Conference USA Basketball is wrapping up its conference slate. Here’s where each team stands with two games to go in the regular season.
| Team | NET | KenPom | Record |
| Charlotte | 104 | 112 | 18-11 (9-9) |
| FAU | 19 | 31 | 26-3 (16-2) |
| FIU | 225 | 223 | 13-16 (7-11) |
| LA Tech | 165 | 166 | 13-16 (6-12) |
| MTSU | 110 | 121 | 18-11 (11-7) |
| North Texas | 51 | 55 | 23-6 (14-4) |
| Rice | 177 | 188 | 17-12 (8-10) |
| UAB | 57 | 59 | 22-8 (13-6) |
| UTEP | 193 | 193 | 13-16 (6-12) |
| UTSA | 302 | 300 | 9-21 (3-16) |
| WKU | 171 | 172 | 15-14 (7-11) |
Kenpom, NET, and standings reflect games as of 2/26/2023
Key Storylines
Locked In
Following Saturday’s games, there are three teams locked into their Conference USA Tournament seeding regardless of how the final two regular season contests transpire. FAU has clinched the top seed and the regular season championship. North Texas will be the No. 2 seed. On the opposite end of the spectrum, UTSA will officially finish at the bottom of the league and has clinched the No. 11 seed.
Final jockeying
UAB and Middle Tennessee have secured a first round bye. UAB is in the driver’s seat for the No. 3 seed and controls its own destiny. If the Blazers do lose, though, there are some tiebreaker possibilities that would enable Middle Tennessee to sneak ahead of them should the Blue Raiders win out.
After the head-to-head record, the record against the next-highest-finishing conference opponent will be utilized. Should Middle Tennesee and UAB finish with the same record, Middle Tennessee would get the No. 3 seed as each program would be 1-1 against No. 1 seed FAU with Middle Tennesee being 1-1 against No. 2 seed North Texas while UAB went 0-2 against the Mean Green.
Then there’s the battle for the No. 5 seed. If Charlotte wins out, the No. 5 seed is theirs. Rice can get the No. 5 seed if one of two things happen:
- Rice wins out and Charlotte loses out
- Rice and Charlotte finish with the same record (either at 9-11 or 10-10) and Rice beats No. 1 seed Florida Atlantic in their upcoming game
There’s some fuzziness after that, but FIU is mathematically alive for the No. 5 seed, too. FIU would need to win out and have Charlotte lose out plus get some help from Rice and Western Kentucky too. More than likely the No. 5 seed will go to either Charlotte or Rice.
And more moving and shaking
There’s a two-game gap between the current No. 6 seed, Rice, and the current No. 10 seed, UTEP. That means that at this point, it’s nearly impossible to forecast who might be playing who in the first round of the tournament. We’ll know a lot more after the Thursday games and have some further analysis of the Conference USA Basketball Tournament field once it’s set at the end of the weekend.
