Thursday, February 2

Middle Tennessee 68, North Texas 66

Louisiana-Lafayette 72, Denver 71 (OT)

Arkansas State 72, Louisiana-Monroe 64

South Alabama 65, Florida Atlantic 56

Florida International 63, Troy 50

Saturday, February 4

Denver 75 Middle Tennessee 60

Florida International 76 Florida Atlantic 56

Arkansas-Little Rock 70 Louisiana-Monroe 66

Seattle 75 Arkansas State 69

Louisiana-Lafayette 83 Troy 78

Western Kentucky 75 South Alabama 66

It was going to be hard for the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders to go through the entire Sun Belt Conference regular season without a single defeat, and if there was a game that set up poorly for coach Kermit Davis’s club this year, it was this past Saturday’s game in Denver against the homestanding Pioneers. Moreover, the backdrop to the weekend’s main Sun Belt showcase simply didn’t offer new advantages to the one Sun Belt team that could gain an at-large bid to the 2012 NCAA Tournament.

Because of a major snowstorm that hit Denver on Friday, both the Middle Tennessee and Denver teams – having played Thursday night Sun Belt road games – were routed through the same airport and placed on the same flight into the Mile High City. Yes, it’s mind-blowing to conceive of such a reality, but the Blue Raiders and Pioneers shared seats as they made the one commute in the Sun Belt which doesn’t make sense – the journey from… well… the American sun belt region to the Rocky Mountains and the one city that’s geographically out of place in what is already a far-flung conference reaching from Florida to Texas. These teams shouldn’t have had to fly into a snowy Denver International Airport, but they did.

The Pioneers had to love the extent to which Middle Tennessee was inconvenienced. They also had to love the fact that this game received a national television slot on ESPN2, adding a few thousand rowdy students to the cheering section at Magness Arena, the Pioneers’ home court. Middle Tennessee had to travel; it had to share a flight with its opponent; and it had to deal with a juiced-up crowd. Yes, this was the perfect trap for a team that had won its first 10 Sun Belt games of the year.

Denver was good enough to pounce on this opportunity.

The Pioneers ran crisp offensive sets in head coach Joe Scott’s offensive system. They were scattered in the first half but made excellent defensive rotations in the second half. Denver looked a half-step faster and a lot more active than Middle Tennessee for most of the afternoon, and thanks to a few timely three-point baskets in tipping-point moments midway through the second half, the Pioneers were able to pull away down the stretch for a 15-point win that will give them a fresh measure of confidence for the rest of February. This is still Middle Tennessee’s league to win, and with the Sun Belt Tournament being in Arkansas, the clubs from Arkansas-Little Rock and Louisiana-Lafayette will have a say in who wins this league, but now Denver – which had been sliding – can still harbor hopes of claiming this league title. The other key result of this story is that Middle Tennessee can probably lose just one more game (maybe two) if it wants to remain a likely at-large choice for the Big Dance.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 25

Louisiana-Lafayette 64, North Texas 62

Thursday, January 26

Denver 66, Arkansas State 52

Arkansas-Little Rock 75, South Alabama 50

Florida Atlantic 67, Western Kentucky 66

Middle Tennessee 71, Troy 58

Saturday, January 28

Vanderbilt 84, Middle Tennessee 77

Louisiana-Lafayette 67, Louisiana-Monroe 60

North Texas 76, Arkansas State 64

Western Kentucky 61, Florida International 51

Arkansas-Little Rock 64, Denver 57

Sunday, January 29

South Alabama 68 Troy 66

It’s a bumper car competition in the Sun Belt Conference… with the exception of the team that is leading the way. Even in defeat this past week, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders just might have done more than merely affirm their status as the team to beat in the conference. With a good loss on the road against a solid Vanderbilt club, the boys from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, just might have gained national respect from savvy college basketball watchers, enough to perhaps – yes – steal an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament if they don’t win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in early March.

