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Who’s the favorite in each major college basketball conference? And which teams are trending in the right (and wrong) directions? Over the next two weeks, we’ll take a look across the nation to see how college hoops’ most notable conferences are shaping up for next season. Almost every day of the 2014-15 Conference USA season -- all 150 (or so) of them, from the middle of November to the middle of March -- was a mild collective letdown. Louisiana Tech, the regular-season conference champion, failed to build on its underrated 2013-14 strength and ended up in the NIT for a second straight season. Old Dominion opened the season with wins over LSU and VCU en route to an 11-1 nonconference start, only to have its bubble hopes dashed by a handful of RPI-destroying losses in league play. As a whole, Conference USA looked a shell of its former self. A decade ago, the league was a lock to send multiple teams to the NCAA tournament; a half-decade ago, it had a national title contender (John Calipari-era Memphis) to brag on. Now, C-USA was essentially a one-bid mid-major -- it ranked worse than the WCC, MAC, Big West and Ivy League (17th overall) in average adjusted efficiency -- and the best example of how conference realignment can pick a league's bones clean. But not every day. Almost every day. After all: Thursday, March 19 was pretty good. That, of course, was when No. 14-seeded UAB -- C-USA's surprise auto-bid recipient and one of the least touted upset "candidates" in the 2015 NCAA tournament field -- caught No. 3 Iowa State sleeping in the round of 64. The Cinderella project was halted just two days later, when UCLA's size proved too much, but no matter: The Blazers' moment in the sun was no less dazzling for its brevity. For one day, at least, Conference USA got a win. On the court and off. Even better? The 2015-16 season is shaping up to be a far less dour affair. Favorite It was hard to blame Old Dominion too much for missing out on the NCAA tournament. The Monarchs weren't a great team, sure, but they were a solid, realistic at-large hopeful that had the poor fortune of playing in a league pocked by RPI landmines. All it took were a few missteps (Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, UTSA, Middle Tennessee again) to completely torpedo the league's best offensive (and second-best defensive) per-possession team.  Fortunately for coach Jeff Jones, the Monarchs will have another crack at things in 2015-16. Guard Trey Freeman is the biggest reason why. As a junior, Freeman accounted for 29 percent of ODU's possessions and 32.3 percent of its shots while posting respectable shooting numbers (47 percent from 2, 35 percent from 3), taking excellent care of the ball (28 percent of his possessions ended in assists; just 12 percent ended in turnovers) and playing pesky defense at the point of attack. He was the league's best player, and the team around him -- from guards Aaron Bacote and Ambrose Mosely to offensive rebounder extraordinaire Denzell Taylor -- remains mostly intact.
How to replace Richard Ross's frontcourt scoring is the only real question here. The Monarchs already were Conference USA's best team statistically; in 2015-16, they're even more likely to nab the trophies to prove it. Trending up Not that Old Dominion won't have competition. There is still UAB, after all. The Blazers were young a year ago, which only made their March incursion all the more unexpected. But it wasn't a total fluke, either. Coach Jerod Haase did a genuinely great job with a very young group, emerging from an utterly disastrous 4-9 nonconference start to finish 16-7 after Jan. 4 -- including, of course, those four postseason wins. Featuring mostly freshmen and sophomores, UAB got better throughout the season, and it's reasonable to expect that trend to continue with a full offseason, more experience and a taste of the NCAA tournament. It says something that the most intriguing team in the upcoming C-USA isn't the one that knocked off Iowa State last March. That honor goes to UTEP, and it's not particularly close. The Miners lost three senior starters (Cedrick Lang, Julian Washburn, C.J. Cooper) this past spring, and all three were crucial (especially Lang); meanwhile, Vince Hunter, who has found a home (for now) in the NBA, was the league's second-best player. But coach Tim Floyd is bringing in more, better talent than any other C-USA outfit (see "Newcomers" below).* Trending down At a glance, Louisiana Tech should be due for a step back. All signs point in that direction: Not only did the Bulldogs lose seniors Raheem Appleby, Kenneth Smith and Michale Kyser -- and promising freshman reserve Xavian Stapleton, who transferred to Mississippi State -- they also waved farewell to four-year coach Michael White, whose ability to turn Louisiana Tech into a consistent winner earned him the chance to replace Billy Donovan at Florida. No C-USA program -- and few nationally, come to think of it -- lost more this past spring. And yet, Tech still has pieces: Alex Hamilton and Erik McCree are an excellent place to start, and Jacobi Boykins and Merrill Holden, among others, look ready for larger roles. Predicting another regular-season title seems like a stretch. But a sink into obscurity does, too -- even with White in Gainesville, Florida. Newcomers UTEP's extreme intriguing-ness (new word!) lies entirely with its newcomers. Shooting guard Lee Moore -- who racked up a host of accolades as a star at Alabama junior college Wallace State -- will contribute immediately. Four-star forward Paul Thomas is the best recruit of any 2015 C-USA class. Three other freshmen (Christian Romine, Josh McSwiggan, Kelvin Jones) add size and depth. And then there's Dominic Artis. The No. 8-ranked point guard in the class of 2012, Artis was both promising and frustrating in his first two seasons at Oregon; for every individual moment of assertive play came an extended period of turnover-prone inefficiency. In the spring of 2014, Artis was one of three players named in a sexual assault investigation and later dismissed by the program. He was never charged. After a year away from basketball, UTEP is Artis' chance to repair both his reputation and his career -- and make the Miners the most talented team in the league, at least on paper. *(Correction: An earlier version of this post stated UTEP's Vince Hunter had returned to school; he is now in the NBA. We apologize for the error.)
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