Florida Matchups in O5 play Sept 21-22

#fau  (CUSA) will rely heavily on rushing yards from Singletary in an upset bid at #ucf (AAC), but  I don't think the Owls will contain Mckenzie the UCF QB for long.  UCF 30 FAU 20
#fiu (CUSA) doesn't have enough O to stay with Miami Fla  in their first mmeting since the brawl twelve years ago. Yes, I know FIU is averaging 40 plus points a game but that was against Umass , ODU, and Indiana. Miami 34 FIU 16
#NIU (MAC) travels to FSU (ACC) and faces a Noles team that's a mess. Marcus Childers will toss a TD pass  and keep the Huskies in the game but they'll fall 20-17.
For new readers O5 , the Other 5 , is my label for the non -power football conferences., #aac, #cusa, #mac, #mwc , #sunbelt
sept 22: This says it all about UCF 56 FAU 36 . McKenzie Milton  UCF
21-32, 306 YDS, 3 TD , Devin Singletary  FAU 25 CAR, 131 YDS, 3 TD
sept 23:  FIU QB Morgan tossed two  TDs to Worton for FIU in the the 4Q but that was too little, too late to recover from a 31-0 deficit.Miami 31 FIU 17. NIU QB Childers passed for two and rushed for one TD but that was far from enough in a 37-19  defeat to the Noles

AAC 2018 FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS

American Athletic East Division
UCF Knights - Coach Heupel has QB Mckenzie which should get them back to the AAC title game but they won't  go undefeated.
South Florida Bulls - D should be solid but plenty of holes on offense
Cincinnati Bearcats- Geddis and Lewis are solid receivers and team reaches .500
Temple Owls finished strong in 2017 but will it carry over?
East Carolina Pirates Rebuild continues
Connecticut Huskies- The Edsels are stuck in neutral
West Division

Navy Midshipmen- Never underestimate the rushing attack
Memphis Tigers will miss QB Riley Ferguson but the team has a lot of talent
Tulsa Golden Hurricane RB #shamaribrooks will get a ton of work
Houston Cougars- Decent D with Ed Oliver anchoring the Line. but how fast can the O adjust to Briles, the new OC?
Tulane Green Wave isn't cresting yet.
SMU Mustangs- Coach Dykes is still in rebuild mode.

aug 22

Tony Pollard #memphis KR ,and  Ed Oliver #houston DL made the CBS  first team preseason All America squad.

aug 24

QB battle in #memphis ends with David Moore’s, last season's backup QB, decision to transfer, #BradyWhite a graduate transfer from Arizona State, will open the 2018 season as the Tigers’ starting quarterback.

aug 28

QB Justin McMillan , the former LSU signal-caller,  was added to the Tulane roster over the weekend for this upcoming season as a graduate transfer.
He is one of the rare grad transfers with two years of eligibility left to use and will likely be a backup in 2018 behind Jonathan Bank

aug 31

The Huskies' "Edsel" runs out of gas again.5 TDs for #mckenzie  #UCF 56 UConn 17

sept 2

Rough weekend for the AAC: Temple lost to 1AA Villanova. Navy lost to Hawaii. #SMU got crushed by North Texas Houston started their game against Rice in a coma but woke up to roll the Owls 45-27. Tulane hung with Wake Forest but fell 23-17. Big time road win for the Cincy Bearcats over #UCLA  . Props to the Bearcats RB,  Michael Warren II  35 CAR, 142 YDS, 3 TD

sept 8,2018

#ECU brass started  the long kiss goodbye by giving  statements of support for #ScottieMontgomery after the loss to NC A&T, an FCS team

sept 21, 2018

#temple beat MD last week and  scored two DTDs in a win overTulsa 31-17 last night. The Owls have made a nice turnaround after opening the season with losses to Villanova (1AA) and Buffalo (MAC).

sept 29, 2018

#Tulane Green Wave rushing attack  led by (D Bradwell 143 yards, two TDs) rolled Memphis last night . Nice recovery from the blowout loss to Ohio St last week.
oct 2-If neither team is playing in league title games, #ECU (AAC) and NC State  will square off Dec. 1 to make up for the Hurricane Florence cancellation.
oct 5-  Houston scored 24 points in the 4th quarter in a come from behind 41-26 win over #tulsa .

