Wednesday:
No games

Thursday:
WKU at South Alabama (6:05 ET)
Troy at Ga. State (7:00 ET)
Appalachian St. at Duquesne (7:00 ET)
UALR at Texas St. (8:30 ET)
Ark. St. at Texas-Arlington (8:30 ET)

Friday:
No games

UTA's schedule makes them very hard to read. The close losses are to Oklahoma and Texas are probably their most impressive results of the season.

Sun Belt ended up at #15 in Nolan RPI for the non-conference. The SoCon by comparison ended up at #30.

Here are the RPIs as conference play is about to start:
66 Louisiana
94 ULM
134 WKU
141 Arkansas St.
189 Georgia St.
196 Texas-Arlington
207 South Alabama
221 UALR
271 Texas St.
296 Troy

Georgia Southern is at 320 and Appalachian is at 343.

(12-31-2013 01:36 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  UTA's schedule makes them very hard to read. The close losses are to Oklahoma and Texas are probably their most impressive results of the season.

There is one key to success for us. We had an embarrassing loss at Robert Morris and at home against Cleveland State. In every non-P5 loss, we got down by double digits. We then make a furious second half comeback where fall within the range of trailing one possession to taking the lead, only to not have enough in the tank to finish. Much of the SBC will be on par with Eastern Michigan or Cleveland State.

That said, the rumor is our defense has improved tremendously since those games, as evidenced by the UT-Austin and Oklahoma games. In the end, it is all a guess. Any stAte fans coming to Arlington?

(01-01-2014 01:03 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  

(12-31-2013 01:36 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  UTA's schedule makes them very hard to read. The close losses are to Oklahoma and Texas are probably their most impressive results of the season.

There is one key to success for us. We had an embarrassing loss at Robert Morris and at home against Cleveland State. In every non-P5 loss, we got down by double digits. We then make a furious second half comeback where fall within the range of trailing one possession to taking the lead, only to not have enough in the tank to finish. Much of the SBC will be on par with Eastern Michigan or Cleveland State.

That said, the rumor is our defense has improved tremendously since those games, as evidenced by the UT-Austin and Oklahoma games. In the end, it is all a guess. Any stAte fans coming to Arlington?

Normally we would draw decent for a Dallas area game simply because we have a lot of alums in the North Texas area, but not with the Go Daddy Bowl taking place this weekend. There is not one single advertisement for the games this weekend. If it wasn't for these threads, I wouldn't know when the games were.

We're hard to read ourselves. We shoot a lot of 3's, are decent scorers, but cant rebound, and play mediocre defense. The last 4 games we have played one half of bad basketball and one half of great basketball, and no one seems to know when it will come.

For instance:

Vs Nebraska. Down 20 plus at half. We outscored them by 13 in the 2nd half to cut it to around 10 points

Vs Toledo: We stayed with the Rockets in a well played first half for a 44-40 lead. Toledo is 12-1. We then got blown out in the 2nd half and lost by 13.

Vs Marshall: We played a great 1st half and led by 16. Marshall came back to tie it before we hit a late three to win by 1.

vs Southern Arkansas: Played the most embarrassing first half of basketball in school history and led by two at half. We then went on a massive run to take a 30 point 2nd half lead before winning by 25.

I fully expect that trend to continue and the Mavericks to win Thursday. We'll then beat Texas State in a close game in similar fashion.

WKU will struggle at USA. USA is better than their record and WKU struggles on the road. Hate to say it but a 0-1 start to the conference race for WKU is very possible. Three of USA's six wins are over Division 2 teams so it's difficult to assess how good or bad they are but they've played well against some good competition and they love to beat the Toppers.

(01-01-2014 01:35 PM)WKUApollo Wrote:  WKU will struggle at USA. USA is better than their record and WKU struggles on the road. Hate to say it but a 0-1 start to the conference race for WKU is very possible. Three of USA's six wins are over Division 2 teams so it's difficult to assess how good or bad they are but they've played well against some good competition and they love to beat the Toppers.

We do love beating on those Toppers. Gonna miss you guys when you're gone.

(01-01-2014 01:35 PM)WKUApollo Wrote:  WKU will struggle at USA. USA is better than their record and WKU struggles on the road. Hate to say it but a 0-1 start to the conference race for WKU is very possible. Three of USA's six wins are over Division 2 teams so it's difficult to assess how good or bad they are but they've played well against some good competition and they love to beat the Toppers.

I've given some thought to sneaking over to watch the USA/Georgia State game Saturday. Doubt I go through with it though.

(01-01-2014 01:35 PM)WKUApollo Wrote:  WKU will struggle at USA. USA is better than their record and WKU struggles on the road. Hate to say it but a 0-1 start to the conference race for WKU is very possible. Three of USA's six wins are over Division 2 teams so it's difficult to assess how good or bad they are but they've played well against some good competition and they love to beat the Toppers.

I hope we can be competitive. We are very young. We start two freshmen and have 4 more that play significant minutes.

I decided to give UTA Athletics 7 bucks to watch the ASU games tonight. Mens and Womens. I'll provide updates as things go along.

So far, I give UTA Cheerleaders a D- in looks.

WKU and USA is playing on espn 3 right now in case anybody wanted to watch.

UTA Announcers...Yuck. Must stop ears from bleeding.

No play by play or anything...no need. We should have a spirited discussion about whether the airball is an acceptable shot at the D1 level.

Just over 4 minutes to go in the 1st half and South is holding strong, 22-21 WKU.

WKU cold as ice. I expect to warm up......hope anyway

a minute to go, 24-21, nobody is hitting anything.

WKU 27 -- USA 25 at the half. Pretty ugly half. WKU is killing us on the offensive board.

In Women's Action ASU Leads UTA 34-33 at halftime in Arlington.

(01-02-2014 06:50 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  WKU 27 -- USA 25 at the half. Pretty ugly half. WKU is killing us on the offensive board.

WKU has been getting better and better on defense. Our shots just won't go down tonight. I think USA needs to make it a ugly game to win and get AR going somehow. WKU has always struggled at USA but I feel confident at this moment