With the regular season now closed, the 2009-2010 Memphis Tigers look to the post-season. With hopes of making into the NCAA Tournament field of 64, the Tigers (23-8, 13-3 C-USA) have the opportunity to play their way in by winning the Conference USA Tournament or possibly by winning two games. The 2010 tournament is set to begin in Tulsa at the BOK Center on Wednesday, March 10th going through Saturday, March 13th.
The Tigers have won the tournament the past four years, but for the first time in several years have finished outside of the top spot in the league and without a sure-fire bid to the NCAA Tournament. Thus, the Tigers will be fighting for their season this week in Tulsa. Breaking down their side of the bracket, we will be taking a look at the following four teams – Houston, East Carolina, Southern Miss, Tulane and UAB. Memphis, which has a first-round bye, will face the winner of (7) Houston and (10) East Carolina. This second-round matchup, which is yet to be determined, is scheduled for Thursday, March 11 at 12:00pm CST.
HOUSTON (15-15, C-USA) vs ECU (10-20, 4-12 C-USA)
Houston faces off against ECU in Wednesday’s opening game. In the only meeting between the two teams this season, the Cougars defeated the Pirates, 74-55, in January at Minges Coliseum. Having met only once before in the history of the Conference USA conference tournament, ECU and Houston are playing for a second-round matchup against the Tigers.
For Memphis, the obvious preference in this game is East Carolina. In their only meeting with the Pirates, the Tigers beat ECU 77-57In that game, Wesley Witherspoon scored 22 points (6-of-8 from the field and 9-of-10 from the FT line) and Doneal Mack added 15 while Willie Kemp added 13. Brock Young led the Pirates with 21 points, Jontae Sherrod added 11 and Jamar Abrams had 10. ECU is just not a team that matches up well with the Tigers.
Houston, on the other hand, has obviously caused some problems for the Tigers. Aside from the 92-75 beatdown that the Cougars handed the Tigers at Houston, Aubrey Coleman is the type of player that no team wants to prepare for including Memphis. Coleman, who leads the NCAA in scoring (26.0 points per game), has had outbursts of 32 and 34 points against the Tigers.
Memphis Roar’s Prediction: Houston by 11, facing the Tigers on Thursday at 12pm CST.
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Below the Tigers in the bracket, the (3) UAB Blazers (23-7, 11-5 C-USA) await the winner of the (6) Southern Mississippi versus (11) Tulane matchup. Before the Blazers can think about a possible third meeting with Memphis, Mike Davis must focus their attention on the opening-round winner.
SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI (18-12, 8-8 C-USA) vs TULANE (8-21, 3-13 C-USA)
Facing Tulane only two games back, the Southern Miss Golden Eagles will likely look at their game against the Green Wave as a warm-up game for the Blazers. In their game last Tuesday, Larry Eustachy’s squad beat Tulane by only 9, 66-57, but walloped them earlier in the season, 58-40. Despite the fact that Southern Miss will likely take this first game lightly, Tulane matches up well and could potentially pose a problem for this very inconsistent Golden Eagles team. Tulane is coming off of a big win against Houston and may use some of that momentum to give Southern Miss a scare.
UAB has beaten both Southern Miss and Tulane two times a piece this season. The Blazers only managed to beat Southern Miss by 1 point the first time they played and 5 points in the second game. Southern Miss is obviously the team out of this matchup that could give UAB problems, as Gary Flowers and RL Horton both had big games against the Blazers in their previous two contests.
Memphis Roar’s Prediction: Southern Mississippi over Tulane, facing UAB on Thursday at 2:30 CST.
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Memphis Roar will continue breaking down the Conference USA tournament as more matchups unfold. A brief overview of the bottom half of the bracket including #1-seed UTEP, Marshall and Tulsa is up next on the docket.
2010 Conference USA Basketball Tournament Schedule:
2010 Conference USA Tournament First Round
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
#10 East Carolina – #7 Houston 12:00 P.M.
#11 Tulane – #6 Southern Miss 2:30 P.M.
#8 SMU – #9 UCF 6:00 P.M.
#5 Tulsa – #12 Rice 8:30 P.M.
2010 Conference USA Tournament Quarterfinals
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
#2 Memphis – #10/7 winner 12:00 PM CBS College Sports
#3 UAB – #11/6 winner 2:30 PM CBS College Sports
#1 UTEP – #8/9 seed 6:30 PM CBS College Sports
#4 Marshall – #5/12 seed 9:00 PM CBS College Sports
2010 Conference USA Tournament Semifinals
Friday, March 12, 2010
2010 C-USA Basketball Tournament Semifinals Game 1 3:00 PM CBS College Sports
2010 C-USA Basketball Tournament Semifinals Game 2 5:30 PM CBS College Sports
2010 Conference USA Tournament Finals
Saturday, March 13
Winner Semifinal Game 1 vs Winner Semi Final Game 2 10:30 AM CBS
2009’s Conference Championship Game Results: #1 Memphis 64 – #2 Tulsa 39
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