Turns out we had one regular season game left - a 73-71 win over
Texas State to guarantee we don't finish last in our division.
Tony Romero's 18 points and a steal gets PotG, pitching in relief of
Todd Carruth.
And that ends our season, as only the top 8 teams in the conference get to play in the tournament.
Sam Houston State is upset by
Central Arkansas in the first round, and the 8 seed Bears run all the way to the final, where they encounter 3 seed
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Bears come away with a massive 1 point upset win, 51-50, whereupon they draw #1 overall seed
Mississippi State, holders of a 32-1 regular season record.
Sam Houston State is a 10 seed in the NIT East, playing Nebraska in the 1st round. Under a 40 team NIT setup, the #1 and #2 seeds in each region draw first round byes.
The Bearkats knock off the Cornhuskers and draw 2 seed UW-Milwaukee, whereupon they stun the Panthers 68-67 to advance to the NIT Sweet 16. I'll be glad to see the back of
Daniel Soper and
Rod Beard, along with Sam Houston State's other talent seniors. But they still have an incredibly talented RS freshman PF in
Ruben Dulaney, who if he can stay academically eligible and grow as a player, will be a force in the Southland sooner rather than later.
I don't need to tell you how badly UCA got their asses kicked. 60-87, if you really care.
George Winkleman is their lone good player, and he's a senior. Great job by the 7 prestige school to get that miracle run and even be there, but the cupboard is looking mighty bare for the Bears unless they hit in recruiting.
Sam Houston State's own Cinderella streak ends at the hands of 6 seed West Virginia, who in an 86-48 beatdown, showed the Bearkats they didn't really belong there.
#1 seed
Butler is upset in the 2nd round by 8 seed
Oklahoma State, and #1 seed
Texas falls to 9 seed
Tennessee in the same round.
Mississippi State made it to the Sweet 16 before recording their second loss all year to 5 seed
Duke, and 1 seed UNC also falls in the Sweet 16, to 4 seed Syracuse.
Busted brackets. Busted brackets everywhere!
NCAA Tournament Final Four
2 seed Wisconsin
5 seed Duke
5 seed Gonzaga
6 seed Georgetown
The highest seed to make it to the NIT Final Four? 5 seeds Washington and Virginia. So yeah, horrible job by the committee overall. Only the Badgers can save them from complete embarrassment.
NIT Final
5 seed Washington vs 7 seed Stanford
The Cardinal upset the Huskies 69-66, giving the Cardinal the NIT title.
NCAA Final
2 seed Wisconsin vs 5 seed Gonzaga
Both teams clobbered their respective opponents in the Final Four, but it's the Zags who put on a show, running up the points in a 105-91 victory and get the win they didn't 6 years later in real life.
We filled our recruiting for the year!
C Al Delk - 6'10, 223 - Edwardsville HS - Edwardsville, IL - 1*
We built up a bit of a pipeline to Illinois bigs this year. What fascinates me most about Delk is his fantastic 3 point shot for a post player, though he doesn't appear to have much growth there. Could be a terrific passer out of the paint with strong rebounding, perimeter defense, blocks, and steals. To be honest, he looks more like a combo forward than a true big. Fabulous shotblocker already and the #1380 ranked player is our best academic recruit overall (2.77 GPA, 1210 SAT). Honestly, I'm really intrigued to see what he becomes. Awful handling, however. Maybe a redshirt candidate because of how raw he is defensively outside of shotblocking.
