The tournament is finally here, and time for the dozens of fans to pile into the Merrell Center in Katy. The last night of the season made some changes to the brackets. Corpus slips in, and Lamar drops to the sixth seed. Here is my take on the opening night of the tournament.
Wednesday:
#8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. #5 New Orleans, 5:00 pm, ESPN3
Corpus clinched a spot in the final game of the season, New Orleans bumped up to the #5 spot after a Lamar loss. Last year this was the final game of the tournament with New Orleans punching their ticket to the big dance. This year the winner has to win three more games in order to reach the NCAA tournament.
New Orleans started the year strong, but struggled through the meat of their schedule. In fact, the Privateers ended the year on a three-game skid and losers of four of their last five games. Add in the loss of Travin Thibodeaux, and the Privateers are hurting right now.
Corpus is on the other end of the spectrum. The Islanders struggled to start the season, but picked up steam late. Corpus won three of their last four games to slip into the tournament, including crucial victories over Abilene Christian and McNeese.
I think we get a bit of an upset special here. When you hit tournament time, it is all about riding the hot hand, and in this case that would be the Islanders. Maybe Isaac can throw in info on Thibodeaux and whether or not he will be back. Assuming Thibodeaux isn't there, I just can't bet against Kilgore and company in this one.
#7 Central Arkansas vs. #6 Lamar, 7:30 pm, ESPN3
This game is a tale of two highly touted teams that seemed to disappoint during conference play. When on, Central Arkansas features one of the most explosive offenses in the country. Unfortunately for the Bears, consistency is not a strong suit. An example of this would be Central Arkansas never stringing together a streak of more than three wins during conference play.
Lamar entered the season as a huge favorite to win the Southland. The Cardinals looked the part during non-conference, but fell apart when games began to matter. Doesn't mean Lamar didn't rebound, as a nice stretch of six wins in seven games gave the Cardinals a lot of momentum going into the final game of the season. Sadly Lamar would lay an egg in Lake Charles, falling to the Cowboys, dropping from the fifth to the sixth seed and earning the toughest road to the NCAA tournament.
Neither team is special on the road, but when you live and die by the three-pointer, it makes it especially difficult. Tack on a fired up Lamar team, and I think the Cardinals survive this dogfight of an opener. What does that do? Set up a third showdown against an SFA squad that they have beaten twice this year, convincingly at that.
Wednesday:
#8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. #5 New Orleans, 5:00 pm, ESPN3
Corpus clinched a spot in the final game of the season, New Orleans bumped up to the #5 spot after a Lamar loss. Last year this was the final game of the tournament with New Orleans punching their ticket to the big dance. This year the winner has to win three more games in order to reach the NCAA tournament.
New Orleans started the year strong, but struggled through the meat of their schedule. In fact, the Privateers ended the year on a three-game skid and losers of four of their last five games. Add in the loss of Travin Thibodeaux, and the Privateers are hurting right now.
Corpus is on the other end of the spectrum. The Islanders struggled to start the season, but picked up steam late. Corpus won three of their last four games to slip into the tournament, including crucial victories over Abilene Christian and McNeese.
I think we get a bit of an upset special here. When you hit tournament time, it is all about riding the hot hand, and in this case that would be the Islanders. Maybe Isaac can throw in info on Thibodeaux and whether or not he will be back. Assuming Thibodeaux isn't there, I just can't bet against Kilgore and company in this one.
#7 Central Arkansas vs. #6 Lamar, 7:30 pm, ESPN3
This game is a tale of two highly touted teams that seemed to disappoint during conference play. When on, Central Arkansas features one of the most explosive offenses in the country. Unfortunately for the Bears, consistency is not a strong suit. An example of this would be Central Arkansas never stringing together a streak of more than three wins during conference play.
Lamar entered the season as a huge favorite to win the Southland. The Cardinals looked the part during non-conference, but fell apart when games began to matter. Doesn't mean Lamar didn't rebound, as a nice stretch of six wins in seven games gave the Cardinals a lot of momentum going into the final game of the season. Sadly Lamar would lay an egg in Lake Charles, falling to the Cowboys, dropping from the fifth to the sixth seed and earning the toughest road to the NCAA tournament.
Neither team is special on the road, but when you live and die by the three-pointer, it makes it especially difficult. Tack on a fired up Lamar team, and I think the Cardinals survive this dogfight of an opener. What does that do? Set up a third showdown against an SFA squad that they have beaten twice this year, convincingly at that.
