Texas A&M - Corpus Christi

Poll: Who Will Win the Southland?

Shawn Siegel — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:12:17 -0700

Brandon Ewing: High-Major Player of the Week

Joey Whelan — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:03:02 -0800

This week's CollegeHoops.net High-Major Player of the Week is..

Brandon Ewing - Wyoming
2 Game Averages: 25.5 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 52% FG, 61.5% 3P

Ewing has been one of the top performers in the Mountain West Conference all season long and this week was a prime example of what he can do. The 22 points on Saturday at San Diego State were nice, but the Cowboys came up short in that contest. Wednesday night though was a surprise upset of UNLV with the senior dropping 29 points on 8-16 shooting, including 5-8 from beyond the arc.

Honorable Mention

Charles Jenkins - Hofstra
2 Game Averages: 29 points, 5.5 rebounds, 10.5 assists, 2.5 steals, 58.8% FG

Thanks to a four game winning streak Hofstra has made itself a definite factor in the CAA as the regular season starts to wind down. The Pride picked up a pair of wins in the last week over Delaware and in overtime versus James Madison; both wins were due in large part to one of the more promising youngsters in the conference, Charles Jenkins. The sophomore out of Queens, NY upped his scoring average netting 26 points at Delaware and pumping in 32 just a few nights later, his second highest total of the season. Even more impressive were the rest of his numbers in the win over JMU. Jenkins just missed out on a triple-double, grabbing seven rebounds (he's only 6-foot) and dishing out a season best 13 assists.

Kevin Palmer - Texas A&M CC
2 Game Averages: 26.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3.5 steals, 48.8% FG

The Islanders were well on their way to the top seed in the Southland Conference Tournament before dropping two games in a row, putting them in a 4-way tie for first place. The losses certainly were no fault of leading scorer Kevin Palmer though. The junior swingman has been a consistent offensive presence all season long, having failed to reach double figures just twice all year. Palmer put up 23 points in a tough loss to Sam Houston State, and then came up even bigger on Wednesday by dropping 30 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists on Texas-San Antonio. The numbers weren't enough though as the Islanders dropped that contest 73-66.

Kevin Anderson - Richmond
2 Game Averages: 26 points, 4 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1 steal, 60% FG, 93.8% FT

It's been a good week for one of the A-10's bright young stars. Despite being overlooked for most of the season, Kevin Anderson put fans on notice with a pair of 20-point games versus Dayton and La Salle, the second of which was a win. Anderson actually eclipsed his season averages in every major statistical category over the course of the last week and went a outstanding 15-16 from the charity stripe.

Daily Conference Poll: Who Will Win the Southland?

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:25:58 -0800

Southland Basketball Preview: 08-09

CHN — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:17:58 -0800

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

State of '08: Texas

Shawn Siegel — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:15:15 -0700

Duke or Carolina? BC or UMASS? Gonzaga or Washington.. or Washington State? What is the best program in each state? While there's not much competition in Hawaii.. there are great debates to be had in loaded regions like California, North Carolina, and Texas. The State of '08 is a ranking of every program in every state.. based mostly on recent success (the last five years) mixed in with subjective factors such as conference prestige, historical success, and overall program direction.

For more info, check out the State of '08 introduction.

TEXAS

TEXAS - Easy one here. Texas has made ten straight NCAA Tournaments under Rick Barnes, and have reached the Sweet Sixteen or better fives times.

TEXAS A&M - From 1988 to 2004, A&M was a horrendous BCS program that managed justt one NIT appearance. But thanks to Billy Gillispie, A&M has won at least 20 games and made the postseason in four straight seasons. The future of the program is a bit less certain under Mark Turgeon.

TEXAS TECH - In Bob Knight's six full seasons, the Red Raiders made 4 NCAA Tournaments and reached the NIT semifinals. Last year's team was destined to miss the postseason regardless of who the coach was, and its hard to project what type of coach Pat Knight will be.