Code:
2011 Southland Conference Standings
EAST CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
McNeese State 10 6 .625 15 15 .500 191 25
Southeastern Louisiana 9 7 .563 16 15 .516 234 29
Stephen F. Austin 9 7 .563 14 17 .452 245 41
Central Arkansas 7 9 .438 12 21 .364 206 7
Northwestern State 7 9 .438 13 16 .448 291 28
Nicholls State 1 15 .063 4 25 .138 344 16
WEST CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam Houston State 13 3 .813 20 12 .625 146 53
Texas-San Antonio 11 5 .688 15 15 .500 132 32
Texas A&M-CC 10 6 .625 16 16 .500 224 34
Texas-Arlington 8 8 .500 16 15 .516 195 33
Lamar 6 10 .375 12 17 .414 336 29
Texas State 5 11 .313 7 22 .241 303 17
Code:
LAMAR Averages
Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Heady PF 29 29 34.7 7.9 2.5 6.0 1.4 0.3 0.8 1.8 2.6 -2.7
William Kelly SG 29 29 28.8 8.4 1.5 4.2 1.6 1.0 0.3 2.4 2.2 -3.5
Gabriel Shanklin SF 29 29 28.4 9.6 2.7 6.7 1.6 0.8 0.1 2.0 2.6 -2.1
Todd Carruth C 28 28 26.6 8.1 2.1 7.7 1.1 0.2 1.0 1.9 2.6 -1.6
Chris Lehman PG 28 28 25.8 6.8 0.8 2.2 2.1 0.7 0.0 1.8 2.1 -2.8
Tony Romero C 29 1 15.3 5.0 0.5 2.1 0.7 0.3 0.1 0.8 1.8 -1.5
Larry Mebane PG 29 1 14.5 4.0 0.6 2.1 0.6 0.5 0.0 1.0 1.3 -0.9
Abraham Johnson SF 29 0 14.3 6.8 0.8 3.3 0.9 0.3 0.1 1.0 1.5 -1.4
Mark Akers SG 29 0 10.5 2.3 0.6 1.8 0.8 0.3 0.0 1.1 1.0 -0.1
Ervin Francois PF 27 0 3.5 1.1 0.4 1.3 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.3 0.5
Aubrey Spring SG 10 0 1.9 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.1
John Waits C 9 0 1.6 0.3 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 -0.2
Damion Morgan SG 1 0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Code:
LAMAR Shooting
Player Pos Fgm Fga Fg% Ftm Fta Ft% 3pm 3pa 3p% PPS +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Heady PF 90 216 .417 46 79 .582 3 19 .158 1.06
William Kelly SG 87 220 .395 63 91 .692 7 49 .143 1.11
Gabriel Shanklin SF 100 254 .394 77 98 .786 2 25 .080 1.10
Todd Carruth C 88 208 .423 52 84 .619 0 2 .000 1.10
Chris Lehman PG 77 188 .410 30 64 .469 6 31 .194 1.01
Tony Romero C 51 108 .472 43 72 .597 0 4 .000 1.34
Larry Mebane PG 39 101 .386 33 63 .524 5 32 .156 1.15
Abraham Johnson SF 72 171 .421 43 58 .741 9 31 .290 1.15
Mark Akers SG 20 60 .333 24 30 .800 4 23 .174 1.13
Ervin Francois PF 10 21 .476 10 15 .667 0 1 .000 1.43
Aubrey Spring SG 1 3 .333 1 2 .500 0 0 .000 1.00
John Waits C 1 6 .167 1 1 1.000 0 1 .000 0.50
Code:
2011 SOUTHLAND AWARDS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Player of the Year:
SR SG Daniel Soper Sam Houston State 20.7 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.3 APG 0.6 SPG, 0.1 BPG
Freshman of the Year:
FR C Robert Wright Southeastern Louisiana 7.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.1 APG 0.1 SPG, 0.2 BPG
Coach of the Year:
Issac Braun Sam Houston State 20 - 12 (13 - 3)
All-league 1st Team:
C SR Kenneth Hayward Texas-San Antonio 6.2 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 1.6 APG, 0.6 SPG, 2.1 BPG
PF SR Daniel Swartz McNeese State 10.9 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.5 SPG, 0.5 BPG
SF SR Rod Beard Sam Houston State 7.5 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 3.9 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.2 BPG
SG SR Daniel Soper Sam Houston State 20.7 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.1 BPG
PG SO Richard Comfort Texas-Arlington 13.2 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 5.2 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.1 BPG
All-league 2nd Team:
C SR Charles Richardson McNeese State 7.4 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.2 APG, 0.4 SPG, 1.1 BPG
PF SR Kris Lillard Texas A&M-CC 6.8 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.3 SPG, 1.6 BPG
SF SR Gabriel Shanklin Lamar 9.6 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 1.6 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.1 BPG
SG SR Joshua Niles Stephen F. Austin 18.5 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 1.9 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.0 BPG
PG SR Harold Barber Texas-Arlington 13.1 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.9 APG, 1.4 SPG, 0.2 BPG
All-freshman Team:
C FR Robert Wright Southeastern Louisiana 7.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.1 APG, 0.1 SPG, 0.2 BPG
PF FR Ruben Dulaney Sam Houston State 5.3 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 0.7 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.9 BPG
SF FR Teddy Lowery Southeastern Louisiana 8.1 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 1.4 APG, 1.1 SPG, 0.1 BPG
SG FR Brian Lower McNeese State 5.6 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 1.7 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.0 BPG
PG FR Thomas Pennington McNeese State 7.2 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 1.5 APG, 0.7 SPG, 0.1 BPG
Lot of talent leaving the conference, as expected in a first year shit league. Nice send off for
Gabriel Shanklin. We're not going to profile the seniors, because it's only been one year.
In-Conference Recruiting Wins
Sam Houston State: 1-0
In-Conference Recruiting Losses
Stephen F. Austin: 0-1
Recruits By State
GA: 1
IL: 2
TX: 1