Freshman guard Jalen Jones takes attempts a jump shot during Saturday afternoon’s game against UTEP in Moody Coliseum. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)
It’s that time of the year again. March madness is here and the men and women of Conference USA basketball are making their way to Memphis to gear up for the 2011-2012 Championship Tournament.
Starting tomorrow, SMU men’s basketball will have their first and possibly last game of the tournament against Marshall.
Going into the match-up, the Mustangs hold the No. 11 seed while Marshall has the advantage at the No.6 spot in the first round on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.
Whichever team comes out on top will then go on to face off with the No.3 seed Tulsa at the FedExForum on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
After a victory over UTEP to close regular season play, SMU will be coming fresh off a win and working their newfound love, the 44-game offense.
Team captain Robert Nyakundi leads C-USA in 3-point percentage and hasn’t taken long to get hot in recent games. Opening the 57-48 victory over UTEP, Nyakundi started SMU off with a 25-7 run.
This year will be Nyakundi’s final go-around at the C-USA Championships before graduating from SMU in May. Nyakundi will be entering the tournament as a two-time All Conference-USA Third Team Honoree and most recently an All-District U.S. Basketball Writers Association Team member.
The Mustang women will also be facing the Marshall Thundering Herd during the first round of playoffs tomorrow.
SMU has a record of 13-16 for the season and 6-10 in conference play.
The last meeting between the two teams resulted in a win for the Mustangs despite a majority of the team being sick with the stomach flu.
“When we played against Marshall we were all sick on the plane and when we got there we won,” Akil Simpson said.
Simpson scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the game- the final score was 55-53. The Mustangs are 7-1 all time against Marshall.
The Thundering Herd is 16-13 overall for the season and 7-9 in conference play, giving them the seventh seed for the tournament. They’ve won three of their last five games, losing one in overtime to East Carolina.
Marshall is solid on the offensive end, shooting 37.5 percent from the field and leads the conference in 3-point field goal percentage- shooting 32.3 percent from the arc.
Players to look out for will be Lateidra Elliot, Erica Woods, Shynisha Johnson and Shay Weaver.
Elliot, a senior guard, is averaging 7.3 points per game, while Woods, a sophomore guard, is averaging 6.6 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game.
Johnson, a junior guard for Marshall, leads the team in shooting, making 37.3 percent of all her attempted shots while Weaver, a freshman guard for the team, has proven to be strong from behind the arc- shooting 33.9 percent.
The winner of the game between SMU and Marshall will move on to face the No.2 seed Memphis in the quarterfinals.
Memphis is sure to be a tough team to beat, coming in to the tournament with an overall record of 23-6 for the season.
The Tigers have only lost three games in conference play and are coming off of a four-game winning streak at the end of the regular season.
The Mustangs are 5-3 all-time against Memphis, falling to the Tigers 60-55 in their last matchup at home on Feb. 9.
Tip off for tomorrow’s game against Marshall is at 1:30 p.m.
