It's a two for one deal as I get my the O5 hoop predictions wrapped up before Xmas:
SunBelt
UT-Arlington- I gravitate to UTA every season. Hervey/Neal tandem leads the Mavs
Troy- Varnada & Person lead a solid squad
Ga. Southern- C'mon a guy named Tookie leads the Eagles to third
Georgia St.- Simonds, an excellent PG , needs a scorer to assist.
Texas St.- King , Prijovic -who knows
UL Lafayette- Washing/Miller tandem anchor a strong frontcourt
S. Alabama- Sikes may propel the Jags
Coast. Car.- Coach Cliff Ellis is still around and will rely heavily on Guard Jaylen Shaw.
App. St.- Shabazz is averaging 22 PPG
UL-Monroe- Maybe Muinnings raises his 15 PPG to 20
Arkansas St.- Will Devin Simms step up?
Little Rock- Doesn't return a astarter
Mid-American
East
Bowling Green- Turner, Frye, and Caldwell have the Falcons off to a nice start.
Akron- Utomi 24 PPG keeps the Zips in contention
Buffalo- Massinburg and Perkins are decent scorers.
Kent St.- Walker needs to flash more points than 18 PPG
Miami (Ohio) relies heavily on Adaway for points and assists.
Ohio- Balanced but mediocre scoring
West
Toledo- Fletcher and the Rockets soar
E. Michigan- ThompsonIV 16.4 PPG, 12.3 RBG is the key
W. Michigan- Wilder is the main dude 19 PPG
N. Illinois- German has skills , will Bradley and Thorpe improve
Ball St.- No big time scorer.
C. Michigan Not enough scoring Chips
Jan 3: #ULL off to a 2-0 Sunbelt Conference start with wins over UALR & ARST.They had an early OOC win over #Iowa
Jan5-Tuned into the televised Akron/Toledo game last night and was underwhelmed by the shooting. Jaelan Sanford scored 22 points for Toledo in its win over Akron.
Jan 16 Sunbelt report
ULL 5-0 Bartley IV and Grant have been averaging about 16 PPG and face Texas State 5-1 led by #kevinhervey 20.4 PPG , 8;6 rbg on Jan 18
Georgia Southern 5-1.It remains Tookie time for the Eagles.
Jan 17 MAC-time: #buffalo and #toledo are getting in gear. Toledo(4-1 MAC) pounded Ohio 91-57 Fletcher had 18 points and Navigato and Sanford added 16 apiece as Toledo. Nick Perkins (26 PTS, 6 REB, 1 STL) led Buffalo (6-0 MAC) to a 91-57 blowout of NIU.
Jan 24: Bull run continues . Buffalo stays undefeated in MAC play with a 83-69 win over EMU.
Nike Sibande (22 PTS, 6 REB, 2 AST) lead Miami (OH) (11-9, 4-3 MAC) over CMU. Akron showed signs of life with a win over Ohio. #Niu seesaw season went up with blowout win over BGST. Kent St needed OT to beat Ball St. Toledo (6-1 MAC) led by Sanford & Fletcher edged WMU.
Jan 26: Marquetti scored 21 in the ULL (8-0) win over South Bama, TXSt (6-2) remains in the hunt with Nottingham's free throw with four seconds to goin a 62-61 win over Ga Southern. Simonds scored 29 points in Georgia St.(6-2) 81-75 win over UTA. TXST visits Ga St in a big matchupof second place teams Saturday Jan27.
Jan 31: How about Kent St roaring back to give Buffalo it's first loss in the MAC? Danny Pippen
KENT - F (21 PTS, 13 REB, 1 STL). #kentst (6-3) is two games behind Buffalo (8-1) in the East.
Feb 3 : Massinburg scored 26, Buffalo Bulls corralle Western Michigan 92-86. #kentst visits bowling green and tries to not lose ground to Buffalo in the MAC East race.
Feb 8 Sunbelt catch-up. Surprised that #uta has slipped and TXST is hanging in there. The Georgia schools are hanging in there. what happened to #troy. good job undefeated #ULL
Louisiana 10-0
Georgia St. 9-2
Ga. Southern 7-4
Texas St. 7-5
UT-Arlington 6-6
Feb 9: Session and Simonds scored 22 points apiece as Georgia State gave ULL it's first conference loss. ULM knocked off Ga Southern with a late trey. #troy woke up and beat ark st. South Bama beat Ark LR
feb 14 MAC update: #buffalo #toledo keep winning but there's only one Dance ticket available
feb 17 MAC update: #CJMassinburg had 24 points, 12 rebounds and five assists for #Buffalo who clinched MAC East with 95-82 win over Bowling Green
feb 28 #CJMaSSINBURG hit five treys for #buffalo in a win over Akron and are looking strong heading toward the MACT. Another strong contender is Toledo who got a triple double from Fletcher in last night's win over #NIU. Both teams are locks for two of the top four seeds which get byes to the semi-finals. Kent St (9-8) got a big win over Miami O(8-9) in the race for final two bye slots. wmu(9-8) beat emu(10-7). Ball St (10-7) lost to CMU
Sunbelt update-Back from my nap. #ULL (26-4, 16-1) keeps rolling along with solid efforts from Frank Bartley IV (18 points) and Bryce Washington (15 points) in last night's win over #arkst. ULM 48 ARK-LR 44. Game was 19-18 at the half.. Maybe the Georgia schools , GST or GSouthern can steal the Dance ticket by winning the Sunbelt T, but I don't see it.
March 3 MAC update- Massinburg & Perkins lead Buffalo to another 100 point night and an easy win . #Minnie scored 25 as #emu edged Toledo and moved closer to a rd1 bye.
March 6 #MAC update: Coach #Groce , who took Ohio dancing a few rounds a few years ago before some rough seasons at Illinois, got his Zips to upset WMU in rd1. Utomi had 26 for victorious Akron. Miami O beat Ohio. CMU beat BGST. Zabo helped Kent St avoid being upset by NIU.
March 8 in Cleveland: Buff/CMU. KentSt/Ball St . Miami O/Toledo. Akron /EMU
March 10 update: #ULL has had a great season but they 'll need to beat UTA in the tourney semi final to get a Dance ticket. Frank Bartley scored 23 points in the ULL win over TXST, and Erick Neal scored 37 point in the UTA beatdown of App St. Battle of Ga (GST G Southern in the other semi-final. In the MAC no surprise as Jeremy Harris scored 22 points and CJ Massinburg scored 14 in Buffalo's win overKent State 78-61. #toledo needed Marreon Jackson's 26 points and the go-ahead 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining to edge #emu
March 11_ Buffalo punched it's dance ticket. Wilson and Neal led UTA to an upset over ULL while #IsaiahWilliams came off the bench to score 21 for Georgia St in it's victory over Ga Southern who got 25 points from Tookie Wilson, one of my favorite hoop names.
March 12- Props to Ga St but I don't see them getting by Cincy. #buffalo faces a rejuvenated #arizona squad. One and dones
