Why was Pentallion not playing?  I watched the game and the announcers said something about a suspension but didn't elaborate.  How bad could it be to not play one of your best players the first time you get to the tournament?

I think that the east is stronger than it has been in the past.  Regardless of who is going, it looks like it is going to be in Pineville this year.  A bright spot for Pineville is if the weather warms over the next two weeks crawfish may be available.

Ralph,
The regional polls came out and LC is #5 while Hendrix is #2.  MC beat Hendrix easily and I don't understand how they can be #2 in the region.  I am afraid the the ASC is going to get screwed this year for tournament bids  because the conference is so even and if you don't win the conference tournament you won't get to go anywhere.  It seems parity in the ASC is going to restrict our opportunities for post season play.

I just found it funny that I made a comment when TLU beat MC and was slapped down about how good HPU was.  Well I guess LC and MC proved that wrong. I know that the conference championship is the ultimate goal, but in years past the west has filled this forum with talk about their teams and this year with the losses there is not much talk.  As for as traveling, every road trip for MC, except LC, is long and that is part of the game. 

[quote HPU is still undefeated and ranked #8 in the nation I would think it's pretty obvious they are the best in the west and in the conference.[/quote]

Well, it looks like HPU is no longer undefeated.  They lost to LC 69-54 on Saturday and to MC 74-60 tonight.  They may be the best in the west but they are no longer the best in the conference.  It will be interesting to see what two losses from unranked teams do to their national ranking.  With HPU's last second win over Ozarks and these two losses, it seems the east is stronger than they've been.  I also find it interesting that the west side of this forum is quiet.  HPU has a good team, they never gave up.  LC and MC both have strong teams this year and what an interesting year seems to be in the making.

Thanks to live video I got to watch a good game between MC and TLU.  Double overtime, it doesn't get any better (unless MC had won).  Both teams had chances and opportunities to win and TLU came out on top.  Congrats to TLU, and McMurray and HSU better come prepared to play when they visit Seguin.

Ralph, who is the best in the West this year? It doesn't seem to be any domination as in the year's past.

Final MC 70 -  HSU 58.  Mississippi State beat Ole Miss today in the Egg Bowl.  It's a great day to be from Mississippi.

Congrats to HPU. 

SabineBBall,
Don't forget that HSU is our rep on the committee, and that trumps everything.

Ralph,
The selection criteria covers tournament selection, there isn't anything listed about regional ranking criteria.  It just says the committee will release regional rankings 3 times and I am sure the committee draws upon the regional advisors to rank the teams.  The regional rankings only have six slots so 7th doesn't count.  
As for as strength of schedule looking at the d3hoops table most of MC's opponents had higher str of sch than MC so how did we end up lower when we beat most of them?

Ralph,  I have a couple of questions about the regional rankings.  First, (and I know that the OWP and OOWP figure in) but let's look at MC and McM against the same opponents in the ASC.  MC is 17-3 and McM is 17-4.  That's says MC is the better team and should be ranked over McM.  I know you are going to say that McM beat MC but look at the losses:  MC split with UTD, lost to HPU and McM; McM lost to UTD, split with HPU, HSU and CTX.  The difference is CTX, MC beat them by 19 points when the best that McM could do was split games.
Second:  Do you think that MC is not good enough to be ranked regionally?
Lastly:  Ralph are you the person on the regional ranking committee from the ASC who is keeping McM ranked so they can get a bid. 
As I stated earlier the only way MC will get to the NCAA tournament is to win the ASC tournament otherwise the committee will pick who it wants.

Ralph,
The humorous thing about the refs who work the MC home games come mostly from East Texas and Louisiana.

In the game at Clinton two of MC's post players shot 2/3's of the free throws while at Richardson UTD the FT were split pretty even among 5 players.  Any way you want to look at it I hope UTD and MC meet in the finals because it will be a good game.

The new regional rankings are in and MC is dropped out of them.  I don't understand how McMurray can lose and still be ranked.  UtD is ranked 2nd and MC beat them and if the refs hadn't been so selective in their shooting foul calls when they played at Dallas(UTD was 23/26 FT to MC's 4/6), MC would have won again.  Ralph if you are right that if you don't have a regional ranking you won't get a bid, then it seems to me that the rankings committee selects who they want to be ranked. As I said before the only way for MC to make the tournament is win the ASC.