Conference USA Basketball

The Conference USA postseason basketball tournament is on the verge of being renamed the Memphis Tigers Exhibition of Conference Superiority—not really, but it would be appropriate.

The Tigers have won six of the last seven tournaments, but five of those six championships have come with the Tigers as the host.

This year's tournament takes place at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., which is also the last site to host a Conference USA tournament that didn't end with the Tigers as the victors.

That said, it will still be extremely tough to knock Memphis off, as they are undefeated in the conference with just one game remaining.

The top four teams in Conference USA will get a bye in the first round, taking on the winners of the first-round games that pit the lower-seeded teams against each other. The brackets will look a little different this season, as Central Florida is ineligible for postseason play (New York Times).

This will result in one less first-round game.

Here's how you can catch the action, some deeper analysis and my predictions.


When: March 13-16

Where: BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.

TV: CBS Sports Network (March 14-15, coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on March 14, and at 4 p.m. ET on March 15) CBS (March 16 coverage begins at 11:30 a.m. ET) - click here to see complete schedule


Brackets

With the regular season finales still on tap for Saturday, all of the final pairings aren't finalized, but there are a few things we do know.

At 15-0, Memphis will be the tournament's top seed. Southern Mississippi is locked into the No. 2 spot at 11-4 and obviously Rice is the 12th seed with a 1-14 mark in conference play.

Here's a look at how the brackets will be structured.

(All times eastern)

	Time	Matchup
First round – Wednesday, March 13
	4:30 pm	No. 7 vs. No. 10
	7:00 pm	No. 6 vs. No. 11
	9:30 pm	No. 8 vs. No. 9
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 14
	1 p.m.	8/9 winner vs. No. 1 Memphis
	3:30 pm	No. 4 vs. No. 5
	7:00 pm	7/10 winner vs. No. 2 Southern Mississippi
	9:30 pm	6/11 winner vs. UTEP
Semifinals – Friday, March 15
	4:00 pm	8/9-Memphis winner vs. 4/5 winner
	6:30 pm	7/10-Southern Mississippi winner vs. 6-11-UTEP winner
Championship – Saturday, March 16
	11:30 am	Semifinal winners

Stars to Watch

Joe Jackson—Memphis

Jackson doesn't lead the conference in any category, but he is the leader of the league's best team. He's also won the tournament MVP the last two seasons.

If that doesn't make him a star to watch, then I don't know what would.

The 6'1" junior has improved his shooting this season, and it's apparent in his sizzling 48 percent connection rate from three-point range. For the season, he is averaging 13.7 points and 4.8 assists per game.

Couple that with his highlight reel hops, and Jackson is one of the most exciting players in college basketball. 

Maurice Kemp—East Carolina

The Pirates 6'8"-senior forward is leading the conference in scoring, averaging 18.4 per game. He has scored 30 points, or more, twice this season, and he's been playing well of late.

In his last two games, Kemp is averaging 26 per contest.

The Pirates need to at least reach the tournament final to have any shot at making the NCAA tournament, but that's not Kemp's only motivation. 

As a senior who isn't on many draft big boards, Kemp needs to start showing scouts that he is worthy of selection in the NBA draft.

Having a great conference tournament would be a step in that direction.


Joseph Young—Houston

Young is second in the conference in scoring, and he's been as hot as a Houston summer over the last five games.

He has scored at least 20 points and connected on 45 percent of his three-point attempts in that stretch. The 20-year-old looks like a future NBA player, and he'll be looking to show off that skill in the conference tournament.


Josh Davis—Tulane

The Green Wave star is the only player in the conference averaging a double-double. He's third in scoring at 17.4 points per game and tops in rebounding with an average of 10.4 per contest.

The 6'8" junior has drastically improved his free-throw shooting from 54 percent as a sophomore to 71.6 percent this season.

He's coming off his best game of the year; a 23-point, 16-rebound performance in a losing effort against East Carolina on Wednesday night.

Watch for him to try to lead the Green Wave to a win in the first round.


TaShawn Thomas—Houston

The Cougars are the only team in the conference with two players in the top five in scoring. Thomas is fourth in the league with an average of 17 points per game, and he nearly averages a double-double per game, as he also pulls down 9.8 rebounds.

