Southland Conference Overview

Once again this season the Louisiana at Monroe Warhawks are the favorite to win the regular season title in this underrated conference.  Led by co-league MVP Calvin Natt and senior great Glynn Saulters, the Warhawks have experience and incredible depth and are the favorite to win the league title.  Natt was the best low post player in the conference and Saulters is a great scorer but the depth and flexibility of this team is why they won the regular season last season in this league.  Still, as they learned last year the ring don’t mean a thing if you don’t win the conference tourney. 

The Lamar Cardinals finished in a tie for second with the McNeese State Cowboys.  The Cardinals won the conference tourney and are as well balanced as any team.  They rely on the front court strength of twin forwards, junior Clarence Kea and sophomore BB Davis and the great backcourt all around play of Mike Olliver plus solid depth.  They do not have the depth of the WarHawks but the Cardinals but their experience showed last year.  Upperclassmen Don Bryson and Earl Dow came up huge in their tourney run and are the returning captains of this terrific team.  The Cowboys have a deep front line filled with big, tough guys and Mr. Do Everything senior Bill Regiel who may be the best player in the league after transferring from the ACC’s Duke.  Sophomore superstud Joe Dumars is in the backcourt and is tough as nails and can score. Their classic semifinal game with Louisiana-Monroe will go down in history but left one of them at home for the postseason. The Warhawks are well on the you know what and these Cowboys are the team they are circling for revenge. 

North Texas State was the best of the rest winning 10 conference games with an experienced and deep and yes, tough team.  The Mean Green have a plethora of big guys led by seniors John Savage, Willie Davis and Jim Mudd, junior rebounding machine Kenny Williams and up and coming sophomore Kenny Lyons. Their back court might even be better with a trio senior juco transfers who gelled last year into a solid unit.  Little Joe Hamilton, Ruben Russell and Lee Winfield all can play.  Hamilton is the table setter who can score, Russell or ‘Rube’ as he is known in  Denton (and that is not disparaging to him) the two guard who never met a shot he didn’t like and Winfield the terrific athlete who can do it all.  The boys who were taken right out of a horror movie musical obviously use the JC transfer system often much as most programs in this conference have to do especially since they are in D-1. 

The two Texas schools named after Lone Star legends were almost equal.  And they also have two of the league’s all-time legends suiting up for these programs.  Juniors James Silas of Stephen F. Austin and James Lister of Sam Houston State are great players who everyone in the country should know about. They are that good. Lister is a 6’10 low post stud who split the MVP with Natt coming from a 6th place team and Silas is the most exciting point guard in the league by a mile. Coach Marshall Brown has implemented a fast-paced offense that Silas fit into like a glove and has a stellar supporting cast up front with big George Johnson (a 6’11 Harleton) and banger Peter Harris plus Surry Oliver, CL Nix and Robert Gords.  Still, this team needs to shoot better from behind the arc and play better perimeter defense or they will not be chopping down those big trees in front of them even.  The Bearkats are way further away from competing then Stephen A er F and rode Lister to their finish.  Big James has a nice sidekick in fellow junior Robert White at the four who does take some heat off down low but Coach Bob Marlin is counting on a supposed stellar group of first year kids to jump up the league ranks.  The Lumberjacks and Bearkats are solid middle of the pack schools looking to move up but may need a revolution to get past the top three even with those two dynamic stars.  The best thing is both will be back for more this year hoping to get a chance to dance especially if they can catch a few breaks in Nacogdoches and Huntsville. 

Southwest Texas State (or Texas State if you like) and Texas-San Antonio also represent the south of Texas but have a ways to go to get in the top half of this league.  UTSA is completely new to D-1 and are going the long route of four-year players which in this league is not the norm.  It might take a minute for the Roadrunners to catch up with the coyotes of this league.  Texas State has legendary coach Milton Jowers running the show but unless he finds some bigger guys he might be running from behind this year.  The Bobcats were once a dominant program in NAIA and still have senior legends JC Maze and Charles Sharp manning Jower’s patented double post but 6’5 big men have gone the same way of Alamo. 

Southeastern Louisiana, Nicholls State, Northwestern State and Texas-Arlington showed upside especially in the league tourney but are a bit overmatched on talent by the rest of the league.  UTA may be the most surprising of the also rans as they have been in the conference since its inception and is not just coming into division one.  Southeast Louisiana was a middle of the pack team in this conference but one of the worst in the country by any other standard. They do have one of the best players in this league in senior CA Core who like Sharp and Maze is a bit undersized at 6’5 but man can he play.  Think Bob Petit with a little less size.  Nicholls hails from Thibodaux Louisiana and will rely on a stellar junior class to keep in this league.  This program is new to D-1 but has some nice post players in Cleveland Hill, Richard Polk, Shelby Hypolite and potential superstar Larry Wilson who all came in together two years ago.  They are ready to take the next step but need way better play in the backcourt to get out of the bayou.  When Northwestern State travels to play Stephen F. Austin it is a game played by a team from Natchitoches playing in Nacogdoches.  Try saying those two cities real fast five times. The Demons have some real history down in the bayou but coach Lee Prather’s team was a bottom feeder last year.  A solid nucleus of veterans led by John McConathy and James Wyatt will keep this team in games but they like many others in this league need better guard play to get back to the elite status they once were in lower divisions.  UTA (the best acronym for any college basketball program in the country) does have some guards coming back but not much size outside of junior Paul Renfro who goes 6’10.  A slew of injuries put them in the basement but they did win a tourney game and there is hope in Arlington though like Denton they play in the shadow of what is football crazy Dallas.  Of course you can say that about all of these programs as after all Texas and Louisiana are not exactly basketball hotbeds with no program from either state making a final four EVER.  That could change this year but even then this is still football country.  

The Southland conference is not the ACC. Or the SEC. Or even the Southwest Conference though they do play in the same neighborhood with those big time football programs. Contrary to popular belief they do play good basketball in the southwest and you know there have been some gems in the rough found here.  And most importantly these kids are getting good educations in colleges and there is room enough for the kids that want to work to get it. But there are some stars here and some good basketball teams but unless you really love your hoops or get lost on the way to a UT or LSU game you probably don’t know these programs even exist.