CUSA games 12/16

[Charleston Pony]

lots of teams in action tonight. UAB beat #25 Cincy Clemson whips ECU as expected. UCF loses a close one at USF. Marshall destroys some peewee cousin of Occidental and UTEP losing against Ole Miss. Tulane and Rice also in action. I'm ready to see if SMU improves coming out of this break. Can't get much worse, can we?

I expect to get whipped by UNLV but sure hope Hawaii beats C of C as I'd really like to see how we match up with Cremins' team.

[indianmustang]

utep lost a game that it was leading by a good margin

[Balatro Diabolus Ex]

UTEP lost a game that went back and forth, Ole Miss led by 8 at halftime, then UTEP made a run and lead by as much as 12. Ole Miss rallied and tied the game, and UTEP wound up losing in overtime. Overall, it wasnt a bad performance by UTEP against a Top-20 team, and was a real improvement over their previous game, a home loss to New Mexico State. UTEP had beaten NMSU on the road by 20 points, and Derrick Caracter was making his debut for the Miners, but they turned in a lackluster performance at home, and lost to NMSU on their own court. Caracter played just 12 minutes, and scored 3 points. Tonight, he had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and UTEP went to overtime with a ranked team.

I watched the UAB-Cinci game, and came away impressed by the Blazers. Cincinnati had better athletes, but UAB hustled like their lives depended on it, and thoroughly outplayed a Bearcat team that was coming off an emotional loss to cross-town rival Xavier. Before the season started I thought this was going to be a down year for UAB, because they lost almost everyone who played significant minutes for them last year. Their recruiting class has meshed will with the returners though, and they look like they could be better than last year. The win over Cinci is the 2nd biggest OOC win for C-USA this year, behind Tulsa's upset of Oklahoma State.

Tulane's loss to McNeese is an ugly one, the Cowboys are a Southland conference team, and not particularly successful within their own league.

Rice won against a decent Santa Clara team. Nothing remarkable about this game, but Rice continues to improve and has a chance to finish over .500 for the first time since the 04-05 season.

Marshall won by 51 points over Brescia, an NAIA team from Kentucky.

UCF lost a close game at USF, in a series that USF has always dominated. The Bulls Augustus Gilchrist, who had a big game against SMU in this years season opener, is injured and will be out until Mid-January. Playing without Gilchrist in their last game, USF suffered an embarrassing loss to Central Michigan.

East Carolina lost to Clemson, nothing unexpected there. East Carolina seems to lack depth, their bench contributes very little.

Thats about all, there were some interesting games inside the league tonight, UAB looks like the could be this years surprise team, and UTEP is working Derek Caracter into their lineup. If Caracter pans out, UTEP will have the best frontcourt in C-USA, by a wide margin.