Conference USA Basketball Weekly Review

Scores

Wednesday, January 18

West Virginia 78, Marshall 62

Tulsa 60, Tulane 56

UAB 61, Rice 60 (OT)

UCF 68, Memphis 67

UTEP 70, East Carolina 56

SMU 70, Houston 54

Saturday, January 21

UCF 48, UAB 41

Southern Mississippi 67, Marshall 63

Tulsa 70, Rice 46

Houston 82, East Carolina 76

Tulane 66, UTEP 58

Memphis 63, SMU 45

Conference USA has been "Memphis and several dwarfs" for most of the past decade. The Tigers are the one team in the league to retain national credibility and staying power ever since Louisville and Cincinnati left the league for the more lucrative and high-profile Big East. Someone else in C-USA has to make a splash in order for this league to get a second NCAA team. UAB was that team last year, although the Blazers were viewed as the most undeserving entrant into the field of 68. This year, however, it's unlikely that C-USA will get a second NCAA team other than the league's tournament champion. One of the few at-large hopes in the conference experienced a nightmarish week, all but ending its brief life on the NCAA bubble.

The Marshall Thundering Herd had their big shot on Wednesday against in-state rival West Virginia. Marshall had a chance to get a quality win, the kind of scalp that the NCAA selection committee notices in its Indianapolis war room in early march. Marshall coach Tom Herrion, a well-traveled coach who has been around the block in the world of college basketball, faced a defining moment for his team this season. Unfortunately, West Virginia responded to the moment and decked the Herd by 16 points in convincing fashion. West Virginia was too rugged on defense, too long and powerful within 10 feet of the basket, for the smaller and less imposing men of Marshall. That loss deflated the Herd, and it led to this past Saturday's four-point loss to Southern Mississippi, Marshall's first conference setback of the year. In one week, C-USA's non-Memphis hope took two big tumbles, one outside the conference and one within C-USA's confines. Central Florida beat UAB after taking down Memphis this past week, so the focus now shifts to the Golden Knights as the hope for this league's March Madness party. The win over Memphis - a landmark event for the program - has to be backed up with solid - almost unerringly positive - results over the next few weeks. If Central Florida can't sustain the momentum it has generated, you can pretty much confirm the notion that C-USA will be a one-bid league in the Big Dance for 2012.