Yes, coach Kermit Davis’s club really could be in the mix for an at-large this year, not just because of its own merits – the Blue Raiders are 20-3 this season and 9-0 in the Sun Belt – but because the rest of the bubble is so mediocre. A lot of teams with NIT-level profiles are still in the bubble conversation, making the bubble a sorrier spectacle than ever before, including last year’s race to mediocrity. Middle Tennessee pushed Vandy – the second-place team in the Southeastern Conference – for a full 40 minutes on the road, with the Dores extending a two-point lead to seven in the final 90 seconds of a terrifically tense tilt. MTSU, if it goes unbeaten in the Sun Belt regular season and then loses in the championship game of the Sun Belt tourney, would have only four losses on the season. With that degree of high-level consistency, the Blue Raiders could make a strong case for inclusion in the NCAA field.

After Middle Tennessee, though, the Sun Belt is cluttered.

In the West, it’s good clutter which is on display. The past week’s events featured Arkansas-Little Rock’s win over Denver, giving the Trojans (7-2 Sun Belt) the season sweep of the Pioneers (6-3) and a leg up in the division. However, in addition to Denver, North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette also sit at 6-3, meaning that UALR’s work is far from done. Arkansas-Little Rock still owns the majority of leverage in the West, but not to the point where they can feel particularly comfortable. Too many competitors lurk.

In the East Division, the clutter is generally bad. Florida Atlantic (5-3) has done really well after struggling against non-conference foes. The Owls are 9-12 overall, but they’ve managed to win five of eight conference clashes so far. FAU is therefore on track to get the second seed in the East and – with it – a bye in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament. Western Kentucky, South Alabama, Troy, and Florida International are all saddled with six conference losses, so they’ll be jockeying for seeding slots the rest of the way.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Denver 63, Louisiana-Monroe 48

Louisiana-Lafayette 68, Arkansas-Little Rock 49

Florida International 65, South Alabama 62

Middle Tennessee 59, Arkansas State 46

Florida Atlantic 88, Troy 67

Saturday, January 21

Florida Atlantic 66, Florida International 64

North Texas 75, Denver 74 (OT)

Middle Tennessee 68, South Alabama 47

Troy 91, Louisiana-Monroe 63

Western Kentucky 65, Arkansas-Little Rock 53

The Sun Belt Conference is still ruled by one team and one team only, but while the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders remain unbeaten in the league, one of the more important contests occurred in Denton, Texas.

The Denver Pioneers are the geographical outlier in the Sun Belt. While most of the league’s teams play in the Southeastern United States, encompassing Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and even Florida, Denver sits in the Rocky Mountains, having to make long commutes to each and every road game. The continuous battle faced by the Pioneers is the ability to win on the road with the same regularity they demonstrate at home. Denver has to play the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The Pioneers are simply at a competitive disadvantage in much the same way that the Hawaii Warriors are when they compete in the Western Athletic Conference. Much as Hawaii always has to travel a long way (much longer than Denver does for the Sun Belt tourney) to play its biggest basketball games of the season, Denver has to go to unfamiliar territory to punch its ticket for the NCAA Tournament. Therefore, Denver’s regular-season forays to other league arenas are chock-full of meaning in ways that don’t apply to other Sun Belt squads. When Denver went to Denton to face 4-2 North Texas this past weekend, the Pios had a chance to make a real statement.

Instead, they walked away with the heartache that has marked their existence in the Sun Belt, an existence that has failed to deliver an NCAA Tournament berth. Denver led by a 74-73 score with just seconds left in overtime, but North Texas’s Alzee Williams tipped in a Roger Franklin miss with two ticks left on the clock to claim the win for the Mean Green. Denver is still located in the upper tier of the Sun Belt with a 5-2 league record, but this loss at North Texas won’t help the Pioneers’ confidence for the road ahead. Many more mountains need to be climbed by coach Joe Scott’s team before it can claim a place of Sun Belt supremacy.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Monday, January 9

