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Snowflakes: Small Conference Hoops

* We still have a great two-horse race in the Sun Belt Conference as both South Alabama and Western Kentucky try to prove they are Big Dance worthy. Many bracket prognosticators have both teams in their field, but I believe they only way this happens is if Western wins the Conference Tournament and South Alabama gets the at-large bid. The Jaguars are over 20 spots higher in the RPI measurement, they won the head-to-head battle, and they also have a signature win over Mississippi State from December. Western stayed close to both Gonzaga and Tennessee, but they do not have a high-caliber win. One other issue for the Hilltoppers to overcome; the Sun Belt Tournament is in Mobile, Alabama this March.

* The Davidson Wildcats have continued steamrolling through the Southern Conference schedule as they now stand at 18-0 in league play. They also defeated Big South leader Winthrop in last Friday’s BracketBuster game despite getting a season-low 12 points from Stephen Curry. We wrote about Curry (think Chris Lofton of Tennessee with a little better ball-handling shills) about a month ago, and he has not disappointed in his sophomore year. He is averaging over 25 points a game and has topped the 30 point mark seven times this season. Davidson has not lost a ball game since before Christmas, and they are definitely a team that higher seeds do want to draw in the Big Dance.

* Another hot team in our region is Belmont of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Known more in Nashville for their Music Business School (Brad Paisley, Trisha Yearwood, Lee Ann Womack, Josh Turner, etc.), the Bruins have won 10 of their last 11 games and have built quite the reputation as a small school on the rise. Belmont has gone to the NCAA Tournament each of the last two years, but have drawn Final Four squads UCLA (’06) and Georgetown (’07). If the Bruins get back for a third time, they could give a less physically imposing team a tough battle. Earlier this season, Coach Rick Byrd’s team won at Cincinnati and at Alabama, so they will not be intimidated by bigger named schools in the Dance.

- Patrick Snow

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