Army and Houston are half a continent apart but call themselves football rivals in Conference USA. The Western Athletic Conference plays in as many time zones (4) as the NBA. And don’t forget that the Big Ten has 11 members.
But in an age of puzzling conference alignments, the Sun Belt Conference has perhaps the most oddball membership, unless you think Florida International and Denver make for a hot rivalry, to say nothing of New Mexico State and New Orleans.
The Sun Belt has 12 teams flung across nine states and three time zones. It’s 2,094 driving miles (1,720 by air) between Denver and Miami-based Florida International.
Come NCAA tournament time, the Sun Belt could make a name for itself by knocking off a high seed from an elite conference. But for now the Sun Belt faces an identity crisis.
Who’s in the league? It depends on when you ask. Three new members–New Mexico State, North Texas and Middle Tennessee State–joined this year, but Louisiana Tech is leaving next year.
The Sun Belt media guide ought to be published by Rand McNally.
Asked what binds the Sun Belt schools together, Commissioner Wright Waters said: “You’d love to have something flowery to describe it. But at the end of the day, they are their own best option. They need each other.”
New Mexico State, which has a history of hoop success, wound up in the Sun Belt after the WAC spurned its bid to join. Louisiana Tech next season will bolt to the WAC, which is losing Texas Christian to Conference USA. Denver, a respected hockey school, needed a home when it made the leap to Division I basketball last year, so it jumped to join the Sun Belt.
The Sun Belt has seven Division I-A football schools, and its champion will play in the newly founded bowl in New Orleans next season. In non-revenue sports, conference play is restricted to postseason tournaments in an effort to keep travel costs under control.
Because most of its basketball members have so little in common geographically, the Sun Belt has had to go to great lengths to try to establish an identity. The league is publishing a promotional poster of team mascots, dubbed the “family portrait.” Knowing that free food and drink are powerful lures for sportswriters, the New Orleans-based conference threw a Mardi Gras-style “parade” hoping to drum up hype for preseason basketball media day. “We’re doing some crazy things to try to build a sense of identity,” Waters said.
Building rivalries will take longer. Next year the league will pair schools as travel partners in an effort to bring sense to the schedule. But this year has been a frequent-flier headache. New Mexico State is in the midst of a stretch that includes games at South Alabama, North Texas and Denver in seven days. And in one 14-day stretch, South Alabama visits North Texas, New Mexico State, Arkansas-Little Rock and Denver. But at least the Jaguars stay home for the Sun Belt tournament March 2-6 in Mobile.
“It’s spread out,” said New Mexico State coach Lou Henson, the former Illinois coach. “This year travel has been hectic. It’s a young league, and it’s going to take a while for everyone to get used to it.”
Cardinal rules: Coaches looking for ways to attack top-ranked Stanford in the NCAA tournament may want to take a look at the opening minutes of last weekend’s game against New Mexico at Maples Pavilion.
Starting only one player taller than 6 feet 6 inches, the Lobos conceded a huge size advantage but decided to exploit a perceived edge in athleticism and quickness. Their slashes to the basket bewildered Stanford’s defenders, and midway through the first half the Lobos led 24-23.
Groping for an answer, Cardinal coach Mike Montgomery switched to a zone defense, a scheme he employs about as frequently as Stanford players split infinitives, which is to say rarely. But in this case Montgomery made an exception because, he said, he wanted to force the Lobos to make jump shots.
“We decided to try the zone one time,” Montgomery said. “We said, `Well, let’s stay with it until something bad happens.'”
Nothing bad happened, except to New Mexico. Stanford went on a 20-2 run and buried New Mexico, which failed to score on seven straight possessions against the zone. The Cardinal cruised to a 75-44 win to remain the lone unbeaten in Division I.
“It was just a matter of time before the steamroller rolled over us,” Lobos coach Fran Fraschilla said.
The zone “definitely caught them by surprise,” swingman Ryan Mendez told the San Francisco Chronicle. “That’s why it’s good not to do it too much.”
Still, the first half had revealed a potential weakness. Come tournament time, the Cardinal might be challenged by one of those mid-major conference teams that is short on size but long on athleticism.
San Diego sunrise: It hasn’t taken former Michigan coach Steve Fisher long to bring respectability to longtime laughingstock San Diego State.
Fisher, who took over the bedraggled program last year, led the Aztecs to their first conference win in nearly two years Saturday. The 67-43 Mountain West Conference victory over Air Force snapped a 17-game conference losing streak.
It was the third time this year the Aztecs had ended a notable skid. The others: a 17-game overall losing streak and a 30-game road losing streak. The Aztecs (11-6) are on pace for their second winning season since 1985.
Fans are noticing. Attendance at Cox Arena is up 60 percent over a year ago.
“We talked about being competitive and we’ve done that,” Fisher said Monday from San Diego. “Our next goal is to become a winning basketball team. We have competed hard. But as a coach I know how fragile these things can be.”
Gator baiting: In 1995, the year after Florida made its first Final Four appearance, the Gators slipped to 17-12 and a No. 10 seed in the East Regional. Although they opened the NCAA tournament in nearby Tallahassee, they lost in the first round to Iowa State. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Gators have hit a bumpy road nine months after they made it to the NCAA final. Unlike some of the more traditional powers (read: Duke and North Carolina), Florida can’t take success for granted, especially when it is plagued with injuries.
The Gators learned that last week when they blew back-to-back games for the first time in a 60-game stretch. What’s worse, both losses, to Southeastern Conference rivals Georgia and Vanderbilt, came in Gainesville. The Gators are 1-3 in the SEC and face an almost must-win trip to Auburn on Wednesday night.
The Vandy loss galled Florida coach Billy Donovan because he had ordered his defenders to shut down the Commodores’ long-range guns. Vandy hit only one of its first 10 three-point tries but connected on 7 of 12 after halftime, erasing a seven-point deficit in the final minutes.
“We gave the game away. We played not to lose,” Donovan said. “We played scared down the stretch.”
Hoya-polloi: The term “good loss” is usually offered by people who didn’t lose the game. But Georgetown’s first defeat, 70-66 Saturday at home to hot-shooting Pitt, might prove to be beneficial for the Hoyas as they prepare for the NCAA tournament.
Georgetown found out what happens when it goes away from its longtime staple–defense. The Hoyas let the Panthers, who had struggled on the road, shoot 60 percent in the second half. The loss dropped Georgetown to 16-1, 4-1 in the Big East.
“To think a team can go unbeaten in this league is nearly impossible,” Georgetown coach Craig Esherick said. “Sixteen and one is a pretty good record.”
Free throws: Expansion has created more revenue possibilities for the Big East, but it has thrown the league’s schedule out of whack and denied fans some spicy matchups. Upstart Boston College plays neither Georgetown nor Seton Hall. And Connecticut misses Georgetown, while Providence doesn’t play Notre Dame. . . . Seton Hall freshman forward Eddie Griffin came within two blocked shots of the second triple-double in school history last weekend. Griffin had 20 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocks as the Pirates whipped eighth-ranked Syracuse 77-65 at the Meadowlands. “I think maybe this was my best all-around game of the year,” Griffin said. He had the school’s first triple-double with 21 points, 12 rebounds and 10 blocks against Norfolk State in December. Said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim: “He just made big plays.”
