July 22, 2005

Complete C-USA Men's Basketball Prospectus in PDF Format
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The 2005-06 men's basketball season will see the introduction of six new programs to Conference USA. Marshall University, Rice University, Southern Methodist University (SMU), the University of Tulsa, the University of Central Florida (UCF), and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) will all begin competition in C-USA beginning with the 2005-06 season. These six schools will join East Carolina University, University of Houston, University of Memphis, University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss), Tulane University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

RECORD NINE C-USA MEN'S BASKETBALL TEAMS ADVANCE TO POSTSEASON
Louisville advanced to the NCAA Final Four and Memphis made its third trip in five years to Madison Square Garden to play in the National Invitation Tournament Semifinals. Conference USA sent a record nine teams to the postseason in 2005 - four teams to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship and five teams competed in the NIT. Besides C-USA Tournament and regular season champion Louisville, Charlotte, Cincinnati and UAB each earned a NCAA Tournament invitation. In addition to Memphis' trip to the NIT Semifinals, TCU advanced to the quarterfinals and DePaul, Houston and Marquette earned a 2005 NIT bid.

UCF and UTEP also made its second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament in 2005. Rice earned a berth to the NIT. A total of six teams in this season's conference configuration will be coming off postseason play.

Conference USA has produced 38 NCAA berths and 33 NIT bids since the 1995-96 inaugural season.

COFNERENCE USA IN THE NCAA FINAL FOUR
Louisville became the second C-USA member to reach the NCAA Final Four in the last three seasons as Marquette advanced to the 2003 Final Four. In the last three years, only five conferences have had a team progress to the coveted Final Four. The ACC and Big 12 have been represented by three teams each, while Conference USA along with the Big East and Big 10 have had two team representatives.

Another Final Four participant had a tie to this season's C-USA membership. Michigan State associate head coach DOUG WOJCIK was hired as the new head coach at the Tulsa. Wojcik was with the Spartans for two seasons, helping them to a 44-18 record and a trip to the 2005 Final Four.

Memphis Coordinator of Basketball Operations MILT WAGNER, who will begin his sixth season with the Tigers, played on the 1986 Louisville National Championship team. Wagner and his Cardinal teammates defeated Duke, 72-69, in the NCAA title game. Wagner was also on the 1982 and 1983 squads that advanced to the NCAA Final Four. He scored 1,834 points during his career (fifth all-time in school history) and his No. 20 jersey was retired by U of L in 2000.

MINERS CELEBRATE MAJOR ANNIVERSARY
This season marks the 40th anniversary of the 1965-66 national champion Miners. On March 19, 1966, UTEP -- then known as Texas Western College -- stunned heavily favored Kentucky, 72-65, to claim the crown in College Park, Md. On that day, Texas Western's Don Haskins made history by becoming the first coach to start five black players in the title game. UK had an all-white starting lineup.

MIRROR, MIRROR
Conference USA basketball coaches voted to adopt a 14-game conference schedule that includes round-robin play in addition to three mirror opponents in which teams will play a home-and-home series. Each schools mirror opponents are as follows:

East Carolina
Marshall
Tulane
UCF

Houston
Rice
UCF
UTEP

Marshall
East Carolina
UAB
UCF

Memphis
Southern Miss
Tulsa
UAB

Rice
Houston
SMU
Tulane

SMU
Rice
Tulsa
UTEP

Southern Miss
Memphis
Tulane
UAB

Tulane
East Carolina
Rice
Southern Miss

Tulsa
Memphis
SMU
UTEP

UAB
Marshall
Memphis
Southern Miss

UCF
East Carolina
Houston
Marshall

UTEP
Houston
SMU
Tulsa

TURNAROUND TIME
Louisville (33-5) tallied the second-most wins in NCAA Division I in 2004-05, tied with national champion North Carolina and behind Final Four opponent Illinois (37). It is also the second-best turnaround in the nation after U of L posted a 20-10 mark last season. Just behind them in the rankings are the Houston Cougars, under the direction of first-year head coach Tom Penders, and TCU. The 2003-04 UH squad finished the season with a 9-18 record and the 2004-05 team compiled an 18-14 record to tie for the fifth-best improvement among NCAA Division I programs.

THREE IN A ROW
For the third season in a row, UAB was the NCAA team leader in steals. This year the Blazers averaged 11.58 steals per game or 382 over 33 games. UAB also edged out its C-USA record for steals in conference games only by one (186) this year and averaged 11.62 per conference game. No other team has led the NCAA Division I in this category for three consecutive seasons.

