Without much fanfare, Eric Konkol has had a nice run at Louisiana Tech. He didn’t take over a program that needed rebuilding, and while he hasn’t led them to the NCAA Tournament yet, he’s certainly kept the program in a good state, with Thursday night’s 74-67 win at Mississippi State serving as one more example.
Louisiana Tech is hidden away in Conference USA, where the basketball isn’t what it was when Memphis was there and dominant. While it had become a one-bid league in those days, the conference still got a fair amount of national attention. That has made it tougher for a program like Louisiana Tech’s to get much notice. Postseason bids have been harder to come by outside of the NCAA Tournament, but all he’s done is win 83 games in his first four years and now start 6-2 in 2019-20.
Despite having a size disadvantage, the Bulldogs out-rebounded their fellow Bulldogs 34-31 on Thursday night. The biggest stat that will jump out in a box score not exactly full of big discrepancies is that they were 10-16 from long range, which can go a long way towards winning.
Konkol’s tenure hasn’t yet had an NCAA Tournament appearance, and only one in another postseason tournament, but that could change. They have also had some good wins in his time before this one, winning at Ohio State in his first year, at Wichita State last year and winning two in-season tournaments in 2017-18. This team is full of upperclassmen, as only four players on the roster are freshmen or sophomores; they have an equal number of players who have redshirted at one point during their college careers. In a conference like that, experience can make a real difference.
On Thursday night, that made a difference as they were overall the tougher team. A 10-0 run starting halfway through the second half proved decisive, as they never led by less than six after that and were up by ten on two occasions. That came right after Mississippi State had run off six straight of their own to take their first lead of the second half. Mississippi State started off the game strong, scoring the first six points as part of a 10-2 run, but Louisiana Tech didn’t let that continue.
In a wide-open Conference USA, a few teams appear to have a chance as contenders. Western Kentucky has plenty of talent, including Charles Bassey, while UAB always has some talent as well, and UTEP was the last team to lose its first game when they recently dropped a close one at New Mexico State. Louisiana Tech has the experience to be right there in that mix, and a quality win to prove that they can beat anyone in the conference, so this could be the best chance yet for Konkol to break through in Ruston.
Side Dishes
Auburn was down by 10 in the second half, and when Bruce Pearl got a technical foul, the resulting free throws pushed the lead to 12, and it then reached 14 a bit later at 46-32. But it seemed to fire up his team eventually, as they went on a 13-3 run to get within three. But Furman responded and eventually got the lead back up to eight at 61-53, at which point another rally forced overtime. After Furman regained the lead early in the extra session, Auburn scored the next seven points and held on for an 81-78 win. The Tigers had a 45-25 edge on the glass, and that proved too much to overcome.
One other result that stood out on the evening was Oklahoma heading south to North Texas and escaping with an 82-80 win behind 28 points from Christian Doolittle, including the game-winning shot late.
Notre Dame took a personnel hit on two fronts, and it will significantly hit their overall depth. Robby Carmody is done for the season with a torn ACL in his left knee, which he tragically sustained in the final minute of Wednesday night’s blowout loss. The sophomore guard was a key reserve, and they took an additional hit up front as Chris Doherty will transfer at the end of the semester in search of more playing time. Doherty is also a sophomore, though the Fighting Irish wanted to redshirt him a year ago before the injuries piled up and forced them to take the redshirt off him.
Georgetown may have picked up a big win on Wednesday night, but their recruiting took a hit, at least temporarily, as Terrance Williams de-committed from the school but will still consider them. Needless to say, there are concerning times ahead for the program in light of the issues that surfaced earlier in the week leading to James Akinjo and Josh LeBlanc entering into the transfer portal.
Some good news: Kentucky and Michigan will play a three-game series with games each of the next three Decembers, starting with one in London next year. Michigan will then host the Wildcats on December 4, 2021, and the Wildcats will subsequently host the Wolverines on December 3, 2022.
Tonight’s Menu
A few more games are on tap tonight, but it’s still light in numbers. However, some early ACC and Big Ten games help add to the appeal.
- An early Big Ten game has Iowa visiting Michigan (6:30 p.m.)
- A pair of early ACC games are on tap as Duke travels to Virginia Tech (7 p.m.) and Pittsburgh goes to Louisville (9 p.m.)
- A good rivalry game on tap is Providence heading south to Rhode Island (7 p.m.)
- Stephen F. Austin tries to keep their great start going as they travel to Alabama (8 p.m.)
- A good one on tap later is TCU hosting USC (9 p.m.)
- A few games are on tap out west, the best one likely being North Dakota visiting Montana (9 p.m.)
