Southland

Poll: Who Will Win the Southland?

Shawn Siegel — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:11:53 -0400

Daily Conference Poll: Who Will Win the Southland?

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:25:35 -0500

Southland Basketball Preview: 08-09

CHN — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:17:35 -0500

Conference Rank: 21st

10 year average: 27th

Southland Conference Page

All-Southland Team
Pos.	Player	Team	Yr.

G	Devin Gibson	Texas-SA	So
G	Josh Alexander	SFA	Sr
G	Kenny Dawkins	Lamar	Sr
F	Anthony Vereen	Texas-Arlington	Sr
F	Matt Kingsley	SFA	Sr
CHN Award Winners		Returning Leaders
Mid-Major All-Americans Josh Alexander Devin Gibson		Points: Josh Alexander 16.0 Rebounds: Brandon Bush (Tex St) 7.2 Assists: Eric Bell (SFA) 5.7

Southland Standings
Nat'l	Team	League	Tourney

84	Stephen F. Austin	Southland	1	NCAA
133	Lamar	Southland	2
150	Texas Arlington**	Southland	3
187	Sam Houston St	Southland	4
230	McNeese State	Southland	5
242	Northwestern St	Southland	6
250	Texas San Anton	Southland	7
257	SE Louisiana	Southland	8
272	TAMU CC	Southland	9
277	Texas State	Southland	10
294	Nicholls State	Southland	11
312	Central Arkansas	Southland	12

*Click on links for full Top 144 team preview

** returning conference champion

Poll: Who Do You Think Will Win the Southland? (soon)

Other SLC Content

Conference Media/Coaches Poll

Other

Rise & Fall: Southland

State of 08: Texas

NCAA Basketball Conference Ranking: 2008-09

CHN — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:30:46 -0500

CHN's 31 conference ranking, including 10 year historical averages based on average RPI finish. For more information on historical RPI averages, check out the Conference Data Page. Links lead to league preview pages.

Big East

10 Year Average: 3

10 Year Average: 1

10 Year Average: 2

10 Year Average: 5

10 Year Average: 6

10 Year Average: 4

10 Year Average: 10

10 Year Average: 7

10 Year Average: 9

WCC

10 Year Average: 12

11 Conference USA

10 Year Average: 8

12 Colonial

10 Year Average: 14

13 MAC

10 Year Average: 13

14 WAC

10 Year Average: 11

15 MAAC

10 Year Average: 17

16 Horizon

10 Year Average: 15

17 Southern

10 Year Average: 19

18 Sun Belt

10 Year Average: 16

19 Big West

10 Year Average: 18

20 Patriot

10 Year Average: 23

21 Southland

10 Year Average: 27

22 Ivy

10 Year Average: 24

23 Big Sky

10 Year Average: 20

24 America East

10 Year Average: 21

25 Summit

10 Year Average: 26

26 OVC

10 Year Average: 22

27 NEC

10 Year Average: 28

28 Atlantic Sun

10 Year Average: 25

29 Big South

10 Year Average: 29

30 MEAC

10 Year Average: 30

-Independents

31 SWAC

10 Year Average: 31

Conference Rise & Fall: The Data

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:20:26 -0400

People have been emailing me this week asking how I came up with the groupings for the Conference Rise & Fall articles. While the groupings I used were based on a mix of intuition and stats, here are the actual conference RPI's over the last decade. Notice the clean split between certain league divisions.. for example, the BCS leagues and non-BCS leagues. The difference in avg RPI between the best and worst BCS leagues (ACC & Pac-10) is 2.7, which is almost as big as the gap between the Pac-10 and the closest non-BCS league. While fans and administration in leagues like the A10 and MWC moan about how they shouldn't be categorized as lesser than the power conferences.. the reality is that there's a huge gap between BCS and non-BCS. Similarly, there's a big gap between what I would call the "high-majors" and everyone else. While the WAC was brutal last year, it has tended to average a top 10 RPI along with the other "high-majors" over this period. Outside of WCC's amazing '05 campaign, no other "mid-major" has ever even finished in the Top 10 RPI, let alone average such a number.