Florida Atlantic 58, Arkansas State 50

Wednesday, January 11

Colorado State 79, Denver 75

Thursday, January 12

North Texas 84, Western Kentucky 67

Middle Tennessee 70, Florida International 59

South Alabama 70, Louisiana-Lafayette 65

Arkansas-Little Rock 72, Louisiana-Monroe 51

Saturday, January 14

North Texas 68, Louisiana-Monroe 55

Middle Tennessee 67, Florida Atlantic 54

Arkansas-Little Rock 63, Arkansas State 62

Louisiana-Lafayette 87, Florida International 81 (OT)

South Alabama 75, Troy 60

Sunday, January 15

Denver 78, Western Kentucky 65

It’s amazing to behold the developments in the early stages of the Sun Belt Conference’s 2012 men’s basketball season. A team that looked to be dead and buried before the league season even began has now risen to the top of the league alongside another program that has lurked in the shadows for a number of years.

When non-conference play ended and everyone in the Sun Belt geared up for backyard brawls within the confines of the league, the Arkansas-Little Rock Trojans were 3-11. Yes, the Trojans won just three of 14 contests and appeared headed for many more months of struggle and strain. However, over the past two and a half weeks, UALR has been A-W-E-S-O-M-E. The Trojans won at Denver a few weeks ago in what was viewed as a big shocker, but this past week offered fresh ammunition for the contention that it wasn’t much of a surprise at all. The new narrative in the Belt is that UALR took its lumps against quality non-conference teams and has simply learned a lot of lessons really well. The Trojans are applying those lessons by going 5-0 in the Sun Belt to take hold of the West Division lead over 4-1 Denver. The Trojans blew out lowly Louisiana-Monroe earlier in the week, doing what any upper-tier team should against a weak sister. Then, this past Saturday, UALR showed the other primary dimension of a really good team, winning a close contest against Arkansas State. The Red Wolves gave the Trojans a battle, but coach Steve Shields’s Little Rock roster found the fortitude to prevail, keeping its Sun Belt record unblemished into the third full week of the month. Since UALR already has a road win over Denver in its hip pocket, a home win over the Pioneers later this season will go a long way to sewing up the West Division championship, which would be a great accomplishment in its own right but also an important step on the road to the NCAA Tournament.

Why? Let’s look at the East Division’s runaway success story.

The other big headline in the Sun Belt is the rise of Middle Tennessee from obscurity to the top of the standings. The Blue Raiders pasted Florida International and Florida Atlantic by double-digit margins to run their league record to 6-0, three and a half games ahead of both FAU and South Alabama in the East. Coach Kermit Davis has coached Middle Tennessee since the 2002-2003 season, and he hasn’t been able to get MTSU to the NCAA Tournament. This is a program, in fact, that hasn’t made the Big Dance since 1989. This year, however, might be the year that the men of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, break through.

Why is it so important, then, for Arkansas-Little Rock to win the West? If the Trojans do get the top seed from the West, they will avoid Middle Tennessee until the finals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, which will punch the league’s only ticket to the field of 68. If UALR somehow falls out of the top spot and allows Denver to claim the top seed in the West, the Sun Belt tourney bracket would put the Trojans in Middle Tennessee’s path in the semifinals. Therefore, the UALR-Denver duel for first in the West is going to be the event to monitor over the coming weeks.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 3

Kentucky 73, Arkansas-Little Rock 51

Thursday, January 5

Florida Atlantic 58, Louisiana-Monroe 30

North Texas 78, South Alabama 73 (OT)

Louisiana-Lafayette 72, Western Kentucky 70 (OT)

Denver 53, Arkansas State 50

Middle Tennessee 63, Troy 53

Saturday, January 7

Denver 67, South Alabama 50

Troy 67, Western Kentucky 65

Middle Tennessee 65, Louisiana-Lafayette 53

Louisiana-Monroe 54, Florida International 50

Arkansas-Little Rock 40, Florida Atlantic 38

Arkansas State 75, North Texas 72

The past week was a week for defense in the Sun Belt Conference. One might be inclined to think that a full season – or at least a full month – needs to run its course before offenses hit a wall and defenses take over, but that was the case in the first week of January, with conference competition just beginning to settle into a rhythm. Speaking of the phrase “settle into a rhythm,” that only applies to the Sun Belt’s defenses.

