Conference USA Season Preview
Betting odds courtesy of Bovada
Louisiana Tech (29-8)
The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs lost 78-75 in the quarterfinals of the NIT a season ago. The Bulldogs posted a 13-3 record in C-USA play and the Bulldogs, while not among the odds-worthy on Bovada, may be prepped to have its best season in 25 years. La Tech returns four of last year’s starters and tied the school record for wins last year. The Bulldogs are on the cusp this season of earning a top-25 ranking, and still, no love from college basketball odds in the futures betting.
Head coach Michael White has been a choice for other programs, including Tennessee, but he chose to remain at La Tech, signing a $3.6 million six-year extension. Since he took over in 2011, the school has gone 74-31 and won 56 over the last two seasons. The team is built around three guards, Kenneth “Speedy” Smith, Alex Hamilton and Raheem Appleby.
Smith is one of the best point guards in the game and ranked 2nd in the nation in assists with 7.7 per game, while boasting a 3.25 to 1 assists to turnover ratio. Hamilton is a big scorer who averaged 14.5 points per game last season and is due to make another leap this year. Appleby missed 12 games last year with an ankle injury but prior to that had averaged 16.1 points per game. La Tech will be good and exciting, which is enough to keep fans excited as the team vies for a long-desired national ranking this season.
UTEP (23-11; 12-4)
The UTEP Miners last to Fresno State in the first round of the CIT last year, 61-56. Three key players were dismissed from the school in January due to allegations of betting on the games. Even so, the Miners were 10-2 to open the season, tied for first in C-USA. The Miners, though, lost four of the last seven games of the season and it ended in the CIT with some disappointment. Head coach Tim Floyd simply said, “I wanted an NCAA tournament bid.”
For that to happen this season, the team will need Vince Hunter to continue to improve on an impressive freshman campaign. Hunter had one of the best freshman seasons in school history, setting records for field goal percentage (56 percent), points (419) and rebounds (222). The 6’8” forward can help the Miners challenge Louisiana Tech for conference supremacy.
Western Kentucky (20-12; 12-6)
The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers were left out of all the postseason parties last year, despite what wasn’t really all that bad of a season. Having lost 6’10” center Aleksej Rostov had a lot to do with that, as he suffered a blood clot causing him to miss the second half of the year. Rostov will be ready for the beginning of this year and the team brings back four starters, which is really five including Rostov.
Since the 2010 league tournament, C-USA has had three at-large bids and moving from the Sun Belt should help the Hilltoppers get into the Big Dance. Western has two strong experienced seniors in T.J. Price and George Fant, who combined to average 28.8 points per game last year. Chris Harrison-Docks comes from Butler as a transfer and is a good scoring guard who excels in clutch situations. He hits his free throws and the triple and should help the Hilltoppers close out the close games it seems to encounter ever so frequently.
Old Dominion (18-18; 9-7)
The Old Dominion Monarchs lost to Fresno State in the semis of the CBI last year. Still, it was a big turnaround from the five-win season that Old Dominion had in 2013. Going from 5-25 to .500 is a big enough jump to renew optimism in the program and though the team lost second-leading scorer Dimitri Batten (he transferred to Boston College), top scorer Aaron Bacote is back and he put up 15.5 points per game last season. He was 7th in the league in scoring and may make All-Conference this year.
Richard Ross will have an increased role as well after posting about 10 points and seven boards per game last year. Ross isn’t all that big at a generously listed 6’6” but he was second in C-USA in blocked shots with 2.3 per game and 12th in boards. Ross and Bacote will keep Old Dominion competitive, but can it continue to progress on last year’s surprising campaign?
UAB (18-13; 7-9)
The UAB Blazers are going to be a very young team this year, and that may cause some regression from what was already a pretty mediocre year last season. The team was left out of all invitationals last year and head coach Jerod Haase is as concerned with developing chemistry as getting wins.
Freshman William “Ha-Ha” Lee chose UAB over SMU and a number of SEC schools and the 6’9” four-star recruit averaged 22.2 points, 12.7 rebounds, 9.2 blocks, 3.9 assists and 3.4 steals for his state championship team in Alabama. Haase is impressed by his upside, but it will take continued development from Lee and two other incoming freshmen Lewis Sullivan and Jarvis Calhoun for this team to make waves. And that likely will not be this season.