	08	07	06	05	04	03	02	01	00	99	AVG	RNGE	NORM	RNK
ACC	1	1	3	1	1	3	2	3	7	2	2.4	1 to 7	1 to 3	1
SEC	4	2	4	5	2	1	1	1	1	4	2.5	1 to 5	1 to 4	2
BE	5	5	2	2	3	4	4	4	4	5	3.8	2 to 5	2 to 5	3
BT	6	4	1	6	6	5	6	2	2	1	3.9	1 to 6	1 to 6	4
B12	3	7	5	3	4	2	3	6	3	7	4.3	2 to 7	3 to 7	5
PAC	2	3	7	4	9	7	5	5	6	3	5.1	2 to 9	3 to 7	6
MWC	9	8	8	11	7	6	7	8	10		8.222	7 to 11	7 to 10	7
CUSA	10	11	13	9	5	8	8	10	5	6	8.5	5 to 13	5 to 11	8
MVC	8	6	6	8	11	12	14	12	11	8	9.6	6 to 14	6 to 12	9
A10	7	10	11	15	8	9	9	9	9	10	9.7	7 to 15	8 to 11	10
WAC	20	9	9	12	10	14	10	7	8	9	10.8	7 to 20	8 to 14	11
WCC	14	15	12	7	12	10	15	17	15	12	12.9	7 to 17	10 to 15	12
MAC	12	14	16	10	14	11	12	15	12	11	12.7	10 to 16	11 to 15	13
CAA	13	13	10	14	13	17	11	13	16	17	13.7	10 to 17	11 to 17	14
HL	11	12	15	19	15	13	17	11	13	15	14.1	11 to 19	11 to 17	15
SB	15	21	18	13	16	15	19	19	19	14	16.9	13 to 21	14 to 19	16
MAAC	17	23	14	22	17	16	24	14	20	13	18	14 to 24	14 to 23	17
BW	18	16	23	17	18	21	18	16	17	20	18.4	16 to 23	17 to 21	18
SOCO	21	19	24	20	19	20	16	23	22	19	20.3	16 to 24	19 to 23	19
BSKY	25	24	18	28	24	18	22	25	14	18	21.6	14 to 28	18 to 25	20
AE	26	20	27	16	22	24	29	20	21	16	22.1	16 to 29	16 to 27	21
OVC	28	25	20	25	23	19	26	18	18	25	22.7	18 to 28	18 to 26	22
PL	16	17	21	23	26	26	27	24	25	23	22.8	16 to 27	17 to 26	23
IVY	24	18	25	18	27	23	13	28	28	26	23	13 to 28	18 to 28	24
ASUN	29	27	29	21	20	22	20	21	27	22	23.8	20 to 29	20 to 29	25
SUMMIT	22	22	28	24	21	27	21	22	29	24	24	21 to 29	21 to 28	26
SLC	19	26	22	26	29	25	23	26	24	27	24.7	19 to 29	22 to 27	27
NEC	23	28	26	29	25	29	25	29	23	21	25.8	21 to 29	23 to 29	28
BSOU	27	29	19	27	28	28	31	31	26	30	27.6	19 to 31	27 to 31	29
MEAC	30	30	30	30	31	30	28	27	30	28	29.4	27 to 31	28 to 30	30
SWAC	31	31	31	31	31	31	30	30	31	29	30.6	29 to 31	30 to 31	31

* Note that "RNGE" is the gap between the league's best & worst RPI finish over the last decade. "NORM" is the range, minus the best and worst seasons.

Rise & Fall: Low-Major Conference Review

Shawn Siegel — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:52:22 -0400

In recent weeks, the Rise & Fall series has chronicled the progress (or regress) of college basketball's major conference teams. But if I equated each team to a civilization, I was mistaken. It is really the NCAA conference that equates to a burgeoning civilization or nation, each with its sometimes stable and sometimes rotating member states. Like civilizations, the prestige and power of conferences wax and wane..

Today, I'll start with the status of the low-major conferences before moving up to the big boys.

LOW-MAJORS

AMERICA EAST - DECLINING (SLOWLY )

For whatever reason, the AE's RPI rating swings wildly compared to most leagues.. anywhere between 16th and 29th in the last seven years. When teams like Delaware, Drexel, and Hofstra bolted for the CAA after 2001, it seemed like an iminent disaster (and was for a moment in 2002 with that 29th RPI). But Tom Brennan's great Vermont teams really saved the league's prestige. However, now that Vermont is still trying to regain form under Mike Lonegran and Albany's Jamar Wilson era is over, the league is retreating back into the mid-twenties RPI range where I expect them to finish in 2009.