Thomas' slashing ability is a solid complement to Young's outside attack, and together they are one of the most effective duos in the conference.


DeAndre Kane—Marshall

The best point guard in the conference is Marshall's Kane. He has pulled back on his scoring to involve his teammates more this season. 

The result is his conference-leading 6.9 assists per game. Kane is still putting in 14.7 points with his solid dribble penetration and aggressiveness, but he's starting to learn how to play point guard.

He is the catalyst for the Thundering Herd and sure to be at the forefront of any success they have in the tournament.


Favorites

Memphis—15-0 conference record and 26-4 overall

This is a no-brainer.

The Tigers have been dominant all season long in Conference USA. They have had scares from Marshall and UTEP, but no team has gotten the job done.

But if this team has a clear Achilles heel, it is their free throw shooting. As a team, they only shoot 67 percent from the line. This issue allows teams to stay close to them, and it could be a huge issue in a close game—especially away from home.

If the Tigers are upset, you can bet missed free throws will play a part.


Southern Mississippi—11-4 conference record and 22-8 overall

The gap between the Tigers and the Golden Eagles is pretty wide if you look at the entire body of work for the season.

That said, it only takes one loss in a tournament to throw a season's worth of work out of the window. The Golden Eagles haven't exactly hung in there with the Tigers in their two regular-season matchups, though.

They dropped the two games by an average of 14.5 points. Still, at 11-4 in the conference, you would have to consider them the second best team in the league.

The Golden Eagles can be flat unconscious from three-point range. They have three players connecting on over 40 percent of their threes, led by Neil Watson's 46.8 percent from deep.

As a team, they shoot 39.1 percent from the arc, which is 18th in the nation and tops in the conference. If they get hot, they could upset any team.


Sleeper

Marshall—6-9 conference record and 13-17 overall

The Thundering Herd have no shot of making the NCAA tournament unless they run the table in the conference tournament. But they have some reason to believe they could pull off such a feat.

They only lost to Memphis by one point in January, and they just upset Southern Mississippi on Tuesday night.

Elijah Pittman and D.D. Scarver combined for 41 points in that game, as Marshall knocked off the Golden Eagles 88-84.

They will need Pittman and Scarver to continue to play at a high level, as well as leadership from Kane at the point to build on this performance.

Their play against both of the conference's top two teams shows they can be a problem if they are overlooked.

My Prediction

The Tigers will be out to prove they can win the conference tournament even when they aren't the host. Southern Mississippi's shooting is intriguing, but it just isn't good enough on defense to handle the Tigers.

The Cougars are another interesting possibility because of their dynamic duo of Young and Thomas, but they also struggle to defend. Only East Carolina allows more points per game in the conference.

Defense and athleticism are the major factors that separate the Tigers from the rest of the field, and those same traits will lead them to another Conference USA tournament championship.

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Austin Nichols, a 6'8" power forward from Memphis, TN., announced via Twitter Monday morning that he had committed to the Memphis Tigers.

"We watched Memphis all our lives," Austin's dad, Mark Nichols, told Brian Snow of Scout.com.

"He has high interest in other schools, but after we went over everything, he just decided that he should stay home and play with the kids that he played with in AAU. He thinks they are going to be really good."

Memphis coach Josh Pastner visited the talented power forward last week; Nichols also made a visit to Memphis Madness last month.

Nichols picked Memphis over Tennessee, Auburn, Duke and Vanderbilt. He also had offers from UNC, Louisville, Florida, N.C. State and several other top Division-I schools.

The 5-star recruit is considered the sixth-best power forward and the 19th-best player in the 2013 class by Rivals.com.

Nichols' coach at Briarcrest Christian, John Harrington, told Brendan Quinn of GoVolsXtra.com:

He is one of the best I’ve ever seen in high school basketball, as far as offensive moves in the post. He’s athletic, has great length, can handle (the ball) with his left and right hand, uses his body well in space down low and can score from either side of the hoop.

Last year as a junior, Nichols averaged 18.3 points, 12.5 rebounds and six blocks a game at Briarcrest.