BAYLOR - Scott Drew took over a broken program at the start of the 03-04 season, but has managed to turn things around. Last year the team won 21 games and reached the Big Dance. Many pundits expect a Top 25 squad this year. Not bad considering the 21-53 record from '04 to '07.

UTEP - Since 2004, a year after Billy Gillispied took over, UTEP has made two NCAA Tournaments and the CBI. The Niners should once again make a postseason push (probably NIT or CBI) in 2009.

6. HOUSTON - Its been over 15 years since Houston last made the NCAA Tournament, but Tom Penders teams have been consistently competitive. His four teams have all won at least 9 games in Conference USA, and 3 made the postseason (2 NITS and the CBI last year).

7. NORTH TEXAS - Johnny Jones has quietly transformed UNT from a consistent loser into a consistent winner. The Mean Green made the Big Dance in 2007 after rolling through the Sun Belt Tournament, and were solid last year, going 17-11 against D1 teams. Once again in 2008, North Texas should be dangerous in league play.

8. SAM HOUSTON STATE - Last year's Bearkats fizzled out after a great start, and late-season SLC tournament success has been hard to come by recently. But overall, this has been the most consistently solid SLC team over the last decade, and one of the only league teams capable of knocking off big-name non-conference opponents.

9. RICE - The program finally parted ways with 16-year coach Willis Wilson, whose teams varied from good to horrible and anywhere in between. From '03 to '05, the Owls finished in the RPI Top 100, but have gone steadily downhill since. Last year's 3-27 finish was an unfortunate end to Wilson's tenure.

10. STEPHEN F AUSTIN - SFA's great 26 win season, which included wins over Oklahoma and Top 100 San Diego, came out of nowhere considering the Lumberjacks were a sub-200 RPI team the previous three seasons. SFA is the 2009 favorite to accomplish what they couldn't last year, winning the Southland tournament.

11. TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI - Ronnie Arrow did a masterful job in his tenure at TAMU-CC, turning a green D1 program into a 20-win program. But after making the Dance in 2007, Arrow left, and its hard to tell whether the program can regain a decent level of success under Perry Clark.

12. TCU - In six seasons under Neil Dougherty, TCU never finished over .500 in either the CUSA or MWC, although the 2005 team did sneak into the NIT. Former Kent State coach Jim Christian was hired in the off-season to turn things around.

13. LAMAR - In the last 7 seasons, Lamar has finished .500 or better in the SLC six times, but have never really been able to put together a dangerous postseason run.

14. UT-ARLINGTON - After making the NCAAs last year, UTA is once again one of the league favorites. In the previous 9 seasons though, the Mavs won just a single SLC Tourney game.

15. SMU - The last time SMU was any good was 2003, and the last time SMU was Tournament good was 1993. Matt Doherty was brought in to turn things around, but his teams have gone 7-25 in CUSA play.

16. UTSA - Once one of the more consistently solid Southland teams, UTSA simply hasn't been good the past few seasons. A 2009 .500 finish in the league would be a step in the right direction.

17. UTPA - Considering they've been stuck as an independent for a decade now, UTPA's minimal success isn't that bad. They've been able to beat a good amount of the in-state Southland members over the years, but haven't beaten a Top 200 team since December of 2004.

18. TEXAS STATE - In '06 & '07, this was one of the worst programs in the country, with just 8 D1 wins. That makes last year's 10-16 D1 record shockingly good.

19. TEXAS SOUTHERN - After winning the SWAC in 2003, there hasn't been much to cheer about at Texas Southern. The team has hovered around 300 in the RPI.

20. PRAIRIE VIEW - Like Texas Southern above, Prairie View hasn't been good since 2003.. but unlike Texas Southern who has at least been decent in SWAC play, the Panthers have been atrocious.

*Houston Baptist will also join D1 this season

Last: Tennessee - Next: Utah

State of '08: The Introduction (& State list/links)

Daily Poll: Who Will Win the Southland Conference?