Dance nears, O5 report

AAC: Cincy and SMU should get in  w/o winning the AACT. Houston and UConn must win the AACT TO GO DANCING.
CUSA:  #mtsu has clinched the regular season title and should Dance regardless of how they do in the CUSAT. Two wins over the SEC teams, Vandy and Ole Miss, might help their resume
MACT winner will get the only Dance ticket Akron won the Eastand  Ball St and Western Michigan are tied atop the West.
MWC- Colorado St struggled to beat SDST last night and remain in a tie for first with Nevada. It appears the MWCT winner gets their only dance ticket.
SunBelt: UTA handled South Bama to keep a one game lead over  Georgia St and Georgia Southern . Tough to see the SunBelt getting more than one entry into the Dance.

feb 27

 UCF  has been improving under Coach Johnny Dawkins, but still stunned they beat #cincy

feb 28

Coastal Carolina (15-15, 10-7 ) is having a decent debut season in Sunbelt hoops. Last night Shivaughn Wiggins scored 18 points and Colton Ray-St Cyr scored 16in the CCU win over ULM.
#uta remains strong and a player with a great name #faithpope scored 14 in the Mavs win over Troy.
Georgia schools have had a rough February
UT Arlington       13-3 23-6
Arkansas State 11-5 20-9
Georgia State        11-6 18-11
Georgia Southern 11-6 18-12
Texas State       10-6 17-11
Coastal Carolina 10-7 15-15

March 1

MWC: Big night for #prentissnixon  as #coloradost survived Wyoming and is a half game up on idle #nevada.. #boisest lost to #fresno.
MAC: #akron lost to cellar dweller Miami of Ohio but still has the East wrapped up. In the West #wmu and #ballst remain tied for first. #taylerpersons hit 6 3s, scored 29 in #BallSt win over Toledo  while #wmu beat #niu

March 2

AAC- If #uconn was on the bumble, they've fallen way off . #CWhite 
(28 PTS, 4 REB, 2 AST) led #ecu to a win over  the Huskies last night.

March 3

AAC : Cincy rocked third place Houston and #Smu cruised by Tulsa and the AAC may only get these two teams in the Dance. Cincy coach #Cronin spices up pre Dance talk "ticket sales, not wins or losses, are primarily behind how teams get seeded in the NCAA tournament."
CUSA: screw #lunardi , #mtsu should be dancing w/o winning the #cusat.
SunBelt: #uta is riding high but has to win the conference tourney to Dance

March 4

MAC : Ball St and   Western Michigan are tied for first in the West , but #Ballst had the tiebreaker to join #akron ,  #ohio , #buffalo with first round MACT byes.

March 5

CUSA- If the #herd  played some D it could have been a different season.They scored 61 in the second half of a 106-104 win over Northtexas. #louisianatech finished strong pounding USM. It's going to be difficult for the CUSA to get dance tickets when bracketologists are going nine deep with Big 10 teams.

march 6

MAC starts today
#5 Western Michigan vs. #12 Miami 
#6 Kent State vs. #11 Central Michigan 
#7 Toledo vs. #10 Bowling Green 
#8 Eastern Michigan vs. #9 Northern Illinois 
Opening day CUSA
(8) WKU vs. (9) UTSA  - 11:30a
(12) Southern Miss vs. (5) Rice - 2:00p
(10) Charlotte vs. (7) UAB - 5:30p

(11) Florida Atlantic vs. (6) Marshall  - 8:00p

AAC
No. 9 East Carolina vs. No. 8 Temple - 3:30 p.m. ET
 No. 10 Tulane vs. No. 7 Tulsa - 6 p.m. ET 

 No. 11 USF vs. No. 6 UConn - 8 p.m. ET

SUNBELT
CCU / SOUTH ALABAMA
ULM /ARK ST
APP ST /TROY
ARK LR/ULL

march 7

No MAC  surprises yesterday
#5 Western Michigan #6 Kent State  #7 Toledo  #8 Eastern Michigan  won. #JThompsonIV 
(21 PTS, 11 REB, 0 AST) and his #emu eagles were impressive

March 9

MWC
UTAH ST crushed SJ ST and faces Nevada today
AFU upset Wyoming and meeets Colorado St today.
SDST beat UNLV in OT and get Boise next. Can the Aztecs recover from a so-so season and win the MWCT?
New Mexico faces Fresno
SUNBELT
CCU , ULL , & Troy advance while ULM  behind  N. Coppola (15 PTS, 2 REB, 4 AST) upset ARK ST.
CUSA: UTSA, Rice, UAB, and Marshall advance. S. Browning  (22 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST) of the #herd. M. Evans  (26 PTS, 3 REB, 4 AST) of Rice had big games.

