DRC: BB SBC looking for ellusive win in NCAA

[OldTimer]

Basketball: Sun Belt looking for elusive win in NCAA tourney

09:03 AM CDT on Wednesday, October 26, 2005

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

MURFRESBORO, Tenn. —There might not be a coach in the Sun Belt Conference with a better perspective on how long the league has waited for a win in the men’s NCAA Tournament than Western Kentucky’s Darrin Horn.

Horn wears a suit on the Hilltoppers’ sideline these days, but he was a standout senior back in 1995 when WKU knocked off Michigan in the opening round of the Midwest Regional in Dayton, Ohio.

The Sun Belt’s men’s league has come up short of repeating that performance in each of the last 10 seasons when its lone representative in the tournament has fallen in the first round.

“If you can win in the NCAA Tournament, it separates you,” Horn said. “Only 32 other teams in the country make it that far. It’s one more game and two more days of exposure for your team and the league.”

Finding a way to gain that added exposure was one of the key questions the Sun Belt’s men’s coaches addressed during the final session of media days at Middle Tennessee on Tuesday. The league has come close to picking up a win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in two of the last three years before coming up short each time.

Louisiana-Lafayette took Louisville to the wire before falling 68-62 last season, while Western Kentucky dropped a 65-60 decision to Illinois in the 2003 season. ULL also had a solid showing against North Carolina State in 2004, falling 61-52.

Coaches and officials believe the Sun Belt team’s performance in each of those games is a sign that the conference is coming close to breaking through and moving up in the world of college basketball.

“Lets be honest, did Louisville have any bigger challenge than UL-Lafayette until they played Illinois?” Denver coach Terry Carroll said. “No, they didn’t. They gave them a tough game.”

While they didn’t make the NCAA Tournament, Denver and Western Kentucky both played in the NIT. WKU knocked off Kent State in the first round before falling to Wichita State. Denver played a tight game with San Francisco in the first round before falling 69-67.

UNT coach Johnny Jones attributed the series of close misses to the improving talent in the league that includes Denver center Yemi Nicholson, the Sun Belt’s Preseason Player of the Year.

“Denver showed last year that they could compete,” Jones said. “Yemi could make an impact in any league. The Sun Belt is better overall and we have better players. It’s just a matter of time.”

Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters believes the time for the league to pick up its first NCAA Tournament win since Horn was sinking 3-point shots for WKU is rapidly approaching.

“When you look at our budgets and compare them to some of the teams like Kent that have won in the NCAA Tournament, it shows that we have the resources,” Waters said. “We also have the facilities and the right coaches. We just have to break that ceiling.”

Once a Sun Belt team breaks through, higher seeds or extra bids could follow.

The Sun Belt’s teams have been decided underdogs against some of the nation’s top teams the last few seasons.

“We need to win more non-conference games and put ourselves in a position to get a better seed,” UL-Lafayette coach Robert Lee said. “Any time you are a No. 13 or 14 seed, it makes it very difficult to win a first-round game. For our league to get over the hump we have to win some of those games to get respect on a national level.”

The Sun Belt finished 12th in the RPI that measures the strength of a league last season, its highest finish since the end of the 1994 campaign.

League officials are hoping that improvement is a sign its men’s teams are about to follow the lead of the Middle Tennessee women. The Lady Raiders upset North Carolina in 2004 and North Carolina State in 2005 during the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Arkansas State lost in the third round of the NIT, while Western Kentucky lost in the first round.

“I think it helps us in recruiting to have a team in the league that has won a game in the NCAA Tournament,” UNT women’s coach Tina Slinker said. “It shows that once we get there, that we can win and gives the rest of the teams in the league confidence. We certainly draw from it.”

The Sun Belt’s men’s teams hope to have that advantage beginning next season.

Tournament headed to Biloxi in 2008

The final three rounds of the Sun Belt Conference basketball tournament will be played in Biloxi, Miss., beginning in the 2008 season, conference commissioner Wright Waters said.

The conference tournament has traditionally been played at one Sun Belt venue. The final one-site tournament will take place in Murfreesboro, Tenn., later this season.

The tournament will begin having the higher-seeded teams host first-round games before moving to a central site for the final three rounds beginning in 2007, when the tournament will be played in Lafayette, La.

The conference will transfer the tournament to the Gulf Coast Coliseum in Biloxi for at least three years beginning in 2008.

Waters said the conference chose Biloxi because it is the best centrally located resort destination to host the tournament.

“In a perfect world what we would like to have is two neutral sites, one for men and one for women, with lots of people and media coverage,” Waters said. “We need a step between that and where we are now.”

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .