C-USA basketball games this week:

Monday
- Houston vs. St. Louis

Wednesday
- ECU @ Marshall
- Memphis @ UCF
- SMU @ UAB
- UTEP @ Southern Miss
- Tulsa @ Tulane
- Rice @ Houston

Saturday
- SMU @ Memphis
- UAB @ Marshall
- Tulsa @ UCF
- Tulane @ Southern Miss
- ECU @ Rice
- Houston @ UTEP

Saturday featured another full schedule of C-USA basketball games. The #14 Memphis Tigers extended their unbeaten record in C-USA play to 7-0 with a close home victory over Southern Miss, 67-64. UCF surprised the fans in El Paso as they knocked off the home team UTEP, also by the score of 67-64. UAB traveled to cellar-dwelling East Carolina and left with an easy 58-42 win. Houston traveled to Huntington, WV, where the Thundering Herd usually play tough, but the Cougars escaped with a 77-61 victory. Tulane pulled off the surprise of the night crushing visiting Rice 75-55 to hand the Owls just their 2nd loss in C-USA play, and Tulsa held on for a 70-66 win over visiting SMU.

http://www.cusa-fans.com/articles/cusa-basketball-2006/ucf-recap-utep_012807.html

The Conference USA basketball standings continue to shift around and Wednesday night’s games only further mixed things up. UCF jumped out to a 20-point lead at the half @  Houston only to see the the Cougars send the game to OT and then win it in overtime 73-70. The CUSA Fans recap of UCF @ Houston can be found over at CUSA-fans.com for more on the game. East Carolina, winless in conference play, traveled to Southern Miss and hung around for most of the game trailing by just 2 at the half only to fall to the Golden Eagles 83-72. The CUSA Fans recap of ECU @ Southern Miss is also live over at CUSA-fans.com.

Othe C-USA basketball games included Marshall fallingto West Virginia in their annual rivalry game, SMU holding on for a 2-point win over Tulane,  Memphis beating Tulsa and Rice holding on for a win over visiting UTEP.

In what should come as no surprise to anyone, the Memphis Tigers are the early leaders in the 2006-2007 C-USA basketball standings. The Tigers are 5-0 with three teams just one game behind in the loss column (UTEP, UCF and Rice). In 2005-2006 the conference was dominated by four teams - Memphis, UAB, UTEP and Houston - but 2006-2007 appears to be a more balanced conference after you get past the Tigers. Currently 9 of 12 teams in C-USA have a .500 record or better, and even SMU, who is 0-4 in C-USA, is 11-7 overall.

Over on CUSA Sports Fans we have a couple of new articles about the new coaching staffs at Tulsa and UAB. I have provided links below.

UAB football: Callaway completes Blazer football staff

Tulsa football: Tulsa answers loss of a head coach with a bold statement

Back on January 1st we gave you our 2006-2007 C-USA basketball RPI ranking updates. Since the turn of the year Memphis has jumped 6 spaces to #15, Southern Miss jumped 50 spaces to #103, SMU dropped 31 spots to #105, and Marshall continued their climb by jumping another 53 spaces to #135.
Coming into January 13th, 2007 - C-USA basketball RPI Rankings:

• Memphis - 12-3 - #15
• UAB - 9-7 - #72
• Southern Miss - 11-3 - #103
• SMU - 11-4 - #105
• Tulsa - 11-3 - #118
• Houston - 5-8 - #123
• Marshall - 5-10 - #135
• UCF - 11-4 - #183
• UTEP - 10-6 - #193
• Rice - 7-7 - #205
• Tulane - 7-6 - #212
• East Carolina - 5-9 - #319

2006-2007 Conference USA basketball standings

After building Tulsa’s football program up with 3 winning seasons and 3 bowl games in the past 4 years, Tulsa head coach Steve Kragthorpe has decided to take the same position at Louisville. Kragthorpe will take over the position formerly help by Bobby Petrino who left Louisville for the Atlanta Falcons over the weekend.

> Story

Jeff Bower’s team is used to playing after November. Frank Solich’s team was not. Bower’s Southern Miss Golden Eagles, playing in their 5th straight bowl game and 9th in 10 years, defeated the Ohio Bobcats in Sunday’s GMAC Bowl by a score of 28-7. The Bobcats were making just their 3rd bowl appearance in school history and fell to 9-5 on the season and 0-3 in bowl games all-time.

The Golden Eagles scored 21 2nd Quarter points to open the game up and extended the lead to 28-0 with a 17 play, 80 yard drive that took nearly 10 minutes off the clock to begin the 3rd Quarter.

A few notable stats for Southern Miss:

• RB Damion Fletcher carried the ball 20 times for just 58 yards but scored 2 TDs
• RB Tory Harrison had 9 carries for 68 yards scored the first TD of the game
• USM’s “Nasty Bunch” held Ohio’s offense to just 47 yards rushing

CUSA-fans.com, Conference USA’s premier fan site covering C-USA football, basketball & baseball, has released their 2007 GMAC Bowl preview. The GMAC Bowl, played annually in Mobile, Alabama, has matched a member of the MAC vs. C-USA for the past 6 years. The 2007 GMAC Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 7th @ 8 pm on ESPN and pits Southern Miss from C-USA vs. Ohio of the MAC.

CUSA-fans.com, Conference USA’s premier fan site covering C-USA football, basketball & baseball, has released their 2007 GMAC Bowl preview. The GMAC Bowl, played annually in Mobile, Alabama, has matched a member of the MAC vs. C-USA for the past 6 years. The 2007 GMAC Bowl will be played on Sunday, January 7th @ 8 pm on ESPN and pits Southern Miss from C-USA vs. Ohio of the MAC.

2007 GMAC Bowl preview