Can Houston Baptist and Texas-Pan American keep it up in the Great
West?
Handicapping a league race in college hoops isn't the
simplest endeavor,
but it's not exactly rocket science, either. Any given league
has a core
group of three or four solid contenders from which the best
of breed can
usually be chosen.
But in the case of the Great West Conference, those rules
don't really
apply this season. When it's year one for a league, the
contenders and
pretenders are a little harder to discern.
While South Dakota and Utah Valley have shown flashes of
great play
entering the conference season, neither of those teams sits
atop the early
Great West standings.
Nope, the early leaders out of the gate are Houston Baptist
and Texas
Pan-American, both of which are sitting on 2-0 league marks.
While life in non-conference play this season has been very
unkind at
times for the Huskies and Broncs (HBU dropped a 93-52
decision to Memphis
while UTPA absorbed a 100-44 beating at the hands of
Missouri), they've
still emerged as the last two Great West squads with
unblemished marks in
league play.
In one of the quirkiest starts to a conference schedule this
season, HBU
and UTPA have gotten a leg up on their Great West competitors
despite
sporting a combined overall record of 6-33.
Those numbers aren't pretty, but hey, that's all water under
the bridge
now. Their perfect starts in Great West play represent new
leases on
life. The big question is this...can these teams sustain it?
For Houston Baptist, it might be a matter of whether or not
forward Mario
Flaherty can keep up his productivity against Great West
foes. His
numbers in HBU's two league wins: 24.5 ppg, 11 rpg, 3 bpg and
60%
shooting from the field.
In the case of UTPA, junior college transfer Matt Mierzyckt
needs to keep
up the steady improvement he's shown since making his debut
back on
December 7. He's come off the bench to average 14.5 in the
Broncs' two
conference wins.
In terms of overall team play, both squads need to get
tougher on the
defensive end to remain factors in the Great West race. Out
of 347
Division I teams, stat guru Ken Pomeroy currently has HBU
ranked 293rd and
UTPA 302nd in defensive efficiency.
Conference road games are never easy, and both teams are back
loaded with
those. The Huskies and Broncs both finish their regular
season slates
playing six of their final eight Great West contests in
opposing gyms.