The Memphis Tigers now have five very talented commits for the 2013 class. Mempis has two 4-star forwards with Kuran Iverson and Nick King, they also have two 4-star guards in Markel Crawford and RaShawn Powell.

Before Nichols committed, Memphis had the fifth-best recruiting class according to ESPN.com.

Josh Pastner will have a very talented team as they become apart of the Big East Conference in the 2013-14 season.

Memphis is projected to win the Conference USA this season.

While national attention is beginning to circle around players leaving Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie's program, another Texas school is seeing its own disturbing exodus.

Rice lost its fifth player of the 2012 offseason on Friday when it announced that 7'2" center Omar Oraby was granted his release to transfer to another school. Oraby could have stepped into the starting lineup after averaging 6.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in just under 12 minutes per game in his sophomore season for the Owls.

Oraby's block percentage of 14.5 would have ranked third nationally had he played enough minutes. According to Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com, some major programs may get involved in the race for his services.

The departure of the big Cairo, Egypt, native leaves Rice without a single player standing taller than 6'7".

Oraby joins guards Jarelle Reischel (Rhode Island) and Dylan Ennis (Villanova), 6'9" forward David Chadwick (Valparaiso) and 6'6" forward Ahmad Ibrahim (pro career in Lebanon) in leaving the program since the end of the 2011-12 season.

Reischel, a New Jersey native, and Ennis, from Brampton, Ontario, Canada, transferred to schools closer to their homes. Both freshmen, the two combined for 14.2 points, seven rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals per game, making a combined 40 starts.

Chadwick, a sophomore, left for a destination where he could find more playing time after playing less than seven minutes per game last season. He averaged 1.5 points and 0.9 rebounds per game in that time.

Freshman forward Ibrahim made eight starts and played 18.6 minutes per game as a freshman last season, averaging 6.2 points and 1.9 rebounds per game.

In the wake of the Reischel, Ennis and Chadwick transfers, Owls coach Ben Braun told the Houston Chronicle, "I take that personally. Even if it is a pattern, I don't want to see our program falling into that pattern. I want us to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen."

Braun may need to examine his methods for staving off transfers, as Oraby's departure makes him the 10th player since Braun took over in 2008 to leave the Rice program with eligibility remaining.

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Four-star college basketball recruit Nick King has made his decision and will attend the University of Memphis in 2013, according to The Commercial Appeal's L. Jason Smith via Twitter:

It's Memphis for Nick King. Puts on a Tigers hat to roar from crowd here in school library.

— L. Jason Smith (@TheCAJasonSmith) August 27, 2012

King, a 6'7" small forward out of Memphis, Tenn., is one of the top prospects in the country in the Class of 2013.

The Memphis East High School star had received offers from Memphis, Texas, Tennessee and Vanderbilt before making his decision on Monday.

King is a talented perimeter scorer with an excellent shooting touch that will no doubt translate to the college level. 

In addition to providing a scoring boost in college, King will also be a significant presence on the boards. He averaged 15 rebounds per game during his junior year in 2011, helping lead Memphis East to a state championship.

King is the 23rd-ranked 2013 prospect, according to Rivals.com, and among the handful of top wing players who will enter college next year.

Although not many experts have compared King to former North Carolina small forward Harrison Barnes, his size and skill set remind me a lot of the NBA rookie. 

Both players have a solid jump shot and smooth release, but struggle at times to create their own offense. On the defensive side of the ball, both players can play tremendous individual defense and help out on the glass. 

King's basketball future remains to be determined, but the most likely scenario is that he develops into one of the nation's best perimeter players in the coming years, helping lead Memphis to big things. 

Follow Bleacher Report Featured Columnist Patrick Clarke on Twitter.

Marcus Jordan—yes, legendary basketball player Michael’s son—is taking some flak for a hilarious tweet that he fired off at porn star Rachel Roxxx.

According to Black Sports Online, the UCF Knights basketball player publicly posted a message to the adult actress on Wednesday, but it has since been removed and replaced with a tweet explaining that it was a prank.

Regardless if the initial “accident” DM was a practical joke or not—the content was quite funny—we should definitely #KeepItMovin and cut the kid a break for it.

