Denver

Sun Belt Conference Announces Men's Basketball Championship Seeds and Pairings

NEW ORLEANS - WKU, UALR and Troy have earned the top three seeds in the upcoming 2009 Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball Championship, set to begin this week. The trio will receive first-round byes and will await their opponents in the quarterfinals in Hot Springs, Ark.

Arkansas-Little Rock

Middle Tennessee State

North Texas

South Alabama

Western Kentucky

 

With the off-season now upon us and the spring signing period well under way, this is a good opportunity to attempt to forecast some of the teams who could make the jump next season. Is there a team out there like this past season’s Drake Bulldogs, who went from ninth place to a dominating run through the Missouri Valley? Or how about Arizona State, a team that went from dead last in the Pac-10 to fifth place and could have the makings of a conference title run this season? With one pick for each conference, here are 31 teams you should keep an eye on next season.

Can someone make sense of Marquette for me? They beat Duke and got bumped to #9 in the AP Poll.. but they want down to the wire in games against Idaho State and Valparaiso.. not to mention struggling (down at the half) against DII Hillsdale. I know "a win is a win", but eventually these poor efforts will turn into losses.

John Thompson III gets more pub because he shares his name with daddy.. but his brother Ronny is also a head coach at Ball State. The two met yesterday in DC and no surprise the Hoyas rolled to a 69-54 victory.

It took two overtimes for a home Big East team to dispatch with Stetson yesterday. Granted, it was at South Florida.. but Big East teams shouldn't struggle against bottom tier Atlantic Sun teams that plays 9 freshmen & sophomores and just one upperclassman. The way things are going, USF and Rutgers might be battling hard for the Big East basement.