Welcome to the brand-new Sun Belt.\u00a0 Gone is North Texas.\u00a0 Gone is Middle Tennessee.\u00a0 Gone are FIU and FAU.\u00a0 In comes UT-Arlington and Georgia State, along with more next year.\u00a0 And, the Sun Belt has remade itself, while keeping up its tradition of one of the best low-major conferences around (could possibly be considered mid-major).\u00a0 This year, the old stalwarts are still here and both very good – Western Kentucky and LA-Lafayette – but it was one of the newcomers that stole the show, as Georgia State, with a high-major backcourt that consists of the coach’s son, who could have played anywhere, and the starting point guard for the 2012-13 Kentucky Wildcats.\u00a0 This is going to be an interesting tournament with some solid teams chasing the newbie.<\/p>\n
19 of the 25 CTC’ers took Ga State to win this title.\u00a0 The other six were split 3-3 between WKU and LA-Lafayette.\u00a0 Both bottom seeds, Troy and ULM got some support as sleepers.\u00a0 Lazarow is the defending Sun Belt champ, and no one has ever won this league twice, so that could happen for Lazarow, Teddy, J, Stri, or Alexi.<\/p>\n
#1 Georgia State vs #3 LA-Lafayette<\/strong> Doogan, RDoc, and Teddy are the only 3 with ULL here.\u00a0 Dave, GrossSr, and Scoot have already lost this one.\u00a0 The other 19 all have Ga State.\u00a0 Alexi and Lohse will split the 2014 Sun Belt crown with a Ga State win.\u00a0 Doogan will win it if LA-Lafayette takes the title.<\/p>\n #1 Georgia State vs #4 Arkansas State<\/strong> RDoc and Scoot are the only two that have Ark State here.\u00a0 Everyone else has GSU, including 19 championship believers.<\/p>\n #2 Western Kentucky vs #3 LA-Lafayette<\/strong> This is a big game for the CTC, as all 25 people have a horse in this race, and it is as split as possible.\u00a0 13 have ULL, while 12 went WKU (Bry, Caleb, Colton, Dave, Gersh, GrossSr, J, Lynch, Mac, PapaCim, Scoot, Stri).\u00a0 Dave, GrossSr, and Scoot have the ‘Toppers winning this tournament.\u00a0 Doogan, RDoc, and Teddy have the Cajuns cutting down the nets.<\/p>\n #4 Arkansas State vs #5 AR-Little Rock<\/strong> 7 people (Becks, GrossJr, J, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, Teddy) have UALR in a mild upset pick here.\u00a0 Colton has already lost with Troy.\u00a0 The other 17 all have Ark State, including RDoc and Scoot, who have the Red Wolves going to the finals.<\/p>\n Arkansas State 116 – AR-Little Rock 114 (4 OT)<\/em><\/p>\n #3 LA-Lafayette vs #6 UT-Arlington<\/strong> No one has UT-Arlington here, but Dave and Scoot both have LA-Monroe, so they’ve already lost.\u00a0 The other 23 all have Lafayette, including Doogan, RDoc, and Teddy, who have them winning it all.\u00a0 A whole host of others have the Cajuns reaching the finals before losing.<\/p>\n LA-Lafayette 91 – UT-Arlington 85<\/em><\/p>\n #5 AR-Little Rock vs #8 Troy<\/strong> 7 people (Bry, Caleb, Chris, Colton, Doogan, RDoc, Stri) have the Troy Trojans in a decent upset here.\u00a0 Colton has them going to the semis.\u00a0 7 people (Becks, GrossJr, J, Lazarow, Mac, PapaCim, Teddy) have UALR winning a pair of games in this tournament.<\/p>\n AR-Little Rock 74 – Troy 61<\/em><\/p>\n #6 UT-Arlington vs #7 LA-Monroe<\/strong> The majority of the picks are for the underdog here, as only 11 people (Alexi, Caleb, Chris, Colton, Doogan, GrossJr, J, Lohse, Lynch, RDoc, Teddy) have UTA.\u00a0 None of them have the Mavericks beating ULL in the quarters.\u00a0 Dave and Scoot both have ULM winning here and then taking out their big rivals, ULL, in the quarters.<\/p>\n UT-Arlington 68 – LA-Monroe 65<\/em><\/p>\n Championship Picks<\/strong><\/p>\n Biggest Upsets<\/strong><\/p>\n Previous CTC Champions<\/strong><\/p>\n 2014 Scores<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to the brand-new Sun Belt.\u00a0 Gone is North Texas.\u00a0 Gone is Middle Tennessee.\u00a0 Gone are FIU and FAU.\u00a0 In comes UT-Arlington and Georgia State, along with more next year.\u00a0 And, the Sun Belt has remade itself, while keeping up … Continue reading
\nThe Big Ten.\u00a0 The ACC.\u00a0 The SEC.\u00a0 The Atlantic Ten……….The Sun Belt?!?!?\u00a0 What in the world is the Sun Belt doing still playing on Selection Sunday?\u00a0 Who do they think they are???\u00a0 Anyway, Ga State – who ran away with the regular season title (and didn’t enter the tournament until Saturday) hammered Ark State in the semis.\u00a0 LA-Lafayette, on the other hand, had a battle with UT-Arlington in the quarters on Friday and then a total war with their arch-rivals, Western Kentucky on Saturday, which ended in a 1-point Ragin’ Cajun victory.\u00a0 Now, they face off for one of the five remaining auto-bids.\u00a0 And, unless you count Saint Joe’s as a bubble team, there are no bids at stake on this day except this one.\u00a0 The other 8 teams are all playing for seeding when it comes to the tournament.<\/p>\nSEMIFINALS (March 15th – 20 points each)<\/h1>\n
