Billikens_Fanatic

Wasn't it Rutgers?

Wow, looks like things have gotten really bad in Tiger country. Check out the post by the moderator of the Tigerboard. (Really makes you appreciate the great job Steve does with ours.) [http://www.tigerboard.com/boards/missouri-tigers.php?message=1296246]

UNLV had a pretty decent team last year. I remember them being considered as a bubble team, but believe they lost early in the MWC tourney, so settled for the NIT. I think they are still suffering from the losses of seniors Dalron Johnson and Marcus Banks. Banks was the heart and soul of last year's team, and got it done on both sides of the ball- winning conference defensive POY his last 2 years and also averaging something like 23 points a game. He was a first round draft pick. I think Johnson averaged around 15. That's nearly 40 points a game you're losing. I'm not going to speculate on Spoon's recruiting abilities, but I'm sure it would be hard to get a Banks again for them.

Actually there's 4- Memphis is 9 in the East. Winning 2 of 3 will put us right in the middle of things. Let's take care of business on Wednesday against Charlotte (and hope the weather down there and here improves so we can play the game- several games in Carolina postponed tonight)

So C-USA decides that after Cinci, Louisville, Depaul, Marquette, Charlotte, and SLU leave that it's going to reposition itself as a football conference. Then they proceed to lose a member that at one point was a top 10 BCS team. Not only is this conference going to be the laughing stock of basketball, but they lost the one team that they could have built a football conference around. I'm not sure a Brett Favre returning to Southern Miss can save this conference.

Yeah, I forgot about that as well. I believe Mosley, who had been averaging around 14 a game, had no points at halftime, and ended up with just 7, and 2 of those were in the last minute with Fisher out.

I could be mistaken, but I believe they play Oklahoma State tonight.

Sloan is more a streaky shooter than a pure scorer. Just because he isn't always scoring, however, doesn't mean that he's not helping the team or even the offense with his constant hustle after loose balls, fighting for rebounds, setting picks, finding the open guys, etc. He was the leading scorer today with 18 pts, 7-10 from the field. I'd let him take shots if he has them open, but not look for him to take 10 or 15 shots most games.

Great team effort today vs. USF, but Josh really stood out in particular. Fisher finished the game with 13 points, 9 boards, 8 assists, and 3 steals. He and Sloan really carried the team in the first half when Reggie was pretty quiet. IMO, Reggie and Fish make up the strongest backcourt in CUSA. Now let's take care of East Carolina and keep the momentum going into our 3 road games!

Question to all the RPI buffs out there. In terms of strength of schedule, is there a difference between playing a team at home or on the road?

Wow, ton of good teams out of that conference. Texas beating Wake tonight will hurt that a bit, but still very impressive. The ACC, SEC, and CUSA look poised to take spots from teams in typical powerhouse conferences having a down year- Big 10, Big 12, PAC 10.

Hey all- I posted a little last year, but this is my first time on the new board, though I've been reading since the beginning of the season. So much talk has been on the Marquette game and Mizzou which is understandable, but I thought since we had a game tonight, we should focus in on Southern Miss. Southern Miss is 8-5. Their big win was at home against Memphis, but they are 0-5 on the road, including losses to the likes of Arkansas State and Murray State. Players to watch include Charles Gaines, who averages a double double with 16.4 points and 10 boards a game. Jasper Johnson and Clement Carter both average around 10 and 5 a game. This game might come down to how well our big guys can play against theirs. If Sloan can shut down Gaines and Frericks can step it up and stay out of foul trouble, I don't think we should have a problem. Also noteworthy is that Southern Miss turns the ball over quite a bit (16.4 a game), 2nd worse in CUSA, and their defense gives up about 70 points a game and allowed Murray State to put up 94 on the road. We need to exploit these weaknesses, which we should, especially at home in order to win. Southern Miss's RPI is 62, SOS 19.