Shawn Siegel — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 07:52:38 -0700

Perry Clark Named TAMU-CC Head Coach

Jeff Borzello — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700

South Alabama to Hire TAMU-CC's Ronnie Arrow

Jeff Borzello — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 03:41:53 -0700

Joel Knows: Weekend Review

Joel Welser — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 21:37:10 -0800

Does Joel know everything? Anything? Or does Joel simply know nothing? Find out every Sunday in Joel Welser’s new weekly column: Joel Knows.

Joel knows Michigan State’s unbalanced conference schedule will come back to haunt them. In the Big Ten, each team plays four opponents just one time. The Spartans randomly drew Northwestern, Penn State, Purdue and Minnesota. With all due respect to the Boilermakers, it’s hard to argue that those aren’t the four worst teams in the Big Ten. To make matters worse, of the four, the Spartans get Northwestern and Minnesota at home. Not having a game at Northwestern is like not having a home game. It could be worse though, we could be talking about the Big East scheduling.

Joel knows that all of Corvallis should be embarrassed. The Bruins of UCLA absolutely annihilated Oregon State 82-35 on Saturday. The good news is OSU already beat Arizona State on the road. The Beavers and the Sun Devils square off again next weekend and Oregon State could end up 2-16 in conference…a full two games ahead of the winless ASU squad. Yet, some props need to be given to ASU for nearly beating a ranked Washington State squad on Saturday.

Joel knows the SEC West is messed up. The West leader heading into the weekend was Auburn at just 4-4. The Tigers got beat bad by Ole Miss 59-82, leaving the top spot even more wide open than it was before. A struggling Alabama team has taken the lead after a nail biting win over South Carolina. Even many prognosticators favorite LSU has lost five in a row and is a surprising 2-6 in conference.

Joel knows Colorado really needed a big win. With Ricardo Patton a lame duck coach and the Buffaloes heading into the weekend with a dismal 5-13 record, nobody would have had a second thought if the Buffs finished out the season without winning another game. Yet, when #12 Oklahoma State came to town, CU held onto their 15 point halftime lead to win 89-77. Dominique Coleman tied a career high with 21 points and achieved a career high with 15 rebounds. This could be a spark for Colorado to turn around the program…or it could be more of an indication that Oklahoma State will never win a conference game on the road.

Joel knows Indianapolis won the precursor to the Super Bowl over Chicago. IUPUI, that’s Indiana University, Purdue University at Indianapolis, narrowly escaped with a victory over Chicago State 79-77 on Thursday. If it is any indication, the Colts will beat the Bears, but at least it will be close.

Joel knows Texas A&M Corpus Christi will dominate the Southland conference in five years. This time last year the Islanders were without a conference, and we were still talking about a potential NIT berth. Now TAMU CC is 7-1 in the Southland with their only losses on the season coming at the hands of Oklahoma State, Mississippi State, UNLV, Purdue and conference favorite Sam Houston State.

Joel knows the Big West Conference Tournament is going to be fun. For the first time in a while, there is not a dominant team in the conference. Utah State is gone and Pacific is very far from a conference power this year. I wrote up a blurb about everybody but UC Riverside having a chance to take home the conference tournament championship, but then the previously 0-7 Highlanders went and did something crazy like beat top team Cal State Fullerton 82-76. Now it will be even crazier in Anaheim come March and with a free trip to the semifinals for the top two seeds and a bye to the quarterfinals for the next two seeds, jockeying for position down the stretch is of the utmost importance.

Joel knows that Loyola (MD) can make the NCAA Tournament since their first and only trip in 1994. Despite Saturday’s loss at Marist, the Greyhounds remain atop the Metro Atlantic standings at 9-3. A couple of Big East transfers in Gerald Brown (Providence) and Omari Israel (Notre Dame) are leading the way. Brown averages 22.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists, while Israel adds on 9.2 points and 5.7 boards per contest. Throw in the long range shooting of Marquis Sullivan and the point guard play of Brett Harvey, and you have yourself a dangerous team come MAAC tourney time.

