2018–19 Conference USA men's basketball season

The 2018–19 Conference USA men's basketball season began with practices in October 2018, followed by the start of the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November. Conference play began in late December and concluded in early March.

2018–19 Conference USA men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	14
TV partner(s)	CBS Sports Network, Stadium, beIN Sports, ESPN3
2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
Regular season champions	Old Dominion
Season MVP	B. J. Stith
Tournament
Champions	Old Dominion

2018–19 Conference USA men's basketball standings

v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Old Dominion †	13	–	5		.722			26	–	9		.743
Western Kentucky	11	–	7		.611			20	–	14		.588
Southern Miss	11	–	7		.611			20	–	13		.606
UTSA	11	–	7		.611			17	–	15		.531
UAB	10	–	8		.556			20	–	15		.571
Marshall	11	–	7		.611			23	–	14		.622
FIU	10	–	8		.556			20	–	13		.606
Louisiana Tech	9	–	9		.500			20	–	13		.606
Florida Atlantic	8	–	10		.444			17	–	16		.515
North Texas	8	–	10		.444			21	–	12		.636
Rice	8	–	10		.444			13	–	19		.406
Middle Tennessee	8	–	10		.444			11	–	21		.344
Charlotte	5	–	13		.278			8	–	21		.276
UTEP	3	–	15		.167			8	–	21		.276
† 2019 C-USA tournament winner

Old Dominion won the C-USA regular season championship by two games. The conference used a regular season schedule format which the conference hoped will increase NCAA Tournament berths. whereby the 14 teams played each other once with a second game for travel partners in the first seven weeks of C-USA play.^[1] After those 14 games, the league standings determined the matchups for the rest of the regular season.^[2] The teams were divided into two groups of five (teams in first through fifth place and 6–10) and a group of four (11–14).^[3] During the final three weeks, teams played within their respective grouping for the last four games of conference play. Home and away games within the groups were determined by a preset formula. C-USA Commissioner Judy MacLeod said that "With the goals to improve seeding and increase the number of teams that advance to the postseason, we viewed this as a great opportunity to enhance our top teams' resumes by providing them additional quality games within their conference schedule."^[4]

The C-USA tournament was held from March 13–16, 2019 at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. Old Dominion defeated Western Kentucky in the Tournament championship game. As a result Old Dominion received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. No other C-USA teams received an NCAA Tournament bid.

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Following a loss to Lamar on November 27, 2017 that saw UTEP drop to 1–5 on the season, head coach Tim Floyd announced that he was retiring effective immediately.^[5][6] The school had previously announced a new athletic director, Jim Senter, a week prior, but Floyd said that had nothing to do with his decision.^[7][8] Assistant Phil Johnson was named interim head coach of the Miners the next day.^[9] On March 12, 2018, the school hired Fresno State head coach Rodney Terry as the new head coach of the Miners.^[10]

On December 14, 2017, head coach Mark Price was fired by Charlotte after a 3–6 start to the season and was replaced by Houston Fancher.^[11] Houston Fancher was named interim coach for the remainder of the season.^[12] On March 6, 2018, new athletic director Mike Hill fired Fancher.^[13] On March 19, the school hired Virginia associate head coach Ron Sanchez as the school's new head coach.^[14]

March 16, 2018, Florida Atlantic head coach Michael Curry was fired after four seasons.^[15] On March 22, it was announced that the school had hired Florida assistant head coach Dusty May as head coach.^[16]

Middle Tennessee head coach Kermit Davis left the school on March 19, 2018 to accept the head coaching job at Ole Miss.^[17][18] On March 24, the Blue Raiders named UNC Asheville head coach Nick McDevitt as the team's new head coach.^[19]

On April 2, 2018, FIU fired head coach Anthony Evans after five seasons.^[20][21] On April 20, the school announced VCU associate head coach Jeremy Ballard was hired as the new head coach.^[22][23]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Year at school	Overall record	C-USA record	C-USA championships	NCAA Tournaments
Charlotte	Ron Sanchez	Virginia (asst.)	1	8–21	5–13	0	0
FIU	Jeremy Ballard	VCU (asst.)	1	20–14	10–8	0	0
Florida Atlantic	Dusty May	Florida (asst.)	1	17–16	8–10	0	0
Louisiana Tech	Eric Konkol	Miami (asst.)	4	83–49	42–30	0	0
Marshall	Dan D'Antoni	Los Angeles Lakers (asst.)	5	96–77	52–38	1	1
Middle Tennessee	Nick McDevitt	UNC Asheville	1	11–21	8–10	0	0
North Texas	Grant McCasland	Arkansas State	2	41–30	16–20	0	0
Old Dominion	Jeff Jones	American	6	140–67	73–32	1	1
Rice	Scott Pera	Rice (asst.)	2	20–43	12–24	0	0
Southern Miss	Doc Sadler	Iowa State (asst.)	5	56–94	32–57	0	0
UAB	Robert Ehsan	UAB (asst.)	3	57–44	29–25	0	0
UTEP	Rodney Terry	Fresno State	1	8–21	3–15	0	0
UTSA	Steve Henson	Oklahoma (asst.)	4	51–49	29–25	0	0
WKU	Rick Stansbury	Texas A&M (asst.)	3	62–42	34–20	0	0

Notes:

• All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only.
• Year at school includes 2018–19 season.
• Overall and C-USA records are from time at current school and are through the end of the 2018–19 season.

