BASKETBALL CUSA Championship Bracket

[SpaceRaider]

Wednesday, March 7 - First Round

6 pm (8) FIU vs. (9) Southern Miss (Court A) Facebook
6:30 pm (5) UTSA vs. (12) UTEP (Court B) Facebook
8:30 pm (7) North Texas vs. (10) LA Tech (Court A) Facebook
9 pm (6) UAB vs. (11) Florida Atlantic (Court B) Facebook

Thursday, March 8 - Quarterfinals

6 pm (1) Middle Tennessee vs. FIU/USM (Court A) Stadium/Twitter
6:30 pm (4) Marshall vs. UTSA/UTUEP (Court B) Facebook
8:30 pm (2) Old Dominion vs. NT/LA Tech (Court A) Stadium/Twitter
9 pm (3) WKU vs. UAB/FAU (Court B) Facebook

Friday, March 9 - Semifinals

12:30 pm Men's Semifinal Game 9 (Court A) CBS Sports
3:00 pm Men's Semifinal Game 10 (Court A) CBS Sports

Saturday, March 10 - Championship Game

7:30 pm Men's Championship Game (Court A) CBS Sports

All Times Central

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

Bowling Green Daily News:
http://www.bgdailynews.com/sports/w...cle_65754e99-c83c-55b1-8fe3-8df96f194987.html
Middle Tennessee favored to win another C-USA Tournament title

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

fwiw, this column is by the same writer that called Nick King, a 'rent-a-star'
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/sport...cle_b8095d60-686a-505c-88cd-78f8164a9692.html
Two courts are one too many for C-USA tournament

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

Location is a complete failure in my book. This setup seems wonky. Hope I’m proven wrong.

 

[MTLynn]

At the very least. first round games should be played on the campuses of the higher seeded teams

 

[MTBig Blue]

This set up looks completely bush-league. I especially like the fairground style bleachers they brought in. It looks like a pig competition will be judged in there.

 

[MTsumner92]

Is this a joke?

 

[MTFNBY5]

If you went to any of the Belt's tournaments in Hot Springs the setup should be very familiar to you since the auxiliary floor was very similar. That said, once the tournament was down to the semis all games could revert to a facility designed for basketball. Not so at The Star. Gotta think fans will come away with a negative view on this location if for no other reason than the uncomfortable seats [at Hot Springs the aux. floor seating was the portable seating used around the country for golf tournaments. - these look similar from the photos provided - in Hot Springs all seats were comfortable after quarters and semis and half of those games had been in the Summit (now Bank of the Ozarks) Arena.]

The Frisco area looks like worth a visit (many u-tube videos available - imagine Brentwood/Franklin 4 times larger w/o Franklin's historic downtown and battlefield) with shopping, restaurants, and a few sights to see (primary among them being The Star).

I wish I was there for the tournament but I'm not sure the facility will be a draw after the first year.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[blueraiderJT]

There is nothing cool about that. Fire Judy.

 

[BRaiderDave]

Watching it on Stadium via Facebook now. UTSA vs UTEP. The whole look is laughable.

 

[MTBig Blue]

I would think that, as a player, not having any backdrop on the baskets could throw off your depth perception. Just terrible

 

[Raiderclyde]

This Frisco layout looks like a recreational league instead of major college basketball. What. A. Mistake. Never thought I would say that I miss the Sun Belt Basketball Tournament or the OVC Tournament. Hope it gets better for the Semis and Championship.

 

[bluefutcpa]

How do we make this madness stop! Folks say it’s a great location good shopping etc. they assumed incorrectly that fans would travel to this nonsense. I’m not gonna waist a plane ticket on this crap!

 

[SpaceRaider]

USM won and advanced to face the Blue Raiders. My biggest concern is with the strange set up and the comfort level USM might have from playing a game and gotten through that.

 

[sWiley]

USM won and advanced to face the Blue Raiders. My biggest concern is with the strange set up and the comfort level USM might have from playing a game and gotten through that.

Yup. Getting your tournament legs under you is very important. The first half against USM is crucial. I'd take a tie score at half time right now and run like I robbed a bank.

 

[dukewayne]

USM won and advanced to face the Blue Raiders. My biggest concern is with the strange set up and the comfort level USM might have from playing a game and gotten through that.

