It is a big week in the league as conference play begins and everyone will begin paying attention to basketball now that football is over. Yes, the National Championship game is Monday and the NFL playoffs are this weekend, but there are a lot of folks that are ready to take a harder look at hoops.
CUSAReport’s power rankings are a one-man operation.
Power Rankings
- WKU — Too much talent to dismiss
- Marshall — Defending champs beat ODU on the road
- ODU — Um. That was a bad loss. Get Stith and Caver some help
- North Texas — Starting to beat teams people think are good.
- Louisiana Tech — Tough roadie to NT, but this team has talent and fought back to tie it twice late.
- UTSA — Is this too high? Feels too high.
- UAB — Tough group figuring things out.
- Southern Miss — Everything below here is kind of a toss up
- FIU — Fluffy schedule like NT. We’ll see that havoc in conference play
- FAU — Rebuild mode
- UTEP — Injuries preventing some development
- Charlotte — Rebuild mode
- Rice — Rebuild and the worst defense in the conference
- MTSU — Everyone is new.
Weekly Matchups
Watchabilty ★ to ★★★★
Jan 3rd
These were played. Yes, this post is a bit late.
Southern Miss 65 at Rice 73
Marshall 70 at ODU 67
WKU 68 at Charlotte 50
FIU 83 at MTSU 76
FAU 50 at UAB 67
LT 59 at NT 63
UTEP 60 at UTSA 75
Jan 5th
Louisiana Tech at Rice ESPN3 2pm
Watchability ★★
Tech is fun and should score a bunch against the league’s worst defense
Marshall at Charlotte ESPN+ 3pm
Watchability ★★
Always watch Jon Elmore. Marshall got a bit win over ODU and follows that up with a game at Charlotte.
FAU at MTSU ESPN+ 5pm
Watchability ★
Anthony Adger can score, but MTSU is in such a rebuild that this won’t be interesting.
Southern Miss at North Texas ESPN+ 5pm
Watchability ★★★
We can find out how good each of these teams are. Southern Miss has a group of seniors leading their team while NT is trying to keep things going on the best start in school history.
WKU at ODU Stadium/Facebook 6pm
Watchability ★★★★
Two of the league’s best teams go at it, with ODU playing with a little bit of desperation. They lost to Marshall at home to start league play and cannot drop another big conference matchup at home to start things.
FIU at UAB ESPN+ 7pm
Watchability ★★
UAB is a well-coached team and FIU is trying to create chaos. This will be interesting for a while.
UTSA at UTEP CUSATV 8pm
Watchability ★★
These two played a blowout the other night. UTEP is a bit injured and might not get Jordan Lathon back at 100% for this game. It is always fun to watch Jhivvan Jackson, however.
Random Thoughts
- Marshall’s Jon Elmore’s efficiency numbers are down a bit. This is all a good test for him as he auditions for the next level.
- WKU Charles Bassey has been really good as expected. They are so talented. Bassey is putting up similar numbers to Derrick Favors, Willie Cauley-Stein, Chris Bosh, and Ivan Rabb. You know, a bunch of NBA dudes.
- Southern Miss is right on the edge of being a plus-efficiency team. It is difficult to tell how good or bad they are. That dropped game to Rice was a bad one.
- The league is basically WKU and everyone else, if you go by talent only. They had the talent last year also, and Marshall just got hot at the perfect time. The talent for the Herd just shown a little more brightly at the right time.
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