MBB Conference Play

Kmase14

Our first CUSA Conference play starts this Saturday against Jax St. I know Mr. King Owl wrote an article on X previewing the rest of the season. Would love to hear y’all’s thoughts and predictions!

I think our non-conference schedule showed our team good competition and we saw what this team can be, which is really good some nights and really streaky and discombobulated others. Our biggest struggle is going to simply be age/ maturity. The rest of CUSA is much older which will give them advantages. But watching our guys, we see the flashes of talent that I think can compete with anyone in our conference on a given night. I think our team has the highest upside with room to grow between now and the end of the season which makes us dangerous in the tournament.

I’d like to see us finish above 7th for the conference tournament. I feel like that’s a good goal for the team. Finishing 9/10th I think would be a bit disappointing to me seeing how it feels like we’re ahead of schedule. 6-8 is probably where we fall if I was guessing.

However, I’m gonna go probably too optimistic, because that’s who I am, with my prediction and say 9-7 in conference and finish 5th or 6th. Before rattling off a win in Huntsville!

Wingman

Kmase14 Solid analysis. We have lost all of our five games on long road trips to California and Western Canada (the MTE was a neutral court, but it’s a long way to travel).

So in 18 conference games I can see 6-3 at home and 2-7 on the road for 8-10 overall finishing mid-pack.

Of course as you mentioned there is a potential upside with this group, the team has room to grow in consistency and better performances on the road. There will be long and difficult road trips in conference.

Wingman

That was an important win for the Owls against Jax State. We beat a much better Gamecocks team than we saw in the ASUN. Both teams got off to a slow start and it was a real physical battle. We owned the glass even though the visitors had some imposing big men. Weir fouled out early and when Gordon got his 5th foul with more than 4 minutes to play I thought that this could get real interesting. The Owls played well down the stretch to seal the victory.

I know we had to move to CUSA for football, but I have never been that excited about the move for other sports. The travel is brutal and we seemingly don’t have that much in common with many of the other Universities. However, this year with the basketball team we have it will be much more interesting to watch the Owls in this league than the ASUN, which has 4 very weak teams. Looking at the early CUSA scores, I think it may be too early to call upsets, but there were some unexpected results. Any of the CUSA teams seen capable of making a run to the championship.

Kmase14

Wingman Fouls continue to be an issue. But I agree, if this team shows up every night, we’ll have a lot of competitive games that will be fun to watch!

Wingman

I am disappointed we could not win one of those games on the MTSU/WKU road trip. Both of those teams are beatable when they come to the Convo later this season.