Just look at the numbers throughout this far-flung league: Louisiana-Monroe scored just 30 points against Florida Atlantic on Thursday. Florida Atlantic scored 58 in that game and won by a country mile. The Owls, having allowed 30 on Thursday, conceded just 40 points on Saturday… and lost. Yes, coach Mike Jarvis’s team managed only 38 points against Arkansas-Little Rock and fell to the Trojans, completing a very screwy week of basketball in the American South.

The defensive trend continued throughout the rest of the league, except for North Texas, which played its two league games in the 70s. South Alabama was held to 50 by Denver in a Saturday loss. Florida International was held to 50 in the same circumstances. Louisiana-Lafayette posted only 53 against Middle Tennessee, dropping its own Saturday soiree. Troy mustered only 53 in its own loss to MTSU on Thursday. Clearly, Middle Tennessee can play a lick of defense. Even winning teams – Denver on Thursday against Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday against Florida International – couldn’t exceed 54 points.

It seems as though March-level defensive intensity has already arrived in the Sun Belt.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 27

North Texas 78, New Orleans 47

Wednesday, December 28

Siena 67, Florida Atlantic 60

Thursday, December 29

UALR 69, North Texas 66

Middle Tennessee 71, Florida International 66

Western Kentucky 76, Louisiana-Monroe 71 (OT)

Kent State 69, Arkansas State 54

Denver 79, Troy 62

Saturday, December 31

Florida International 81, Western Kentucky 63

Middle Tennessee 68, South Alabama 52

North Texas 87, Troy 65

Arkansas State 65, Louisiana-Monroe 63

Louisiana-Lafayette 67, Florida Atlantic 55

UALR 66, Denver 59

The past week was not a helpful one for the Sun Belt Conference. The foremost team in the league through the first six weeks of the season, the Denver Pioneers, had made an impact in the college basketball world by holding its own against non-conference competition. Denver knocked off Utah State to snap the Aggies’ 33-game home-court winning streak, and the Pios also whacked Saint Mary’s of the West Coast Conference, building not quite an NCAA-worthy resume, but at least putting itself in the conversation for an NCAA at-large bid if it could dominate the rest of the Sun Belt. A season with no more than two conference losses might have given Denver the chance to remain in the at-large hunt, so it went without saying that Denver really couldn’t afford to trip up at all, especially not in the early portion of the Sun Belt regular season.

Well, that moment has already arrived. Denver won at home against Troy on Thursday, but the Pios then got blitzed by Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday in the Mile High City. Denver might have expected a battle from Florida Atlantic – last year’s regular season champion – or a host of other teams such as Middle Tennessee or perhaps Louisiana-Lafayette. UALR, on the other hand, was not supposed to present such a problem. Yet, that’s what the Trojans did at Magness Arena in Denver. They bottled up the Pioneers and disrupted DU coach Joe Scott’s motion offense. UALR established a slow pace which resulted in fewer than 90 field goal attempts for the game. Denver made only 16 of its 41 tries and went 5 of 21 from three-point range. Except for a very surprising 15 points from bench player Royce O’Neale, no other Denver player scored more than 12 points. The result was a shocking one largely because Denver hadn’t lost more than one home game all season, knocking back some solid teams such as Boise State and Wyoming along the way. Denver is now an NIT team unless it can win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

Elsewhere in the Belt, Louisiana-Lafayette scored an important win over Florida Atlantic to gain leverage in the conference race. Middle Tennessee swept a Thursday-Saturday set to get off to a great start in conference play. Western Kentucky snatched a Thursday win but was upended by 18 points in an unexpectedly lopsided loss against Florida International.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Monday, December 19