Preseason

Preseason Coaches Poll

Source^[24]

Rank	Team
1.	Western Kentucky (9)
2.	Marshall (5)
3.	Old Dominion
4.	North Texas
5.	UTSA
6.	Louisiana Tech
7.	Southern Miss
8.	UAB
9.	Middle Tennessee
10.	FIU
11.	UTEP
12.	Florida Atlantic
13.	Charlotte
14.	Rice

() first place votes

Preseason All-C-USA Team

Source^[24]

Recipient	School
Jon Davis	Charlotte
Daquan Bracey	La Tech
Jon Elmore	Marshall
C. J. Burks	Marshall
Roosevelt Smart	North Texas
Ahmad Caver	ODU
B. J. Stith	ODU
Zack Bryant	UAB
Jhivvan Jackson	UTSA
Taveion Hollingsworth	WKU
Desean Murray	WKU

Regular season

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	Charlotte	FIU	Florida Atlantic	Louisiana Tech	Marshall	Middle Tennessee	North Texas	Old Dominion	Rice	Southern Miss	UAB	UTEP	UTSA	Western Kentucky
vs. Charlotte	–	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0
vs. FIU	0–1	–	1–2	0–2	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1
vs. Florida Atlantic	1–0	2–1	–	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0
vs. Louisiana Tech	1–0	2–0	1–1	–	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1
vs. Marshall	0–1	0–2	0–2	1–1	–	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–1
vs. Middle Tennessee	0–2	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	–	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–2	0–3	0–1	1–0
vs. North Texas	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	0–1	–	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–0
vs. Old Dominion	0–2	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	–	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–2
vs. Rice	1–2	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–0	–	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0
vs. Southern Miss	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	–	1–1	0–1	0–2	2–0
vs. UAB	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	–	0–1	1–1	1–1
vs. UTEP	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	–	2–0	1–0
vs. UTSA	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–2	–	1–1
vs. Western Kentucky	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	0–1	1–1	–
Total	5–13	10–8	8–10	9–9	11–7	8–10	8–10	13–5	8–10	11–7	10–8	3–15	11–7	11–7

Postseason

C-USA Tournament

Main article: 2019 Conference USA men's basketball tournament

Only the top 12 conference teams were eligible for the tournament. Old Dominion defeated Western Kentucky in the tournament championship game.

	First round Wednesday, March 13 ESPN+					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 14 Stadium/Facebook					Semifinals Friday, March 15 CBSSN					Championship Saturday, March 16 CBSSN
						1	Old Dominion	57
						8	Louisiana Tech	56
	8	Louisiana Tech	57
	9	Florida Atlantic	56
											1	Old Dominion	61
											5	UAB	59
						4	UTSA	76
						5	UAB	85
	5	UAB	70
	12	Middle Tennessee	61
																1	Old Dominion	62
																2	Western Kentucky	56
						2	Western Kentucky	67
						10	North Texas	51
	7	FIU	57
	10	North Texas	71
											2	Western Kentucky	70
											3	Southern Miss	59
						3	Southern Miss	82
						6	Marshall	73
	6	Marshall	82
	11	Rice	65

* denotes overtime period.

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2019 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
14	South	Old Dominion	N/A	eliminated by (3) Purdue 48–61

References

1. Martin, Nick. "Conference USA Is Completely Revamping Its Conference Schedule Setup And It's Just Brilliant". Deadspin. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
2. "C-USA basketball schedule altered to match best teams late". USA TODAY. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
3. "To chase NCAA bids, C-USA will shuffle basketball schedule -- with season in progress". charlotteobserver. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
4. "Radical changes coming to Conference USA men's basketball schedule". WTKR.com. May 29, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2018.
5. "UTEP's Tim Floyd, a former coach of the Chicago Bulls, announces his retirement". CBSSports.com. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
6. "UTEP's Floyd retires after Miners fall to 1–5". ESPN.com. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
7. "Citing 'new world of college basketball,' Tim Floyd abruptly retires from coaching". kansascity. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
8. Villasana, Jose (November 28, 2017). "UTEP's new athletic director: We are going to engage our community". KVIA. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
9. Dauster, Rob. "UTEP announces that Phil Johnson will replace Tim Floyd". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
10. Broaddus, Adrian (March 12, 2018). "UTEP hires Fresno State's Rodney Terry as their new basketball coach". theprospectordaily.com. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
11. Reed, Steve (December 14, 2017). "Charlotte fires basketball coach, former NBA star Mark Price". The Charlotte Observer. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
12. "Charlotte 49ers interim coach Houston Fancher: 'I ... hurt in my heart for Mark (Price)". charlotteobserver. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
13. "Why new 49ers AD's first act was firing interim basketball coach Houston Fancher". charlotteobserver. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
14. Goodman, Jeff (March 19, 2018). "Charlotte hires Virginia assistant Ron Sanchez as head coach". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
15. Richardson, Shandel (March 16, 2018). "Florida Atlantic fires men's basketball coach Michael Curry". Sun-Sentinel. Boca Raton, Florida. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
16. Richardson, Shandel. "FAU names former Gators assistant Dusty May as new men's basketball coach". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
17. "Ole Miss announces Kermit Davis as Rebels' next coach". ESPN.com. March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
18. "Ole Miss formally introduced Kermit Davis as its new men's basketball coach late Monday evening". Retrieved March 21, 2018.
19. Goodman, Jeff (March 24, 2018). "Nick McDevitt joins Middle Tennessee St. after lengthy run at UNC Asheville". ESPN.com. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
20. "FIU parts ways with coach Evans". gwinettprepsports.com. April 2, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
21. Burke, Peter. "FIU parts ways with basketball coach Anthony Evans". www.local10.com. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
22. Epps Jr., Wayne (April 20, 2018). "VCU associate head coach Jeremy Ballard headed to Florida International". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
23. Times-Dispatch, WAYNE EPPS JR. Richmond. "VCU associate head coach Jeremy Ballard headed to Florida International". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
24. "MBB: WKU Tabbed Preseason Favorite". Conference USA. Retrieved October 18, 2018.