Southland Conference Mens Basketball Results

[geezer]

Hoping to make this an ongoing thread through the season so I have copied the opening comment from last weeks results thread.

 

Week1

 

For reference I'll use Sunday as the start of a new week. Conference games during the week ending 12-31-16 finds the first upset with HBU winning at Sam on Thursday. Also UNO defeated ACU Thursday. Saturdays matchups has McNeese defeating Norhwestern St in overtime(upset #2), Southeastern La defeating ACU, Nicholls defeating Incarnate Word, SFA winning at home over HBU, Sam Houston looses at UCA by two points after going up by one with 6 seconds left and fouling the three point shooter with one second left (upset #3) and Corpus Christi and New Orleans goes to overtime with UNO winning by one for upset #4 of the week. Lamar's game Monday at UCA looks much tougher after todays games. Week one ends with UNO on top of the conference at 2-0 followed by five others at 1-0, HBU at 1-1 and Sam Houston and ACU at 0-2 with Lamar not having played yet

Edited January 8, 2017 by geezer

[geezer]

Week two finds Lamar getting into action and taking two of three games loosing only to current conference leading UNO in overtime. After winning at Lamar, UNO continued their streak at IW winning by fifteen to end the week at 4-0. HBU is in second at 3-1, followed by Lamar and two others at 2-1 with Northwestern St in last place at 0-3. Edited January 8, 2017 by geezer

[coachacola]

A few observations about the conference so far ...

 

UNO has two OT wins. They could easily be 2-2 in conference with LU sitting in first place.

 

SFA has no offense. They must really miss their coach and star player Thomas Walkup.

 

HBU had only one win against a D1 opponent before conference started and now are 3-1 in conference. What does that say about the SLC?

 

Looking at the Massey Ratings the SLC only has one team ranked better than 200, that's UNO at 174. The Sun Belt, on the other hand, has 3 teams in the top 100.

[Sweet T]

HBU played Indiana, New Mexico, Texas Tech and Marquette before conference play. That's a tough schedule.

[Skinny1]

HBU played Indiana, New Mexico, Texas Tech and Marquette before conference play. That's a tough schedule.

 

Like to see Lamar pickup a few bigger schools in pre-conference. Maybe renew home & home series with ULL, Rice, Houston, North Texas.

[geezer]

At the end of week three UNO maintains first place by themselves despite loosing their first conference game. Sam Houston is now tied with SELA for second having won four straight. The with the loss at UCA the Cards drop into a three way tie for fourth with SFA and UCA. HBU is next at 3-3 followed by AMCC, Nicholls and McNeese with 2-3 records then IW, ACU and Northwestern St all with four losses. The coming week may be the Cards most important of the season as they are on the road against two of the preseason upper tier favorites. If the Cards drop both games they will fall to four losses probably dropping out of the top eight with just over a third of the conference season over. The Cards also have more road games left this season than home games, so as Coach Price is quoted as telling his players you can't get back losses and road games are always tougher to win than home games.

[baller]

Regarding scheduling there are many factors that coaches must consider.Some Power 5 conferences only allow members to play teams whose RPI is around 150 so Lamar's RPI needs to improve.ULL typically plays a home and home one game a year as do many others.Scheduling guarantee games sometimes are determined more on net money received after travel expenses than being a name or beatable.Some teams like Texas State offer home and homes where they will play you when your student body is on break.Some teams will only play at your place with their conference refs like in the ESPN Bracketbuster.Teams try to make sure they have a certain number of home games and if they play in tournaments they have less dates available.Some coaches only want to start a series at their place and will not play you or renew a series if you improve some bigger name schools offer 2 for 1's where you go there twice and they come to you once.These are just some of the considerations coaches consider in scheduling along with how much you want to pay to buy in 3-4. Non- D1's to develop your team with.

[geezer]

Conference schedules are equal on home and away games, but the Southland does not play a full round robin so you may not have equal schedules depending on who you only play once and where you play them. For instance Lamar only plays SFA once this year and it is an away game. Also don't get a home date against ACU. Lamar has one home loss and one away victory so if the Cards were to win all of the remaining home games and none on the road they would end with a 9-9 conference record and nine losses may be too many to get in the tourney. As for RPI, the entire conference needs to improve their non-conference schedules, but also must win a reasonable amount of them.

[geezer]

With five weeks of conference play complete, Lamar is sitting tied for fourth and holding the tie breaker over SELA and IW. Following a loss to SFA, UNO has dropped into a tie for first place with Sam Houston at 7-2. SFA is in third. Lamar, SELA and IW all have four losses. Four teams have five losses and the bottom three have six losses. From the standings you can tell there is no clear separation between the top and bottom of the conference so every remaining game for the Cards is significant and the Cards must bring their best every game.

[Skinny1]

With five weeks of conference play complete, Lamar is sitting tied for fourth and holding the tie breaker over SELA and IW. Following a loss to SFA, UNO has dropped into a tie for first place with Sam Houston at 7-2. SFA is in third. Lamar, SELA and IW all have four losses. Four teams have five losses and the bottom three have six losses. From the standings you can tell there is no clear separation between the top and bottom of the conference so every remaining game for the Cards is significant and the Cards must bring their best every game.

 

I believe IWU and ACU are not eligible for the postseason due to them still migrating from Div 2 to Div 1.

[geezer]

I believe IWU and ACU are not eligible for the postseason due to them still migrating from Div 2 to Div 1.

 

I know they weren't eligible last year but I can't find anything on the SLC web site that indicates that indicates their status this year. I believe last year was their third year in the conference and this is the first year they are eligible, but I am not sure.