Arkansas State 108, Lyon College 61

Denver 57, Wyoming 46

UNLV 81, Louisiana-Monroe 63

South Alabama 70, Georgia Southern 57

Tuesday, December 20

Troy 80, Southern Utah 72

North Texas 82, Grambling State 40

Illinois State 72, Arkansas-Little Rock 65

Wednesday, December 21

Indiana State 50, Louisiana-Monroe 35

Louisiana-Lafayette 61, UCF 60

Middle Tennessee 68, Ole Miss 56

Thursday, December 22

Denver 70, Citadel 58

Bowling Green 61, Florida International 53

Saint Louis 70, Arkansas State 46

LSU 67, North Texas 58

UTSA 76, Troy 70

Harvard 63, Florida Atlantic 51

South Alabama 68, San Diego 62

Friday, December 23

Louisville 70, Western Kentucky 60

The past week was a bloodbath for the Sun Belt Conference. With the enduring exception of the Denver Pioneers, this league got belted in non-conference competition. Denver has remained a bright spot for the Sun Belt. The Pios won two more contests against Wyoming and the Citadel, strengthening their hold on an NIT-worthy resume, which would be a step up in the world for an upper-tier Sun Belt team provided that it fails to win the league tournament in March and advance to the NCAAs. Coach Joe Scott’s DU crew has been noticeably consistent this season, creating the hope that the Pioneers can stay the course when they endure the travel-based rigors of Sun Belt competition.

Elsewhere, however, the past week wasn’t a happy one for the Belt. Arkansas State got whacked by Saint Louis. Florida Atlantic, in what was perhaps the single most attractive national game involving a Sun Belt team, was clearly outclassed by the Harvard Crimson in a mid-major throwdown. Florida International couldn’t overcome Bowling Green. Troy fell against the University of Texas at San Antonio. North Texas couldn’t measure up against LSU, a low-end Southeastern Conference club. Louisiana-Monroe lost a pair of contests against Indiana State and UNLV. If not for wins by Middle Tennessee (against Ole Miss) and Louisiana-Lafayette (against Central Florida), the past week of Sun Belt basketball would have been even more barren than it turned out to be. South Alabama did win against San Diego, but the fact that San Diego is the worst team in the West Coast Conference makes it hard to assign too much positive value to that particular triumph by coach Ronnie Arrow’s Jaguars. Western Kentucky gave Louisville a really strong run on Friday, but the Hilltoppers – like every other Louisville opponent this season – ran out of steam in the final minutes against the Cardinals.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Monday, December 12

Oral Roberts 58, Arkansas-Little Rock 55

Nicholls State 82, Louisiana-Monroe 70

Louisiana-Lafayette 102, Dillard 38

Tuesday, December 13

Mississippi State 75, Florida Atlantic 68

Middle Tennessee 65, Belmont 62

Wednesday, December 14

Ole Miss 66, Louisiana-Lafayette 54

Maryland 65, Florida International 61

Arkansas State 87, Seattle 74

Denver 71, Northern Colorado 65

Thursday, December 15

South Alabama 66, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 64

Belmont 78, Troy 55

Northwestern State 76, Louisiana-Monroe 63

Saturday, December 17

Denver 79, Boise State 62

Robert Morris 72, Louisiana-Lafayette 64

Dayton 61, Florida International 40

Louisiana Tech 71, Arkansas-Little Rock 68

Furman 76, Western Kentucky 63

Miami 93, Florida Atlantic 90 (2OT)

Murray State 66, Arkansas State 53

Sunday, December 18

North Texas 69, Jackson State 55

The past week featured a number of interesting stories in the Sun Belt Conference. Most of them didn’t have happy endings, but they all created a fair amount of intrigue in this mid-major league.

The Denver Pioneers have been the most pleasant surprise in the Sun Belt. Before the Pios move to the Western Athletic Conference, they’ll spend another season playing in a league whose geographical makeup does not naturally include the Rocky Mountain region. During the non-conference season, Denver is – ironically enough – playing more teams closer to home. The Pios beat Northern Colorado and Boise State to move to 8-2 on the season and create the impression that DU could very well land in the National Invitation Tournament should it fail to win the Sun Belt Tournament in March. Coach Joe Scott is getting Denver to buy into the notion of reserving its energy for the defensive end of the floor. The Pioneers kept Northern Colorado and Boise State under wraps for appreciable sections of time, enabling their offense to fill in the gaps when needed.