It’s not like he said anything harmful and, last I checked, it’s not a crime to connect with a porn star on the Internet. After investigating Ms. Roxxx’s Twitter feed, it seems that plenty of other people do so on a regular basis.

There is no reason to get outraged because the Charlotte Bobcats owner’s son—or an anonymous prankster, depending on who you believe—decided to send that tweet.

Heck, baseball star Hideki Matsui proudly admitted to owning 55,000 porn videos in an interview with GQ. Rob Gronkowski posed shirtless for a picture with noted adult actress Bibi Jones. Tito Ortiz married possibly the most famous porn star of all time, Jenna Jameson. Kim Kardashian has dated what seems like every athlete, but got her start in a homemade video with Ray J.

Tiger Woods may as well have been moonlighting as a leading man in Porn Valley after all the rumors leaked out.

That is just a tiny sampling of the numerous big-name athletes who have been involved with the adult industry in some way.

A frivolous tweet by a mediocre college player that happens to be MJ’s son isn’t even close to a big deal in comparison. Give him a break.

Danny Manning was a great college player.

He led the Kansas Jayhawks to the 1988 NCAA Championship, and was selected as the Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

Manning was voted the Big 8 Player of the Year three times (1986-88) and the Naismith and Wooden Awards winner his senior season (1988).

He followed up his stellar collegiate hoops career with 15 outstanding years in the NBA. 

After retiring from the Association, Manning served on Bill Self's staff at KU for the last nine years:

• Director of Student-Athlete Development/Team Manager (2003-2007)
• Assistant Coach (2007-2012)

Manning did a little of everything at Kansas.

During this time, Manning learned the game that he had excelled at as a player from a completely different angle.

Rather than trying to jump straight from being a player to being a head coach, Manning invested the time and effort in preparing himself for what he would have to do to lead his own program.

He handled day-to-day administrative operations, went on the road to recruit, as well as passing on his vast experience as a player.

ESPNU's Jason King stated:

“Since joining Kansas' staff in the spring of 2003, Manning has helped the Jayhawks program become one of the best in the nation at developing post players. Lately the school has even been referred to as "Big Man U."

Since Manning began providing tutelage nine years ago, only two Kansas post players who started at least 50 percent of the team's games in a single season have failed to be selected in the NBA draft.”

Because of his time under Self, Manning now knows the ins-and-outs, the nuts-and-bolts of running a major college basketball program.

As he begins his tenure as the head coach at Tulsa, Manning can hit the ground running.

He can focus on elevating a program that has had decent success over the last few years. The Golden Hurricane has won at least 20 games in each of the last four seasons, but has not made the NCAA tournament since 2003.

Manning is already seeing some good results on the recruiting trail.

Since being hired, he has secured commitments from Pat Swilling (see video), a talented Juco player from the College of Southern Idaho; Kauri Black, a graduate transfer from Northeastern; and Rashad Ray, an all-state guard from Louisiana.

And the cupboard was not bare in Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane returns four of their top five scorers from last year's team.

With his background as a player and experience as a top-level developer of talent as an assistant coach, Manning is on his way.

Mark my words: Danny Manning will be a success at Tulsa and will be in a power conference job in three years or less.

Larry Brown, the new head basketball coach at SMU, gained another commitment from a high-level recruit who wants to put his past behind him.

Crandall Head, ESPNU's Class of 2010 No. 79 recruit, has decided to leave the University of Illinois and transfer to SMU.

Head, an athletic shooting guard, never really got on track at the U of I.

As a freshman, he appeared in 18 games off the bench, averaging just 1.3 ppg while playing a little more than five minutes per game.

As a sophomore, Head played nine minutes per game in nine games, averaging one point per outing.

Head is the second "big-time" transfer that has decided to put his basketball future in the hands of the Hall of Fame coach.

Josiah Turner, ESPNU's Class of 2011 No. 15 recruit, left the University of Arizona to come play for Brown in Dallas.

Both Head and Turner are looking for a fresh start.

Head was suspended for the first four games of the 2011-12 season for the ever-popular "violation of team rules."

Turner was suspended indefinitely by Arizona's Sean Miller right before the Wildcats left for the Pac-12 Tournament this past March.

