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Feb. 3, 2010
Can Houston Baptist and Texas-Pan American keep it
up in the Great West?
by John Stansberry
This feature also appeared on
FoxSports.com
Handicapping a league race in college hoops isn't
the simplest endeavor, but it's not exactly rocket
science, either. Any given league has a core group
of three or four solid contenders from which the
best of breed can usually be chosen.
But in the case of the Great West Conference, those
rules don't really apply this season. When it's year
one for a league, the contenders and pretenders are
a little harder to discern.
While South Dakota and Utah Valley have shown
flashes of great play entering the conference
season, neither of those teams sits atop the early
Great West standings.
Nope, the early leaders out of the gate are Houston
Baptist and Texas Pan-American, both of which are
sitting on 2-0 league marks.
While life in non-conference play this season has
been very unkind at times for the Huskies and Broncs
(HBU dropped a 93-52 decision to Memphis while UTPA
absorbed a 100-44 beating at the hands of Missouri),
they've still emerged as the last two Great West
squads with unblemished marks in league play.
In one of the quirkiest starts to a conference
schedule this season, HBU and UTPA have gotten a leg
up on their Great West competitors despite sporting
a combined overall record of 6-33.
Those numbers aren't pretty, but hey, that's all
water under the bridge now. Their perfect starts in
Great West play represent new leases on life. The
big question is this...can these teams sustain it?
For Houston Baptist, it might be a matter of whether
or not forward Mario Flaherty can keep up his
productivity against Great West foes. His numbers in
HBU's two league wins: 24.5 ppg, 11 rpg, 3 bpg and
60% shooting from the field.
In the case of UTPA, junior college transfer Matt
Mierzyckt needs to keep up the steady improvement
he's shown since making his debut back on December
7. He's come off the bench to average 14.5 in the
Broncs' two conference wins.
In terms of overall team play, both squads need to
get tougher on the defensive end to remain factors
in the Great West race. Out of 347 Division I teams,
stat guru Ken Pomeroy currently has HBU ranked 293rd
and UTPA 302nd in defensive efficiency.
Conference road games are never easy, and both teams
are back loaded with those. The Huskies and Broncs
both finish their regular season slates playing six
of their final eight Great West contests in opposing
gyms.
John Stansberry is in his thirteenth season as
a senior writer for collegeinsider.com. Check out
John's blog
LonelyTailgater.com.
EMAIL JOHN
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