This. Exactly.

MT is certainly more than capable of winning, but they do need to bring focus and intensity to avoid any possible disasters. I also seem to remember USM have some competitive talent to play with MT for at least a little while before MT's depth took over. You don't want to have a slow start to give USM an advantage, momentum, a lead, and confidence for a late game run. It would seem important for MT to come out hot and get into sync in the strange arena. If MT can do that, it should be an enjoyable game to watch for MT fans.

 

[dukewayne]

Should be an interesting game in 5UTSA vs 4Marshall One would think UTSA would likely have a few fans in attendance as well. With that match up, Marshall vs MT is not a sure match up.

It also seems for a few years that one team out of the first round makes a strong run to the semis or even finals. It seems difficult to call beforehand. That said, UAB may be a real interesting team out of the first round to watch. If they get to WKU, that could end up being anyone's game. WKU is coming into the tourney after a couple of real rough games for them. Just sayin' it could possibly be a real interesting matchup.

 

[dukewayne]

I have zero confidence in the job the conference commish is doing. This tourney arrangement seems to be highly questionable to put it nicely.

Further, I have no confidence in the commish executing a good media rights deal for the conference this year.

I know this is likely fairly controversial, but I'm growing increasingly convinced the conf tourney should be held at higher seeds home floors. It might be possible to persuade me that a conf tourney final four should be held at a neutral site. This neutral site thing just for the purposes of a neutral site just isn't making much sense to me.

Is it really benefiting the conference to admit just about all the teams to the conf tourney? Specifically, does it benefit C-USA to admit teams who aren't even capable to getting to .500 overall on the season? Are the top performing teams from the regular season race being properly and proportionally rewarded in their shot for the auto-bid? While this has not happened with C-USA in the last few years, conferences around the country put in the NCAAs an average team with little chance for success because their top 2 teams may have blown one game. With the incredible value of that bid and payout for the conference, shouldn't conferences such as CUSA place one of the few of the best teams in the tournament?

Lastly, will C-USA really benefit from this tourney in Frisco?

 

[dukewayne]

An additional thought on postseason play:

In football, does C-USA use a neutral location for the conf championship game or is it played on a home field?

 

[Raiderclyde]

I’m for taking top 8 teams for the tournament. Top 2 teams get byes until semifinals. 3rd and 4th place gets a single bye. 5-8 plays opening round. WCC and OVC model uses this. Who wants to see a 25-7 or 26-7 team have their season ruined by a 1-2 Point loss (like #25 Murray State did 3 years ago)? If we lose to USM, Marshall, or UTSA, we will add our name to the ruined teams not making the NCAA’s. While teams from power conferences sneak in with 13 or 14 losses if they have the letters ACC or $EC by their conference affiliation. Yes, there is too much revenue at stake. And besides, who wants to see 500-700 fans and a sea of empty bleachers for 2 days at the tournament?

 

[SpaceRaider]

Thursday's tourney schedule:

Men's Quarterfinals

6 pm (1) Middle Tennessee vs. (9) Southern Miss (Court A) Stadium/Twitter

6:30 pm (4) Marshall vs. (5) UTSA (Court B) Facebook

8:30 pm (2) Old Dominion vs. (10) LA Tech (Court A) Stadium/Twitter

9 pm (3) WKU vs. (6) UAB(Court B) Facebook

 

[SpaceRaider]

at the 6:45 mark the USM post fiu game press conference begins...

 

[dukewayne]

I’m for taking top 8 teams for the tournament. Top 2 teams get byes until semifinals. 3rd and 4th place gets a single bye. 5-8 plays opening round. WCC and OVC model uses this. Who wants to see a 25-7 or 26-7 team have their season ruined by a 1-2 Point loss (like #25 Murray State did 3 years ago)? If we lose to USM, Marshall, or UTSA, we will add our name to the ruined teams not making the NCAA’s. While teams from power conferences sneak in with 13 or 14 losses if they have the letters ACC or $EC by their conference affiliation. Yes, there is too much revenue at stake. And besides, who wants to see 500-700 fans and a sea of empty bleachers for 2 days at the tournament?

Exactly.