C-USA'S GRAND TOTAL
With a 66-53 victory against Memphis at Hofheinz Pavilion on Feb. 5, the Houston Cougars achieved the 1,000th win in program history. The Cougars have now compiled a 1,004-688 record in the storied history of the program. Head Coach Tom Penders presented the game ball to former UH mentor Guy V. Lewis, who led the Cougars to 592 of those wins during his 30-year tenure. Lewis led Houston to 17 post- season appearances, including five NCAA Final Fours. Here are the 12 C-USA schools' all-time records entering the 2005-06 season:
East Carolina / 897-892 (.501)
Houston / 1,004-688 (.593)
Marshall /1,262-903 (.583)
Memphis / 1,245-796-1 (.610)
Rice / 943-985 (.489)
SMU / 1,111-1,018 (.522)
Southern Miss / 1,013-866-1 (.539)
Tulane / 1,038-1,043 (.499)
Tulsa / 1,182-972 (.549)
UAB / 533-320 (.625)
UCF / 565-432 (.567)
UTEP / 1,131-871 (.565)

WHERE TO WATCH C-USA
Conference USA entered into long-term agreements with ESPN, Inc. (ESPN) and College Sports Television Networks, Inc. (CSTV) through June 30, 2011. ESPN/ESPN2 will televise C-USA men's basketball games throughout the season and the C-USA men's championship game will once again be broadcast on CBS.

The CSTV agreement provides significant national and regional exposure for men's basketball and all other C-USA sports. In addition, CSTV will handle video-on-demand, Internet, broadband, national over-the-air and satellite radio, and wireless distribution as well as corporate marketing rights, and website production through CSTV Online, a subsidiary of CSTV, on www.ConferenceUSA.com.

CARNEY TO MISS TEAM USA U21 TRIALS
Memphis senior Rodney Carney missed the 2005 USA Under-21 Men's National Team Trials as a result of a rib injury he suffered in a summer workout in Chicago. Last year, Carney competed in the trials for Team USA for Young Men's Championships in New Jersey.

A 2005 All-Conference USA second team pick, Carney led the Tigers in scoring with a 16.0 average and was third on the squad with a 5.0 rebounding average. The Indianapolis, Ind., native finished second on the team with 76 three-pointers, shot 77.3 percent from the free throw line and ranked fifth among the Conference USA leaders in scoring. This past year, he became the 40th player in Tiger history to reach the 1,000-point milestone and is now ranked among the top 25 scorers in Memphis basketball history. Carney will be available for the start of the season.

FRESH FACES
Conference USA coaches will have new some new faces to get used to this season, but the players at three schools welcome new coaching staffs. Ricky Stokes was appointed head basketball coach at East Carolina on March 16. Stokes, who has played an active role on coaching staffs which have made nine NCAA Tournament appearances since 1991, including two Sweet Sixteen and one Elite Eight showings, officially ended a two-year assistant coaching position on the 2005 NIT Champion South Carolina staff. A 13-time NCAA Tournament veteran and two-time Final Four contributor as both a player and assistant coach, Stokes also spent four seasons as head coach at Virginia Tech.

Dave Dickerson, a 15-year coaching veteran, was introduced April 1 as the new head basketball coach at Tulane. He had been Gary Williams' staff at Maryland, his alma mater, for the past nine years, including last season when he served as senior associate head coach. During his tenure, the Terrapins made nine straight post-season appearances, claiming the 2002 NCAA National Championship and advancing to the 2005 NIT semifinals. In 15 years as an assistant at four schools, his teams never had a losing season while making 10 post-season appearances. Dickerson was recognized as an AFLAC Assistant Coach of the Year in 2003, was named the ACC's No. 1 Assistant Coach by Basketball News in 2003-04 and selected the No. 4 assistant coach in the nation by Athlon for 2003-04. ESPN's Andy Katz tabbed him an "Assistant Coach on the Rise" a year ago.

Doug Wojcik was named head basketball coach at Tulsa on March 14, spending 15 years as an assistant coach. Wojcik came to Tulsa from Michigan State, where he spent the past two seasons. He helped the Spartans post a two-year mark of 40-18. Wojcik was promoted to associate head coach prior to last season, when Michigan State advanced to the Final Four. Before coming to MSU, Wojcik spent three years as an assistant coach at North Carolina. In his first season at UNC, the Tar Heels earned a No. 1 national ranking late in the regular season. He was named a "Head Coach in the Waiting" by Athlon Sports in 2001 and by ESPN's Jay Bilas in 2003. Wojcik was also named an "Assistant Coach on the Rise" by ESPN's Andy Katz. Prior to that, Wojcik spent one season on the coaching staff at Notre Dame and he began his coaching career in 1990-91 at his alma mater, the United States Naval Academy, where he spent nine seasons as an assistant.

FROSH FACES
Conference USA welcomes four members of its 2004-05 All-Freshman team back for a super sophomore season. The C-USA Freshman of the Year Darius Washington Jr. and teammate JOEY DORSEY both return for Memphis. Guard TOM HAMMONDS returns to East Carolina as the team's second-leading returning scorer after leading the Pirates with 33 three-pointers in his freshman campaign. Tulane's TAYLOR ROCHESTIE was one of three fabulous freshman on the Green Wave squad last season, averaging 10.9 points per game and a team-best 103 assists.