Down the stretch in Conference USA

The first in our series of look-aheads to the conference tournaments.

Conference USA

March 11-15, El Paso, Texas

     The frontrunner: Middle Tennessee (12-1), which is ranked No. 23 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, has a two-game lead over three teams with three to play.
     The challengers: Southern Miss, UTEP and Tulane are all bunched in second place with 10-3 conference marks, and East Carolina sits a game back at 9-4. The difference between fourth and fifth place is huge as the top four seeds earn double-byes and will be three tournament victories away from the title. Seeds five through eight will face a four-games-in-four-days path to the crown.

Wednesday's key games

     Middle Tennessee State at East Carolina: The Lady Pirates have won 26 straight home games but will be hosting a Top-25 team for the first time in that span.

     UTSA at UTEP: The status of UTEP star Kayla Thornton is unclear after she collapsed in the locker room Saturday after leading her team past East Carolina. Thornton apparently has a concussion and as of Monday had not been cleared to return to action.

     UAB at Southern Miss: UAB has won three in a row and is coming off an upset win over Tulane; high-scoring Southern Miss is the league's hottest team with eight straight victories.

     The rest of the field: Seeds five through eight earn single byes, and while UAB's Blazers (7-5) look to be OK if they handle their business it gets awfully congested from there. Two teams from a group that includes Charlotte (6-6), Old Dominion (6-7), FIU (6-7), Rice (5-8), Tulsa (5-8) and North Texas (5-8) will earn the right to bypass first-round play. UTSA (4-9), Florida Atlantic (3-10) and Louisiana Tech (3-10) will all likely finish outside the top eight, and Marshall (2-11) will definitely be playing on opening day.

     Old Dominion's prospects: After two straight road victories, the Lady Monarchs can now either play their way into or out of a first-round bye. We absolutely love ODU's chances on Wednesday at home against Louisiana Tech. The Lady Techsters are 1-11 on the road - although the win came last Wednesday in overtime at Tulsa - and are also the third-worst shooting team in the conference. Old Dominion is coming off holding Rice to 31.4 percent shooting and UTSA to 29.6. If the Lady Monarchs can apply that level of defense to LA Tech, this puppy might be over quickly. That said, the last time we felt this strongly about ODU getting a win was about a month ago against Marshall, and the Lady Monarchs needed some unlikely late heroics and overtime to rescue victory. So let's just see how things play out.
     Old Dominion travels to FIU on Saturday and concludes regular-season play on March 5 at home vs. East Carolina. If the Lady Monarchs can win their remaining games, they will not only hit the postseason on a roll but should also find themselves in fairly decent shape for a WNIT bid - especially if they can advance a round or two in the CUSA tourney. But any regular season loss at this point muddies their WNIT outlook considerably.

All-CUSA

The league will have first- and second-teams consisting of eight players each as selected by the coaches, SIDs and selected media representatives. Now remember, there are still three games remaining - four for Charlotte and UAB - so some shifting of spots could occur. But as of right now here's how we see it:

First team 

Ebony Rowe, MTSU

Jerica Coley, FIU

Karisma Chapman, UAB

Kayla Thornton, UTEP

Jessica Kuster, Rice

Jamierra Faulkner, Southern Miss

Shae Kelley, Old Dominion

Jada Payne, East Carolina

Second team

Gabby Tyler, Charlotte

Chrishauna Parker, UTEP

Whitney Frazier, LA Tech

Tiffany Dale, Tulane

Abria Trice, East Carolina

Ny Hammonds, Charlotte

Kimberly Smith, Florida Atlantic

Kelsee Grovey, Tulsa

Player of the Year

Coley and Rowe are both enjoying All-American-type seasons and are thus ridiculously well-qualified for this honor. We like Rowe at this point, but we'll re-open our mental debate if Coley can lift her team to a Top-8 finish.

All-Freshman team

We're not quite ready to trim this list to five yet, so here are eight newcomers we'd strongly consider:

Olivia Jones, Middle Tennessee State

Lefty Webster, Charlotte

Tesha Smith, UTSA

Leslie Vorpahl, Tulsa

Brittany Dinkins, Southern Miss

Kierra Jordan, Southern Miss

JaQuan Jackson, Louisiana Tech

Chelsie Romero, Marshall

Note: Old Dominion's Odegua Oigbokie and Destinee Young both have displayed All-Freshman team skills, but at 14.2 and 8.3 minutes per game respectively, they haven't logged enough time.

Freshman of the Year

Oliva Jones, Middle Tennessee State

Coach of the Year 

Rick Insell, Middle Tennessee State