through. Naturally, the biggest game for any C-USA team is a game against Memphis, the standard-bearer of the league. Last year, Southern Miss came close against the Tigers but couldn't win. This year, nothing has changed. The Golden Eagles played terrific defense and spilled the tank once more, but they couldn't find the bucket in the final minutes and dropped a two-point decision.

It's the same old story for UAB and Southern Miss. This is why C-USA will be a one-bid NCAA league this season.