What might have been the Sun Belt’s best win of the week was Middle Tennessee’s win over Belmont on Tuesday. The Blue Raiders have existed in the shadow of Belmont in the state of Tennessee. The Bruins have been by far the best team in the mid-major realm of Tennessee-based college basketball, making multiple NCAA tournaments in recent years and throwing a memorable scare into the Duke Blue Devils a few years ago. Belmont was supposed to be the favorite in the Atlantic Sun Conference this season, but this loss to Middle Tennessee shows that the Bruins might not be all they’re cracked up to be. Middle Tennessee struck a blow for the Sun Belt with a surprising performance that came out of nowhere. Coach Kermit Davis has to be thrilled with how his MTSU crew answered the bell in a spotlight game.

Florida International played Maryland in a nip-and-tuck game this past Wednesday, but the Golden Panthers fell on the road in College Park, a disappointment for a team that was so close to an upset. FIU was so downcast after that loss to Maryland that it failed to show up at the offensive end of the floor this past Saturday at Dayton. A 40-point outing will not make head coach Isiah Thomas a happier or more content man.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer

Monday, December 5

Austin Peay 86, Arkansas State 82 (OT)

Tuesday, December 6

Arkansas-Little Rock 102, Philander Smith 59

Wednesday, December 7

UAB 66, Middle Tennessee 56

Southern Mississippi 67, South Alabama 54

Western Kentucky 62, Southern Illinois 55

Iona 80, Denver 78 (OT)

Saturday, December 10

Mississippi State 106, Troy 68

Texas A&M 67, Louisiana-Monroe 54

Texas Wesleyan 72, Florida International 68

Missouri State 68, Arkansas-Little Rock 60

Middle Tennessee 78, Tennessee-Martin 62

IUPUI 84, Western Kentucky 76

Florida Atlantic 98, Warner South 70

North Texas 53, Sam Houston State 50

Arkansas State 71, Central Arkansas 64

The past week featured a considerable amount of carnage in the Sun Belt Conference. Perhaps this shouldn’t be seen as a surprising development or a radical notion, considering the fact that the 2011 Sun Belt Conference Tournament wiped out its higher seeds and featured total unpredictability throughout the brackets in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The buzzword in the Sun Belt is “craziness,” which means that the top teams aren’t that strong. Leaders in the Belt have a very tenuous hold on basketball superiority; excellence is fleeting in this corner of the major college basketball landscape.

The team in the Sun Belt which carried a fair amount of buzz into the first full week of December was the Denver Pioneers. Coach Joe Scott’s crew had taken down Southern Mississippi, Saint Mary’s, and Utah State to move to 6-1 on the season, with its only loss coming to California. Denver hosted the Iona Gaels last Wednesday, showcasing the contenders in two mid-major leagues, with Iona being a prime factor in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). Denver controlled the first half, but Iona reeled in the Pioneers and caught them at the end of regulation. The Gaels took over in overtime and dug out an 80-78 win that punctured DU’s balloon. The Pios were creating a nice basketball portfolio for themselves, but now they’ll have to build it to an even greater extent. Denver’s loss reduced the Sun Belt’s national profile and will make many commentators turn elsewhere for mid-major intrigue.

In just about every other instance from the past week, the Sun Belt took it on the chin from non-conference foes. Western Kentucky beat Southern Illinois in a rare display of Belt brilliance, but the Hilltoppers were upended by IUPUI just a few days later. The other teams in the conference just couldn’t measure up against equal or better competition. A few teams won games against downmarket foes, but the teams that took risks with their scheduling did not come through. Troy got blasted at Mississippi State. Louisiana-Monroe was shut down by Texas A&M. Arkansas-Little Rock couldn’t keep up with Missouri State. Earlier in the week, Middle Tennessee couldn’t handle UAB, and South Alabama was no match for Southern Mississippi.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer