A Little Hoops Discussion
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I hope you all had a great of a Thanksgiving as I did. I had family in from out of town, no coughing or sneezing, and lots of food and fun. It was a great time.
This Thanksgiving week has been filled with soccer and some football, and a lot of basketball. With the caveat that everyone in the league has had a little bit of a different test, we will rank the teams based on proprietary formula to result in a POWER RANKING
1 UAB 4-1
The Blazers had a little trip up against Toledo, but found some lightning against Georgia. Jelly Walker has been balling out like we all expected and Eric Gaines is still quick. There is no reason to think this squad won't have it's way in the CUSA regular season
2 Western 5-1
A little stumble and a light schedule haven't told us much about this squad. WKU dropped one to Akron but beat Tulane in a holiday tourney.
3 FAU 4-1
The Owls have tons of experience and beat Florida. They lost to Mississippi but without Mike Forrest. The dark horse candidate to upset the above.
4 NT 3-1
You probably saw the blowout loss to St Mary's (by thirty!) but you might not know they had the flu for the week prior and couldn't practice. The defensive effort is there, but the offense wasn't -- especially with Tylor Perry and Rubin Jones out. Since their return, NT has looked better.
5 Middle 2-2
Remember the Blue Raiders were supposed to impress? Well they've stumbled to Winthrop (bad) and lost to Missouri St (not bad, but it was a blowout). They have a conference win, however (over Rice).
6 UTEP
The Miners are spending the non-conference portion building up their style and bedding in their new roster.
7 Tech
Isaiah Crawford looks fully back to his old ways, and Tech is figuring out their new normal.
8 Rice
The Owls don't have a defense but like to move the ball. Already a conference loss.
9 CLT
A big win over Boise ... followed up by a couple of poor losses.
10 FIU
Good against inferior competition, out of their depth vs good teams.
11 UTSA
Playing a schedule of local schools they got a nice win over rival Texas St, but loss to TAMUCC. Nothing surprising here.