Sun Belt Sports Blog

After advancing the the Sweet 16 with wins over #5 Drake and #13 San Diego, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers finally met their match against #1 seed UCLA. The Bruins built a 21-point halftime lead at 41-20 and appeared poised to cruise to a 3rd staright Elite 8. But Darrin Horn’s WKU Hilltoppers cut into the lead in the second half as WKU’s Tyrone Brazelton scored 25 of his 31 points in the second half to cut the lead to as few as four points. But the Hilltoppers would get no closer as UCLA pulled away behind a career-high 29 from media-darling Kevin Love and UCLA topped WKU 88-78.

Buy WKU apparel, WKU hats & more Western Kentucky Hilltoppers merchandise online through DFN Sports partner sites.

College Sports Fans has released previews for all 65 teams in the 2008 NCAA Tournament including the two Sun Belt teams, Western Kentucky & South Alabama. They prevew the matchups for both schools as well as discuss team strenghts & weaknesses while predicting their Tournament results. Find NCAA Tournament scores as well as CBI Tournament scores online through College Sports Fans, and click the links below to view the WKU & South Alabama team previews.

> Western Kentucky (WKU) 2008 NCAA Tournament preview

> South Alabama 2008 NCAA Tournament preview

March is the time of year when a Cinderella story can capture the hearts of sports fans across the globe. Middle Tennessee State looked to extend their own Cinderella story tonight, a night after knocking off Sun Belt favorite South Alabama in the Sun Belt Tournament. But the Blue Raiders ran into Western Kentucky, one of the winningest programs in college basketball history. The Hilltoppers had a slim 34-31 lead at halftime and extended the lead throughout the second half en route to a 67-57 win. With the victory, WKU had made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003 and for the 20th time in school history.

> Buy WKU merchandise online through College Sports Fans!

The New Orleans Bowl matches the Sun Belt Conference Champions against a member of Conference USA, and the 2007 New Orleans Bowl will feature FAU and Memphis. Held on December 21st at the New Orleans Superdome, the New Orleans Bowl will be aired on ESPN2. The Tigers and Owls do have one common opponent this season in Arkansas State; the Owls defeated Arkansas State 34-31 at home on November 10th while Memphis fell @ Arkansas State 35-31 on September 27th. CUSA Fans covers Memphis football and has provided their 2007 New Orleans Bowl preview, and tickets can be found online for the 2007 New Orleans Bowl at Ticket City and Tickets Now.

> Find FAU merchandise online through DFN Sports sites.

The staff of DFN Sports and SunBelt-fans.com got together to review three of the top college football magazines and highlight what each magazine predicts for the 2007 Sun Belt football season. Here is what we found…

Street & Smith
The Street & Smith’s preview of the 2007 Sun Belt teams looks a lot like Lindy’s and Athlon; in fact, all three magazines picked Troy #1 and MTSU #3 in the Sun Belt. Next season the Sun Belt will have a new team entering the mix as the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers will join the Sun Belt in football for the 2008 season.

Sun Belt Predicted Standings - Street & Smith
1. Troy Trojans
2. Arkansas State Indians
3. Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders
4. Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks
5. Florida Atlantic Owls
6. Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns
7. FIU Golden Panthers
8. North Texas Mean Green

Lindy’s
Lindy’s sees 6 Sun Belt teams in the nation’s bottom 19 teams, but the difference in the Sun Belt’s projected order of finish from Athlon’s predictions are great. Lindy’s sees Arkansas State as the 6th best Sun Belt football team with holes in the offensive line; which publication will ring true?

Sun Belt Predicted Standings – Lindy’s
1. Troy Trojans (81)
2. Louisisana-Monroe Warhawks (96)
3. Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders (100)
4. Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (103)
5. Florida Atlantic Owls (108)
6. Arkansas State Indians (109)
7. North Texas Mean Green (112)
8. FIU Golden Panthers (119)

Athlon Sports
Athlon Sports likes Troy to be the Sun Belt Champion in 2007, but states that if the Trojans slip up, Arksansas State and MTSU will be ready to pounce. Unfortunately, Athlon seems more interested in huge articles on BCS schools and Top 25 picks than in actually covering the Sun Belt teams.

Sun Belt Predicted Standings – Athlon Sports
1. Troy Trojans (82)
2. Arkansas State Indians (104)
3. Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders (105)
4. FAU Owls (109)
5. UL Monroe Warhawks (110)
6. UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (112)
7. North Texas Mean Green (114)
8. FIU Golden Panthers (119)

Make sure to discuss the above previews online on the Sun Belt sports forums at College Sports Fans. After discussing the Sun Belt previews be sure to browse the selection of Middle Tennessee State hats, Troy Trojans merchandise & Arkansas State apparel online available throught College Sports Fans.

CUSA Fans, a Conference USA sports fan site, has released their preview of Sun Belt Tournament Champion North Texas vs. C-USA Tourney Champion Memphis. The North Texas vs. Memphis preview is now live on their site.

Attention Sun Belt basketball fans! SunBelt-fans.com has partnered with Tickets Now to feature fantastic deals on NCAA Tournament tickets. Find all of the hard to find and sold out tickets to all of the big games in the Big Dance with Tickets Now and SunBelt-Fans.com!

CollegeSports-fans.com has teamed up with Tickets Now to offer hard-to-find and sold out tickets to NCAA Tournament games. Check out the great deals on NCAA Tourney tickets today!

The North Texas Mean Green (23-10) knocked off Arkansas State (18-15) for the Sun Belt Tournament Championship on Tuesday night. After holding just a 1-point lead at the half, the Mean Green outscored the Indians by a score of 83-75 to earn the automatic bid from the Sun Belt. North Texas will look to be the first Sun Belt team to win a NCAA Tournament game since Western Kentucky in 1995.

Box Score

February is almost over, and we all know what that means; March Madness is almost here. It’s time to take a look at how the teams of the Sun Belt Conference stack up in the Sun Belt basketball standings and RPI rankings.

Sun Belt West
-          Louisisana Monroe 16-12 (10-6) - #166
-          North Texas 18-9 (9-7) - #144
-          Arkansas State 14-14 (9-7) - #216
-          New Orleans 12-15 (8-8) - #218
-          Arkansas Little Rock 12-15 (7-9) - #227
-          Louisiana Lafayette 8-18 (7-9) - #262
-          Denver 4-23 (3-14) - #332

Sun Belt East
-          South Alabama 19-8 (13-3) - #107
-          Western Kentucky 19-10 (11-6) - #94
-          Florida Atlantic 14-13 (9-7) - #155
-          Middle Tennessee State 12-15 (7-9) - #176
-          Florida International 11-15 (6-10) - #250
-          Troy 11-16 (6-10) - #236

Despite dominating the time of posession and staying even in most offensive categories, the Blue Raiders of MTSU were not able to give the Sun Belt Conference a perfect 2-0 bowl season as they fell to the Central Michigan Chippewas 31-14. A second-half INT return for a TD by CMU LB Doug Kress put CMU up 28-7 and a late INT sealed the game as the Sun Belt ends their 2006 season with a 1-1 bowl record and MTSU finished the season at 7-6.