As the Conference USA men’s basketball season eclipses its
midway point, the battles for the regular-season championship and
high seeds for the postseason tournament are about to get
interesting.

Following Wednesday night’s games, seven of the conference’s 14
teams are within two and a half games of first place. Cincinnati
and Memphis are tied for first, each with an 8-2 record in
conference play. After starting 0-2, the Tigers of Memphis have won
eight in a row to claw their way back to the top of the standings.
Two other teams, the University of Louisville and the University of
Alabama-Birmingham, are one-half game behind the leaders, with a
6-2 record.

The University of North Carolina-Charlotte 49ers is one game out
of first place with a 6-3 record, and DePaul University, who
defeated the Saint Louis University Billikens 70-68 last night at
the Savvis Center, improved to 7-3 in conference play with the win,
also one game behind Cincinnati and Memphis. Texas Christian
University improved to 5-4 in conference play with a 54-51 win over
the University of South Florida.

Following losses Wednesday night, SLU and the University of
Southern Mississippi fell to 4-5 in conference play, putting them
three and a half games out of first place, along with last season’s
regular season champion and Final Four participant, Marquette
University.

Rounding up the rear in the standings are Tulane University at
2-7, the University of Houston at 2-8, East Carolina University at
1-9, and the University of South Florida, who are winless at
0-9.

There will be a few games in C-USA to keep an eye on over the
next few days, with Louisville visiting Charlotte’s Halton Arena
Thursday night in a game which looks to be an interesting
battle.

Saturday’s headlining games include Charlotte meeting SLU at
noon at the Savvis Center, and Memphis traveling to Milwaukee to
face off with Marquette on ESPN at 8 p.m.

Throughout this season, the Billikens have shown the ability to
compete with many very good teams, as shown by their heartbreaking
one-point loss to the University of Arizona and a win on the road
at the University of Dayton on New Year’s Eve, so one could surmise
that the Billikens definitely do a good chance at making at run
towards the top of C-USA.