ATLANTIC SUN - DECLINING

While Belmont was solid last year, it was an abysmal year for the ASun. The league's decline has mainly been do the negative effects of a changing league membership. Central Florida, FAU, and Georgia State have all left in recent seasons for "bigger" leagues, replaced by D1 newcomers like Kennessaw State and North Florida. Last year, 6 teams in the league finished with an RPI below 290th. This led to an overall RPI of 29th, one of the worst seasons in the league's history, and a stark change from the usual range of 20th to 23rd that the ASun enjoyed just a handful of seasons ago.

BIG SOUTH - RISING (SLOWLY)

Basically, this is all about the emergence of Winthrop in recent years. In the last 90's and early 00's, the Big south was right there with the MEAC and SWAC as the last rung on college basketball's ladder. But Greg Marshall's amazing success at Winthrop has the been the main catalyst for the league's overall improvement. While its unclear whether Randy Peele can continue Marshall's success, and UNCA might slip after last year's solid run, those worries can't overturn the league's positive momentum.

BIG SKY - DECLINING (SLOWLY)

This is one of the few low-major leagues to have finished above 15th in overall RPI (ie, the top half) in the last two decades. The league isn't quite as strong as it was just a few years back though, as the subtle switch of losing Northridge to the Big West, in place of horrid Northern Colorado has hurt. For the first half of the decade, it seemed like one Big Sky team always was a serious mid-major contender, highlighted by Montana's 2006 Tournament win (and Weber's big upset back in 99). But such an upset seems highly unlikely right now.

IVY - DECLINING

The Ivy has had better success over the last decade than any low-major league, and its arguable that they should really count in the "mid-major" category. Regardless, the glory days of Penn/Princeton dominance has come to an end, and now the conference isn't really any better than geographical rivals like the Patriot or America East. Cornell is the league's main hope in the present (perhaps to be joined by Amaker's Harvard?) as Penn and Princeton try to resurrect past glory. A repeat of the Ivy's 2002 RPI finish of 13th won't come around for awhile.

MEAC - RISING (SLOWLY)

It wasn't always a given that the SWAC and the MEAC would finish dead last in the RPI. While never good, they were just one of a handful of low-level leagues like the Big South and Southland conferences. But over the last handful of years, its become a certainty that either the MEAC and SWAC will be the bottom of the barrel. Despite being 30th out of 31 conferences last year, it was actually the MEAC's most successful season of the century. Todd Bozeman has turned a dismal Morgan State program (4-26 in 2006) into a winner (over 20 wins last year) while Hampton knocked off legit programs like Tulsa and VCU. Due to these wins, the league's non-conference RPI of 28 tied their high-water mark of the last decade.

NORTHEAST - STATUS QUO

The league is slightly better than it was a handful of years back, but a repeat of last year's success is unlikely. With an RPI of 20th, it was one of the NEC's better performances due to quality seasons from Robert Morris and Wagner. But the win totals put up by those schools and others was really more due to smoke and mirrors, as the NEC's non-conference SOS was one of the worst in the nation. A usual finish around 26th in the RPI should be expected this time around.

OHIO VALLEY - DECLINING (SLOWLY)

Last year's RPI of 28th and .227 non-conference winning %, were some of the worst in league history. Though a small bounce back should be expected in 08-09, the OVC has been in a steady downwards trend. Not to long ago, it seemed like two teams in the league (usually Murray State or APSU) were legitimate Top 100-120 programs that could compete with the big boys. While APSU is still decent, Murray has lost the luster of a few seasons back due to coaching changes.

PATRIOT - RISING (SLOWLY)

The Patriot is coming off of two of their best seasons in recent history, with RPI finishes of 16th and 17th. The great non-conference winning % is a bit misleading though, because they played the worst schedule of anybody in the country (even the independents somehow managed to find better competition.) Thus while American's win over Maryland was cute, and Navy's continual improvement is nice to see, there's still serious room for (more legitimate) improvement.

SOUTHLAND - RISING

Last year was the SLC's best season in recent memory.. and two of its best RPI seasons in the last decade have come in the past three years. SFA knocked off Oklahoma and NCAA Tournament team San Diego. Sam Houston beat higher-level programs like Texas Tech, Saint Louis, and Fresno. And those teams didn't even win the conference, as Texas-Arlington took the honors. While an overall conference RPI of 19 might not seem amazing, it represents a major improvement for a league that has barely outperformed the independents in the past ten years.

SUMMIT - STATUS QUO

Despite the new name, the Summit is no better than it was as the Mid-Con. Never the worst conference out there, it also never seems to have a break out year and hasn't finished above 20th in the RPI in quite some time. Oral Roberts has obviously been the leader in recent years, while Oakland and IUPUI have shown some positive momentum. But there's too many duds in the league membership (Centenary, WIU, etc) to expect a serious break from form any time soon.

SWAC - STATUS QUO

The SWAC's .085 winning percentage against non-conference teams is the worst of any team in the twelve seasons that I have stats for. In fact, previous marks of futility set by the SWAC are the only near competitors (.096 in 2000 for example.) But futility is nothing new for the SWAC, which has been the lowest ranked conference the last four years (by a large margin).. thus it deserves the Status Quo.

- Note that league power isn't quite as fluid as team power, so seemingly small baby steps end up counting more..

- Up Next: Mid-Majors

BCS

ACC

Big 12

Big East

Big Ten

Pac-10

SEC

High-Major

Atlantic 10

Conference USA

MVC

MWC

WAC

Mid-Major

Big West

Colonial

Horizon

MAC

MAAC

Southern

Sun Belt

WCC

Daily Poll: Who Will Win the Southland Conference?

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 10:52:15 -0400

Southland Conference Preview

CHN — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 13:01:51 -0500

Conference Previews | Top 144 | 06-07 Preview Home

Southland Preview

Conference Rank: 29th

Conference Page

All-Conference

Player of the Year - JeJuan Plair, Sam Houston St, G

Dwight Boatner, McNeese St, G

Josh Alexander, SFA, G/F

Stefan Blaszczynski, Nicholls St, F

Chris Daniels, TAMU-CC, C

Nat'l	Team (Click for Preview)	Conf	Tourney
117	Sam Houston St	1	NCAA
161	Stephen F. Austin	2
187	TAMU CC	3
202	Northwestern St	4
208	Lamar	5
224	McNeese State	6
244	SE Louisiana	7
265	Texas Arlington	8
281	Nicholls State	9
288	Texas State	10
320	Texas San Antonio	11
336	Central Arkansas	12

Head Coach Q&A's

Danny Kaspar - Stephen F Austin

Scott Cross - Texas Arlington

Other Preseason Articles

Southland Gets Best of the Deal

Southland gets the best of the deal

Dan Vance — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 23:27:05 -0400

It has taken a couple of years for the fallout affects of Virginia Tech and Miami’s move from the ACC to reach the small time. But now that it finally has trickled down, conferences are starting to snatch up Independent teams like a starving kid at a donut shop. UC-Davis is all set to officially move to the Big West, the Mid-Con has snatched up IPFW, North Dakota State and South Dakota State for the 2007-2008 season and Florida Gulf Coast is already getting looks before they are ever cleared to become a Division I institution. But the biggest winner of all? The Southland Conference. Full of mediocre teams, coaches and players, this conference reeled in a big fish when it landed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, perhaps the best DI Independent ever. The Islanders will officially begin conference play this season and the Southland shouldn’t be happier. In fact, the Islanders have a legit chance to win the conference this year. And no, I am not joking. If for no other reason, look at Islander coach Ronnie Arrow, who already gets some play by being named the Southland Conference’s representative in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, where he is one of only 31 total coaches. And Arrow has earned that spot. As the only coach in TAMCC’s seven-year DI stint, he has led the Islanders to back-to-back 20-win seasons the past two years and over his tenure with the Islanders, has led the team to wins over teams like South Florida, Florida State, TCU and Baylor, all schools from far more power conferences than the Southland. Not to mention that in those two 20- win seasons, TAMCC should have easily been tapped to appear in the NIT Tournament at the least. We all know that an Independent would basically have to go undefeated to make the NCAA Tournament and even then would likely be shutout. But lets face facts, who really expects an Independent to win that many games? Probably as few people as Ronnie Arrow had friends with the NIT after getting shunned back-to-back years. If only he could dress as well as he can coach. I don’t care why the Southland people decided to bring in the Islanders. Be it because it added a seventh team in the state of Texas or because they were a 20-win school. The fact is that they almost should have invited the team by handing them the conference title trophy. TAMCC dominated some Independent programs that were just as good, if not better than teams like Lamar and McNeese State. The team returns 14 (yeah, like pretty much the whole team) letterwinners, including four starters. Big man Chris Daniels was named to the Preseason All-Southland Second Team without ever stepping on a court in the conference. Hey, maybe someone is finally giving these guys some respect. Come January 6, when TAMCC opens conference play against McNeese State, I fear for the other teams in this conference. This is perhaps the greatest move made conference wise in years in Division I ball. Now, someone better just give Arrow and his Islanders some respect.