\nIt wasn’t easy for the two quarterfinal winners on Friday, but we got ourselves the top 4 Belt teams here in the semis.\u00a0 (For the record, I’m not sure the Sun Belt has their tournament go all\u00a0the way to Sunday – wouldn’t you (a) want to give\u00a0the winner a chance to enjoy Selection Sunday and (b) wouldn’t you be afraid of one of your teams ending up in the First Four with a short preparation period?)\u00a0 Top-seeded Ga State got a bye to the semfinals, so they didn’t have to play Friday.\u00a0 The same cannot be said for Ark State, as they had to play a 60-minute game against their arch-rivals.\u00a0 The Red Wolves (and Andy Van Slyke’s kid) survived the 4 overtimes, but it should be interesting to see what they have left today.\u00a0 And, they will need a lot because Ga State is loaded.\u00a0 Ryan Harrow (who started for Kentucky last year) is their point guard – and he’s not even the best player on their team.\u00a0 The coach’s son, SO R.J. Hunter would be playing in some big-time program if his dad wasn’t a coach.\u00a0 And, along with Hunter and Harrow, the Panthers have two sensational senior in Devonta White and Manny Atkins.\u00a0 The only issue for this team is depth (their starters play more minutes than all but 12 teams in the country), but this starting five is probably better than AT LEAST half of the teams in the SEC (probably 2\/3).<\/p>\n
\nThe 4-OT game didn’t only affect Ark State.\u00a0 It delayed the tip of the second game well over an hour, seriously limiting the recovery time for the Ragin’ Cajuns, who won a hard-fought game over UT-Arlington.\u00a0 And, now they have to face their blood rivals, who are working on a week’s rest.\u00a0 The Hilltoppers, who have been struck by the injury bug this year did keep winning with hard-nosed defense, including a sweep on ULL.\u00a0 This should be an excellent game.\u00a0 If the Cajuns can recover from the late game last night, they could give the ‘Toppers everything they can handle.<\/p>\nQUARTERFINALS (March 14th – 10 points each)<\/h1>\n
\nThe Red Wolves of Ark State have had another quietly nice season in The Belt, as former LSU coach, John Brady, continues to build his program in Jonesboro.\u00a0 Led by the son of former Phillies centerfielder, Andy Van Slyke, Ark State are very experienced.\u00a0 They will not be an easy out here.\u00a0 Their first test is against their biggest rivals – UALR – who knocked off Troy in the opening round on Thursday.\u00a0 The winner here will battle top-seeded Georgia State in the semis on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\nIt was another excellent season for a very under-sized Ragin’ Cajuns team, as they battled all year near the top of the conference, but couldn’t get into double-bye position, finishing behind arch-rivals WKU and newcomers Ga State.\u00a0 But, the Hilltoppers await ULL in the semis for a bloodwar.\u00a0 That is, if UT-Arlington can’t upset the Cajuns first.\u00a0 The Mavs slipped past LA-Monroe on Thursday.<\/p>\nOPENING ROUND (March 13th – 5 points each)<\/h1>\n
\nThis game pits two teams that probably didn’t expect to be in this opening round.\u00a0 UALR was battling near the top of the league all year, so they definitely expected to at least get one of the single-byes that are awarded to the 3rd- and 4th-place teams.\u00a0 But, they slipped to 5th and now have to play here on Thursday.\u00a0 Troy, on the other hand, was mired near the basement of the league all year and was just hoping to get into 8th place, so as not to be eliminated before the tournament starts (Texas State and preseason pick for 2nd place, South Alabama are the ones that didn’t qualify).\u00a0 But, they won just enough games to get in and now the slate is clean and they are 4 wins from Dancing.\u00a0 The winner here takes on 4th-seeded Arkansas State inthe quarters.<\/p>\n
\nThe other newcomer, UTA, also had a decent inaugural season here in The Belt.\u00a0 They played much better in the second half of the year than the first.\u00a0 The Mavericks lean heavily on their stud senior, Brandon Edwards, who is trying to extend a terrific career.\u00a0 UTA opens with a team that is used to being the doormat of this league, ULM.\u00a0 And, the Warhawks did it with one of their most important players (Amos Olatayo) injured for much of the year.\u00a0 Monroe, LA, is better well-known for being the home of Duck Dynasty<\/em>, but this basketball team is capturing the attention of the locals.\u00a0 #3 LA-Lafayette awaits the winner of this one in a quarterfinal matchup on Friday.<\/p>\nCTC UPDATE<\/h1>\n
\n
\n
\n