Joel knows just a few years ago Western Illinois looked like a team that could be competitive in the Mid-Continent Conference. Now the Leathernecks, which boast one of the coolest nicknames in all of division I hoops, are in a downward spiral. Coach Derek Thomas brought in a renewed sense of hope, mostly thanks to sharpshooter T.J. Gray, but that disappeared very quickly. After going 3-25 in 2003-2004, Gray, despite a decrease in playing time his sophomore season, led the Leathernecks to an 11-17 record the following year. Gray then transferred and is now starting at Illinois-Chicago, leaving WIU back in the basement of the Mid-Con. This year, the Leathernecks have three wins over division I teams and five overall in an amazingly weak schedule. It would be a surprise if they win another game, but we’ll give them a legitimate shot on senior night against Southern Utah.

Joel knows that he will eat too much chip dip while watching the Super Bowl.

Daniels Wins SLC Player of the Week

Press Release — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 10:54:39 -0800

FRISCO, Texas - After averaging 24 points in two wins last week, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Chris Daniels has been named the Aeropostale/SLC Men's Basketball Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks. Following is a look at his week along with honorable mention selections.

CHRIS DANIELS, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Sr., C, 7-0, 270, San Antonio, Texas -- Daniels averaged 24 points in two games last week, including a career-high 34 points against Central Arkansas. On Thursday, he put in 14 points, leading the Islanders to a 12-point win over Northwestern State, snapping its 18-game home court win streak. He had five blocks and was 18-of-26 (.692) from the field and was 11-of-14 (.786) from the free-throw line for the week. The award is the second in three weeks for Daniels.

Game Stats: at Northwestern State - 14 pts., 5 rbs, 3 blks, (6-10 fg) at Central Arkansas - 34 pts, 3 rbs, 2 blks, (12-16 fg)

Player of the Week Honorable-Mention Selections

Josh Alexander, SFA -- Alexander led SFA in scoring and rebounding last week as the Lumberjacks improved to 4-0 in league play with road wins against Lamar and McNeese State. He scored 17 points with eight rebounds in SFA's 73-72 overtime win at Lamar and added 10 points and seven rebounds in the Lumberjacks' 67-53 victory at McNeese State.

Terry Bryant, SLU -- Bryant helped Southeastern to a 2-0 week, snapping a three-game losing streak and evening its SLC mark at 2-2. He tied a career-high with 19 points in a 73-69 win over Texas-Arlington, helping the Lions rally from a 12-point deficit midway through the second half. In a 78-70 win over Texas State, Bryant took the Lions' first shot of the game and didn't score until hitting six free throws in the final minute to preserve the win.

James Davis, LU -- Davis recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 29 points and 15 rebounds in Lamar's 73-72 overtime loss to Stephen F. Austin. He was 13-of-16 from the field and 3-of-6 from the free throw line. He also blocked a season-high five shots, dished out two assists and had one steal. He scored all six of Lamar's points in overtime.

Andrew Francis, UTSA -- Francis, a junior transfer from Houston, averaged a double-double for UTSA last week. In his first start with the Roadrunners at Central Arkansas on Thursday, Francis posted 12 points and eight rebounds, both tied for team highs, in a 59-49 loss. On Saturday, he registered his first double-double in a Roadrunner uniform with 16 points and 14 rebounds, both game highs, in the loss to the Demons. He shot 50 percent from the field for the week, draining 9-of-18 shots, and averaged 34.5 minutes per contest. Francis now leads the league in rebounding in conference games with 10.0 rebounds per game and ranks in the top 10 in scoring with 14 points per outing.

Quentin Gonzales, MCN -- Gonzales scored a total of 30 points and pulled 13 rebounds as McNeese went 1-1 in conference games on the week. He had a career night as the Cowboys beat Sam Houston State, 59-58, in overtime on the road. Gonzales scored 21 points (9 of 17) and had seven rebounds off the bench. He scored 7 of the 9 points for McNeese in overtime.