I have noticed in watching a few of the other "mid major" and "low major" conference tourneys that play on home floors the last few years, the semis and especially the finals are always packed with an incredibly enthusiastic crowd on hand. With that NCAA ticket on the line, those games where the fans are actually attending look pretty darn appealing I must admit.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

Shoot yeah to the home court in tourney. Right now it’s just play the regular season for a seed number. Be way more interesting to make home court advantage a goal too.

 

[dukewayne]

Looking back over this thread after MT's one conf tourney game makes much of the above comments seem somewhat prescient.

For all intents and purposes, MT dominated the league with the championship trophy to show for it. Now with a generally rigged NCAA system looking for any excuse to eliminate any non-P5 at-large bids, just who now will be representing C-USA in the NCAA tourney? The auto bid that has incredible value and importance for generally struggling G5 type conferences and programs. In addition to the incredible amount of prestige that comes with being in the NCAA tourney especially if you win, the big money payouts that increase with tourney wins are also incredibly important.

With C-USA's well known financial struggles of late, why would the conference want to put so much money and conference perception and cache on the line by sending any number of teams whose qualifications are getting hot for a few games on a neutral floor. This especially when the conference increases the chances for the auto bid representative to end up being an already unfavorably biased lower seed thereby making it even more difficult to get a tourney win.

The NCAA tourney is already rigged against our conference and individual programs, why do the leaders of the conference deliberately put the conference in position of making it even more difficult to succeed and get bigger payouts from the NCAA?

 

[sWiley]

To answer your question:

Sheer stupidity. The Ivy League used to do it intelligently and sent their regular season champ to the tournament, but for some reason they've decided they want to play a tourney now too. Have not bothered researching why they did this, but I'm sure it's a stupid reason.

I prefer a hybrid route. Play the regular season games, play the tournament games, add up every team's W's, and the team with the most conference W's goes to the tournament. If this were used with CUSA this year, we would still be in first place with 16 W's but ODU and WKU would be hot on our trail with 15 and 14 W's respectively. If there's a tie at 16 W's, you go to head-to-head, if there's a tie there or no head-to-head, go to overall wins or RPI or SOS or whatever.

But get rid of this absolutely retarded conference tournament winner auto-bid mess. It works great for Power 5 programs because so many Power 5 teams are guaranteed entry. But it doesn't work for smaller conferences who are traditionally 1 bid leagues like SBC, CUSA, etc. Bunch of over-paid idiots commissioning these conferences.

 

[Raiderclyde]

I don’t know, Wiley. Hybrid tournament doesn’t appeal to me. I’m more for the WCC and OVC Tournament model of taking the top eight and the 1 and 2 seeds getting a bye to a semifinal. Does it prevent an MT loss? No. But we don’t lose to a #9 seed/ninth place team either. Some like the Cinderella’s of a last place team winning four in four days and the trappings that go along with that one shining moment. Maybe it’s good, but it does come at a cost to a 24-to-26 win team with 6-or-7 losses. There are conference revenue issues at hand and potentially embarrassing ways to close a season, as we witnessed nearly 24 hours ago. I do like neutral sites because of the tourism dollars it can generate. Low majors cannot fund such because of tiny fan bases. Our universities should generate more, but that is entirely another subject for another day. For 2018, we clearly didn’t finish the job. All MT can do now is embrace the NIT and win the entire tournament. If by some grace we make the NCAA’s, let’s make a good showing and redeem and not blow another chance. Realistically seven losses in C-USA is too many for an at large berth.

 

[dukewayne]

At least it looks like it will be one of the top 4 teams from the regular season getting the auto bid this year. Hopefully that will at least leave C-USA with a team for a shot at a reasonably decent seed (for G5) and some hope of getting a win.

I'm not holding my breath, but it sure would be nice if C-USA would improve the system for earning the auto-bid. How much will the Frisco tourney really benefit the conference overall? Marshall and WKU will likely have more than a few fans down there for a Saturday game, but it would be a packed house sellout if held at the higher seeds home floor. In that case, WKU would have a packed, rowdy, sellout crowd that would also look like an exciting March Madness environment on national tv. Instead of selling 8000 tickets to the attendees, Frisco might get a few thousand in a strange looking environment that will appear to the tv audience to be of little interest to sports fans. That's quite a contrast.