[Skinny1]

Doing some number crunching and predict the top 8 teams in SLC going to postseason are (in no order):

Lamar

HBU

SHSU

SFA

New Orleans

A&M-CC

SELU

Nichols St

 

If Northwestern St gets hot, could be bad news for Nichols, SELA, or Lamar. HBU looks to have the easiest remaining schedule.

[geezer]

Assuming your correct about ACU and IW not being eligible, I'm not sure anybody is safe other than probably SAM and UNO, I think everyone has nine conference games remaining and the bottom three teams have all beaten at least one of the top four teams so far. There are only two games in the loss column separating fourth through 12th place at the beginning of week 6. I would agree that some schools have a more difficult schedule than others from the stand point of who they have left and where the games are scheduled for.

[geezer]

Week six starts out with last place ACU upsetting conference leader UNO in overtime.

[baller]

Any win over our conference rivals by ACU or Incarnate Word is good for us as yes Virginia they still are ineligible for the tournament in Katy.

[geezer]

This years SLC will definitely be wide open to who ever makes the tourney. Week six ended similar to how it started as ACU was in last place going into the week and beat both of the conference leaders. Lamar at 6-4 is in fourth place by its self with a two game lead in the loss column over the seventh and eighth place teams. Lamar has a difficult schedule for week seven hosting first place Sam and then going to third place SFA.

[baller]

It is vital that we finish in the top 4 and get a bye.It is virtually impossible to win 4 games in 4 days for the boys or girls if they finish between 5-8.The top 2 teams get a double bye meaning they only have to win two games to get the automatic bid and fatigue doesn't play as much of a factor.Obviously seeds 3-4 have to win 3 games in 3 days.

[spoonbill]

It is vital that we finish in the top 4 and get a bye.It is virtually impossible to win 4 games in 4 days for the boys or girls if they finish between 5-8.The top 2 teams get a double bye meaning they only have to win two games to get the automatic bid and fatigue doesn't play as much of a factor.Obviously seeds 3-4 have to win 3 games in 3 days.

 

Very true. I believe 3 out of the last 4 years, the 1 and 2 seeds have played in the conference finals.

[geezer]

This years SLC will definitely be wide open to who ever makes the tourney. Week six ended similar to how it started as ACU was in last place going into the week and beat both of the conference leaders. Lamar at 6-4 is in fourth place by its self with a two game lead in the loss column over the seventh and eighth place teams. Lamar has a difficult schedule for week seven hosting first place Sam and then going to third place SFA.

 

Misread the schedule and skipped HBU which is the second game this week and then SFA next week, both are away games so it only moderately changes the criticality of the games. Of the next four games three are on the road and two are against teams Lamar has already lost to.

[geezer]

Week Seven

 

Cards win a big home game over Sam but loose at HBU to split for the week and are now tied with AMCC for fourth place with CC holding the tie breaker at present. UNO regains sole possession of first place by sweeping their games and the Cards win over SAM. SFA is in third one full game ahead of Lamar with LU coming in next Thursday. I have no clue when the last time that LU won in Nach, so obviously this is a huge game for the Cards followed up by a game at AMCC. A sweep next week could set Lamar up in good shape for the tourney, likewise loosing both will put the Cards toward must win territory for the last two weeks of the regular season.

[geezer]

With one game left for everyone except SELA, I believe Lamar will be the sixth place seed for the SLC tourney as the Cards are currently 9-8 and SELA finished their regular season at 9-9. If the Cards win Saturday against McNeese it will put the Cards at 10-8 and the only way they could get to 5th is if Sam Houston drops their final game to SFA and the tie-breaker rules give the Cards the 5th spot over Sam. While I don't know the tie-breaker rules, I believe Sam probably has a better record against the top four SLC schools as the Cards did not win any of their games against the current top four. As for the top four UNO with their loss tonight to SELA is 12-5, one game up on AMCC, SFA and HBU who are all sitting at 11-6. As mentioned earlier Sam is in fifth at 10-7, but could move up by winning their finale at SFA. The 8th spot is between UCA and Nicholls. UCA plays Northwestern St who has won two straight against top four SLC teams and Nicholls who closes out against first place UNO at home. Both teams are currently 7-10. Edited March 3, 2017 by geezer

[eagle eye]

Not so long ago Lamar was sitting at the #3 seed but a sub .500 3-4 record in February and losing to HBU twice in a home and home in the final month of the season didn’t help things. Now Lamar is a 6 seed and guess what, if the SLC tournament began today Lamar would play HBU yet again. Maybe I missed it but if Lamar loses to McNeese that leaves them tied with SELA for sixth in conference. Who wins that tie-breaker. Lamar could actually fall to seventh if SELA owns that TB. If Lamar ends up 7th in conference they would play TAMU-CC which is no better because TAMU-CC swept their home and home against Lamar just like HBU did. None of the losses to HBU or TAMU-CC were blowouts. Lamar lost to HBU by 7 points in both games while LU lost by 3 to TAMU-CC at home and by 7 on the road. IF SAM loses and Lamar wins they would play SFA, Lamar played SFA just once this season and, guess what, they lost by nine. It doesn’t appear there is an easy road for Lamar in the SLC tournament as they have been swept by all three potential first round opponents. The good thing is none were blowouts. The cards have to play smarter basketball and they can beat anyone in the tourney. Cut down on turnovers, dumb fouls and shoot better and they could catch fire and win the whole damn thing but, as Dandy Don used to say, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas.”

[geezer]

Lamar owns the tie breaker with SELA by virtue of the head to head win. Lamar and SELA only played once.