Before leaving Tucson, Turner was arrested for extreme DUI without a license.

If Brown can get these two talented young players to mature both on and off the court, the reward will be worth the risk.

If not, SMU basketball could become a swirling vortex of trouble.

Stay tuned.

Larry Brown did not wait long to make waves with his new SMU team. Brown cut star point guard Jeremiah Samarrippas on Wednesday.

Brown has a reputation for coaching with an ego. Cutting one of the Mustangs' best players is not doing that reputation any favors. Telling Samarrippas that he is not good enough to play for you simply does not make sense. 

Maybe Brown thinks he is still coaching in the NBA or an elite college program. He is not, though. Brown made a major error in judgment by stacking Samarrippas' talent against what he perceives as elite.

Putting Samarrippas' talent aside, this was a terrible move off the court. Brown needed to establish discipline on his new squad, but creating this kind of stir in a new locker room spells trouble.

The Mustangs have played for Brown for less than a week. Some players played with Samarrippas for two years. This mistake will resonate throughout that locker room for the length of the 2012-13 season. 

The impact of this decision will be felt on the court as well. Samarrippas logged 32 minutes per game in 2011 and provided constant leadership on the court. He was a pesky defensive presence and a catalyst for the Mustang offense. 

SMU was on the right track as a program. Adding a Hall of Fame coach was supposed to create a positive vibe in the locker room and on the court. 

Instead, Brown disrupted the unity of his squad and breached any trust he may have created. 

This bizarre decision will be very tough to recover from given Brown's reputation. Not only must he find a new point guard to execute his offense, but he must find a way to establish a working relationship with skeptical players. 

The decision to cut Samarrippas was wrong on all counts.

Yesterday, SMU introduced the biggest hire in its benighted basketball history: Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown will be taking over the Mustangs hoops program next season. The 71-year-old Brown is being asked to turn around a team that hasn’t appeared in the NCAA tournament since 1993—before many of its current players were even born.

Although Brown’s signing provides a welcome PR splash for the beleaguered Mustangs, fans shouldn’t expect much from their new coach. Brown’s success has rarely come with long-term improvement, especially at the college level.

In the first place, any recruits (or their parents) who have even a passing familiarity with Brown’s career know that he can’t be expected to stay in Dallas for long. Based on his track record, the most well-traveled coach in NBA history will be a long shot to stay more than four seasons, meaning that any players he recruits should be ready for a possible regime change soon.

SMU has been trying to stave off such concerns by hiring an official “coach-in-waiting” to pair with Brown, but at present, no such addition has been made.

A far more dangerous worry with Brown is the way his last two collegiate jobs ended. After he left UCLA, the Bruins had their 1980 Final Four trip vacated, and after he left Kansas following the 1988 national title run, the Jayhawks were hit with sanctions that included a ban from the 1989 tournament.

There’s certainly no guarantee that Brown will repeat those particular mistakes (involving both player eligibility and improper benefits), but it’s hardly a resume that inspires confidence in the future long-term health of SMU athletics, a program already synonymous with player scandal.

There’s also the simple fact that Brown hasn’t coached a college team since leaving Lawrence over 20 years ago. The nature of the game has changed, most crucially when it comes to the ages of the key contributors.

Brown, notorious at the NBA level for keeping talented rookies rotting on his bench, won the 1988 national title at Kansas with a rotation whose top six players included three seniors, two juniors and a sophomore. If he can’t get over his obsession with rewarding experience over talent, he’ll never be able to recruit the kind of high-level freshmen that SMU must court in order to survive in the Big East.

And that, of course, brings us to the biggest problem Brown faces: he’s being asked to lead the Mustangs from Conference USA (where they were already an also-ran at best) into the nation’s toughest basketball league. There isn’t a coach in the country who wouldn’t struggle with bringing this school and this team into the Big East, and Brown—especially given some of the baggage he brings—is certainly no exception.

Assuming that Brown has learned from his previous run-ins with the NCAA rulebooks, his hiring isn’t going to make SMU any worse off than they already were. On the other hand, anyone looking for him to rescue a team facing one of the country’s toughest uphill battles is set to be sorely disappointed.