My top-3 right now is
1. SFA
2. Sam
3. Nicholls

Nicholls sits at 3 because they have no depth. They lost to Illinios and Rhode Island because they were gassed. They are long and athletic. They can light it up and play lockdown defense, but they dont have enough bodies to rotate and keep people fresh in close games.
Sam is the team that has me nervous. Hooten broke through and got a win last year. They aren't playing scrubs and have looked decent. As their chemistry continues to get better, so will they...

Kudos to McNeese for playing Texas tough on the road today. Lost by two at the Drum.

Sam played well at home against a bad Randall University, winning 86-51.

They played well through non-conference. All three losses are on the road and by less than 10 points: Miss State (9 points), Central Michigan (7 points), and San Francisco (9 points). Only one DI win to their credit (@ Cal State Bakersfield) with the other wins coming against Paul Quinn, LeTourneu, and Randall. I think we learn a lot more about them next week with a trip to UTRGV on Tuesday and a visit from Louisiana Tech on Saturday.

I am really intrigued by the Lamar/Texas Southern game tonight...

cboothe09 said:

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Kudos to McNeese for playing Texas tough on the road today. Lost by two at the Drum.

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This says more about Texas than it does about McNeese.

SFA Jack Fanatic said:

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Exactly! 'Overrated' is an understatement for this UT team.

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Shaka must have a personal improvement plan in place. Basketball, men and women, at UT is not healthy.

ESPN Bracketology shows Prison Tech representing the SLC as a #16 seed. No respect for SFA or the SLC.

SFAJack_76 said:

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SFA Jack Fanatic said:

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Exactly! 'Overrated' is an understatement for this UT team.

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Shaka must have a personal improvement plan in place. Basketball, men and women, at UT is not healthy.

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Desmond Haymon killed Havoc & Shaka's never recovered.

SFA Jack Fanatic said:

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ESPN Bracketology shows Prison Tech representing the SLC as a #16 seed. No respect for SFA or the SLC.

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Always amazed that professional sports people don't actually watch & do research for their jobs.

That actually surprises me. Normally he just looks at standings and posts accordingly. If he did the research, he would see that we sit atop the SLC standings...Plus you know, the whole Duke thing...

TallTexan said:

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SFA Jack Fanatic said:

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ESPN Bracketology shows Prison Tech representing the SLC as a #16 seed. No respect for SFA or the SLC.

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Always amazed that professional sports people don't actually watch & do research for their jobs.

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My assumption is that he is using something like Kenpom for league champions in 1 bid leagues and since SAM is still higher than us he will probably keep them in his bracket since they won the regular season last year and they had a lot of kids return this year. Once the preseason rankings fully burn off of Kenpom in January and after a few conference games Sam's Kenpom will deflate some. Lunardi simulates what the the NCAA committee would do and the committee looks at the NET/Kenpom, quad wins etc. to make their decision. Once conference games start up he just plug in the team in the SLC that has the most conference wins from week to week since we are a 1 bid league that is what he has done in the past.

CertifiedAxeman98 said:

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TallTexan said:

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SFA Jack Fanatic said:

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ESPN Bracketology shows Prison Tech representing the SLC as a #16 seed. No respect for SFA or the SLC.

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Always amazed that professional sports people don't actually watch & do research for their jobs.

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My assumption is that he is using something like Kenpom for league champions in 1 bid leagues and since SAM is still higher than us he will probably keep them in his bracket since they won the regular season last year and they had a lot of kids return this year. Once the preseason rankings fully burn off of Kenpom in January and after a few conference games Sam's Kenpom will deflate some. Lunardi simulates what the the NCAA committee would do and the committee looks at the NET/Kenpom, quad wins etc. to make their decision. Once conference games start up he just plug in the team in the SLC that has the most conference wins from week to week since we are a 1 bid league that is what he has done in the past.

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That's correct. While obviously we have the best record so far technically everyone is tied in conference play at 0-0, so they go exclusively off Kenpom for mid majors.

The Huskies aren't good, but they are putting up some fight against Dayton tonight. #Southlandstrong.

Speaking of Southland teams, UNO plays LSU tonight and are getting 20 points. They will cover.

Sam will get the only Southland DI win tonight

You may be underestimating how bad Louisiana is this year.

Vegas. Gets you every time.

SELA is really bad this year. Those seniors they lost meant a lot to what that program had built...

McNeese has topped 100 points in all three of their wins. McNeese is yet to defeat an NCAA team...
Southern New Orleans - NAIA
Arlington Baptist - NCCAA/ACCA
Campbellsville Harrodsburg - NCCAA/USCAA

That said, their losses haven't been blowouts, minus Wisconsin and Richmond...
Western Michigan 75-65
Louisiana 85-80
Wisconsin 83-63
New Mexico 90-80
Richmond 87-57
Texas 73-71

Northwestern State loses by 26 to SMU
UTSA rolls A&M Corpus by 22
SELA currently trailing Louisiana by 15 with 4:54 left
Sam in a battle against UTRGV...Leading 60-59 with 6:25 left
LSU ends the half on a run and leads UNO 38-30

The Southland is not good this year

Red Panda Watch!

Red Panda was spotted in Edinburg, performing at halftime of the SHSU/UTRGV game. Also Taco Tuesday for the Vaqueros home game...

OT in Edinburg...UTRGV with a tip in with two seconds left. Sam misses a good look from three at the buzzer. Ugly game

cboothe09 said:

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The Southland is not good

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Fixed it for you.

More free basketball coming...Sam misses another opportunity late as they move on to double overtime

LSU up 20+ on New Orleans
Seattle hanging around a 8-10 point lead on UIW late in the first

Yay. Sam loses.

FINALLY! UTRGV puts it away and wins 90-86
LSU blows out New Orleans 90-54
Seattle up 47-28 at the half on UIW...

Unless there is a miracle, the Southland's only win tonight will be McNeese's over a now 3-5 NCCAA squad

I want all the SLC teams to do really well in the non-con unfortunately that is not happening. Part of it is scheduling and part of it is that our schools are not very good. So far only 2 SLC teams have winning records and if you take out the non-D1 schools SFA is the only one with a winning non-con D1 record. That is sad.

This has been an issue for a while, which is why we hardly got any respect when we would go undefeated in conference play. It's so hard to do no matter who you are to win 16-18 games in a row, but due to how bad the SLC is and has been, if we don't do it we aren't getting ranked.

SFA_03 said:

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This has been an issue for a while, which is why we hardly got any respect when we would go undefeated in conference play. It's so hard to do no matter who you are to win 16-18 games in a row, but due to how bad the SLC is and has been, if we don't do it we aren't getting ranked.

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True in nearly all sports. Baseball might be the only exception. And, bowling.

Sam knocks off La Tech. Decent win.

SFA_03 said:

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This has been an issue for a while, which is why we hardly got any respect when we would go undefeated in conference play. It's so hard to do no matter who you are to win 16-18 games in a row, but due to how bad the SLC is and has been, if we don't do it we aren't getting ranked.

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True dat. The SLC is weak and feeble. I've ranted multiple times. Makes me ill.

Pretty quiet week across the Southland because of finals, but the slate Saturday is fun...Maybe it is a bloodbath like the last time the Southland had a chance to get some good wins, but I see some potential...

Nicholls @ West Virginia
Lamar @ TCU
Williams Baptist @ New Orleans (Seriously. Where do they find these teams???)
HBU @ Rice
Central Arkansas @ Pepperdine
UL Monroe @ SFA

I've seen Pepperdine play several times this year. They are good.