Sunbelt 2018/19 Hoops Hunches

1) Georgia Southern Eagles: My favorite named player , #TookieBrown , will keep the Eagles near the top
2) Georgia State Panthers: D’Marcus Simonds is the main man.
3) Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns hung with Kansas and beat Tulane early this season
4) Appalachian State Mountaineers- Justin Forrest 19.2ppg and crew have weathered a tough OOC schedule.
5) Troy Trojans: Varnado has been solid.
6) UL Monroe Warhawks: Travis Munnings has been decent but will need some help.
7) Coastal Carolina Chanticleers: Cuthbertson 20.4 PPG
8) South Alabama Jaguars needs O.
9) Texas State Bobcats:  Nijai Pearson is the player to watch.
10) Arkansas State Red Wolves: Rough  out of conference start except for Ty Cockfield 21.1ppg
11) UT Arlington Mavericks- Rebuilding
12) Little Rock Trojans- Good luck to Coach Darrell Walker, a former NBA player, in finding some O.

jan 8, 2019

 Texas St held of Georgia Southern 73-70 to open league play and hung tight in a 73-69 loss to conference leader Georgia St.

jan13, 2019

 Tre Nottingham and Nijal Pearson scored 16 points apiece and #TXST (14-3, 3-1 Sun Belt) defeated #appst. It may be time to get join the Bobcats' pack.  GST, UTA, ARLR, Troy, and ULL also won yesterday.

jan 18, 2019

Texas St (15-3 4-1), my pre-season  sunbelt -9th team , blew by ARLR LAST NIGHT as Tre Nottingham scored 24 points and Nijal Pearson added 19 . Other winners: UTA, GAST, and Georgia Southern

jan 23, 2019

Texas State (5-1) Nijal Pearson had 29 points and 11 rebounds and TXST went on 30-0 run to beat Ark St 77-64 on Jan 19. Varnado's 3-pointer  with 1.7 seconds on the clock gave Troy the victory over  Georgia State (5-1)
feb 1, 2019
 Zac Cuthbertson had 29 points and Devante Jones scored 25 in Coastal Carolina.'s win over ULM.
Tyrell Johnson scored 20 points in 16 minutes for App St in its 104-77 romp over ULL.

Feb 3

It's getting crowded at the top of the Sunbelt heap. 

Georgia State  (7-2) D'Marcus Simonds scored 29 points in a win over Georgia Southern

Texas State (6-3) #BrianWarren scored  30 points in a 83-77 OT win over UT Arlington(6-3)

 Coastal Carolina (6-3) #ZacCuthbertson scored 24 points in a win over ULL

Feb 9
Good Friday night for the Louisiana schools: ULM beat Georgia Southern and ULL beat Georgia St

Feb 10

Texas St remains tied for first with UTA for first- he!! of a season. NPearson scored 17 points  for TXST in the win over CCU remaining tied with UTA  beat appst.
Feb 16
Both Georgia schools got big Friday night Sunbelt wins:  Malik Benlevi scored  26 points as Georgia St defeated South Alabama 90-81,and Tookie Brown and Isaiah Crawley scored 16 points apiece as GA Southern rolled over South Bama to a 76-51. TXSt 9-3, GA St 9-4, UTA 8-4, GS 8-5

feb 22

TX St fell to ULM(7-6)  which allowed Georgia St , a winner over AppSt (4-9) ,to move into a tie for first with them at 10-4. Tookie Brown had 17 for  Georgia Southern(9-5) in its win over CCU (6-7). UTA(8-6) lost to ULL (7-6)

feb 24

Brian Warren scored  33 points for TXST(11-4) in its OT win over ULM and took sole possession of first place when  Ga St(10-5) lost to Coastal Carolina. Ga Southern (10-5) get 28 points for Tookie Brown in its win over AppSt.

Mar 2

TXST(12-4) hasn't folded  and beat Troy to stay one game ahead of Ga St (10-5), a winner over Ark St thursday night  in the Sunbelt race. UTA(10-6) beat South Bama. GA Southern (11-5) was idle.

March 9

Two intrastate games , GA St/Georgia Southern and UTA/TXSt , will determine the regular season Sunbelt winner. UTA is 11-6, the other three teams are 12-5. TXSt had a bad loss to South Bama last week buthas had a he!! of a surprising season.

 March 10

 Kane Williams scored a career-high 23 points helping Ga Southern beat Ga St to clinch the Sunbelt title because TXST lost to UTA

march 13

Nice second half from South Bama in a rd1 win over Ark St  ULM knocked off App St. Troy and Ark LR didn't qualify, and the top four teams get double byes.

March 15

 South Bama is shaking up the Sunbelt T. Rodrick Sikes made one of two free throws with four seconds left to give USA a 70-69 win over ULL. Michael Ertel had 20 points as Louisiana-Monroe crushed Coastal Carolina 80-50.

March 16

TXST halted South Bama's Cinderella move with 79-67 win while Georgia Southern beat ULM. TXST plays GA St and GA Southern faces UTA today.

March 17

Malik Benlevi tallied 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead Georgia State to a 59-46 win over Texas St who scored only fifteen points in the first half. Brian Warren scored 21 points as Texas-Arlington beat Georgia Southern 67-58 and prevented all Georgia SunbeltT final.

March 26,2019

 I thought he was Georgia St lifer: Coach  Ron Hunter, fresh off a dance loss to Houston on Friday in, took the #Tulane (AAC) opening.

April 1, 2019

#chrisbeard , the Texas Tech HC , is big news these days. It wasn't long ago he had Arkansas -Little Rock fans ecstatic when they beat Purdue in rd1 of the 2016 Dance then fell to Iowa St in rd2

april 7

  #PhilCunningham took #troy to the dance in 2017 and now he's out. Wow!  They hired  Scott Cross, who some success at UTA through the 2017-18 season.
App State hired  Dustin Kerns , who led Presbyterian (Big South) to  solid 20-16 season and a CTI  invitation after a weak 11- 21  record in 2017-18. It's not the greatest resume.

april 15

 Georgia State hired Tennessee assistant Rob Lanier, a longtime assistant for Rick Barnes at Texas and Tennessee, as it's new HC. He was the HC at Sienna (MAAC) from 2001-05.

Sunbelt on MAC 2017-18 hoops.

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