March 10

MAC: Akrn cruised to victory, while Ballst, Kent St and Ohi won close ones.
MWC: Aztecs  on a dance missin upset Boise..Fresno, Coloradost and Nevada advance. Not sure if the MWC is getting a second team in the Dance.
CUSA: UTEP keeps up their late season solid play. #herd survive. #mtsu and #latech win easily.
AAC:Tulsa, UConn and ECU advance

March 11

AAC: UCF has had a solid late season run and crushed Memphis on its way  matchup against #SMU
M. Williams UCF(19 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST) will need to duplicate this performance tonight. Olie's Huskies face Cincy. Can UCF r UConn steal a Dance ticket from a major conference?
CUSA: Special place for the #marshall #herd in the O5 Google+ community. J. Elmore (21 PTS, 1 REB, 4 AST) led the #herd in a huge win over La Tech. They'll face #mtsu, a winner over UTEP,  in the championship game tonight.#mtsu should be Dancing regardless of tonight's outcome.
MAC: GoldenFlashes  got a big night from J. Hall (22 PTS, 10 REB, 4 AST) in a narrow win over #ohio and face top dog Akron, a win over Ball St in the final,
MWC: M. Marshall 28 PTS, 2 REB, 5 AST led #Nevada's big second half run to defeat #fresnst and a matchup against #coloradost in the final tnght. Both teams deserve Dance tickets regardless of the outcome.
SunBelt: #uta, #troy ,and Georgia St advanced but the big surprise is how #texasst keeps moving forward. Nijal Pearson had 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals in the Texas State win over Louisiana-Monroe. Errratic Bobcats may get their paws trimmed again one seed Texas-Arlington tonight.

March 12

AAC: Top two teams, SMU  and Cincy,  advance to the AACT final . The winner should be a four seed.
CUSA: #mtsu saved the committee frm a tough choice.#herd made a nice run in the middle of the second half but the Blue Raiders were resilient.
MAC: Congrats to #kentst , the sixth seed in the MACT, for an impressive tourney run that ended with a win ver their nearby neighbors Akron.
MWC: #nevada roared back from a terrible first half to win the MWCT. Tough loss for#coloradost who may land in the NIT. Not much committee love for the MWC.
Sunbelt: Wow, I told you TXST was erratic but I didn't expect them to defeat 1 seed #uta by twenty one points. And #troy knocked off Georgia St.

March 13
TXST was a little sloppy in the final five minutes and couldn't vertake #troy in the Sunbelt final. Is ST Mary's  (WCC) better than Louisiana Tech (CUSA) or Colorado St (MWC). I doubt it.
AAC-No respect for the AAC. #SMU get providence/usc winner. #cincy gets Wake/Kst winner
CUSA- Last year #mtsu knocked off Sparty in rd1. This year I think they 'll  knock off another B10 team -Minnesota
MAC- don't see #kentst getting by #UCLA
MWC- #nevada will shock #iowast
SUNBELT:#troy gets Duke- no upset here

March 17

I've been touting #mtsu all season and they held off a late Gophers to defeat #minnesota in rd1.Upshaw and Williams were stellar Blue Raiders late in the game.  What does it take for the Committee to give the #CUSA some respect and a second team at the Dance. I was wrong on Nevada who couldn't recover from a bad  first half in their rd1 loss to Iowa St.
Also, I was wrong on St Marys who won in rd1.

March 18

Awesome dunk by #chuckperson  of #troy but #duke was too much for them. Stunned by the #smu loss to #usc and props to #cincy for moving forward. #kentst lost to #UCLA

March 19

#mtsu put up a good fight but lost to #butler.  #cincy faces #ucla today

March 20

Cincy gone.#ucla  shot 63% from the field in the second half

June 18, 2017

I didn't cover #cmu often this season, but #marcuskeene, their high scoring (30 ppg) 5'9 guard may get drafted late in round 2

july 26, 2017

sometimes I don't what these kids are thinking. #patrickGood, a 6-foot guard for #appst averaged 7.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game and shot 41% from treyland is transferring and will have to sit a year if he goes to a 1A school