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C-USA Men's Basketball Takes on New York City
All 12 Head Coaches Make Trip to Preview Season

Oct. 13, 2010

Conference USA men's basketball coaches hit the Big Apple as all 12 head coaches were in New York City to preview the upcoming season on Wednesday, Oct. 13. Coaches taped their two-hour preview show at the CBS College Sports Network studios, followed by a media opportunity later in the day with several New York and national media outlets, including both of C-USA's television partners in ESPN and CBS College Sports.

Conference USA teams received seven postseason berths in 2010, the most since the league realigned in 2005, with regular-season champion UTEP and tournament champ Houston both earning bids to the NCAA. Memphis, Tulsa and UAB went to the NIT, with the Blazers advancing to the quarterfinals. Six C-USA teams registered 20 or more wins in 2009-10.

This season, Conference USA welcomes five new head coaches to its ranks in Jeff Lebo (East Carolina), James Dickey (Houston), Tom Herrion (Marshall), Ed Conroy (Tulane) and Tim Floyd (UTEP). Additionally, Donnie Jones takes over at UCF after three seasons at Marshall. All 12 coaches enter the season with head coaching experience and more than 2,200 combined career wins. Rice's Ben Braun leads the way with 570 career victories. The conference also features former AP Coach of the Year recipients in SMU's Matt Doherty and Larry Eustachy at Southern Miss. UAB's Mike Davis just reached the 200-win plateau and Tulsa's Doug Wojcik compiled 104 in just five seasons with the Golden Hurricane. Memphis' Josh Pastner led the Tigers to the postseason in his first year at the helm, and secured one of the top recruiting classes in the nation.

The league also welcomes back reigning C-USA Player of the Year Randy Culpepper of UTEP, as well as 2010 all-conference selections in Papa Dia of SMU, Gary Flowers of Southern Miss, UAB's Aaron Johnson, Wesley Witherspoon of Memphis and East Carolina's Brock Young. The 2010-11 Conference USA preseason teams will be announced Wednesday, as well.

The C-USA Men's Basketball Tip-Off Show will debut on CBS College Sports Network on Monday, November 1. This year's show is hosted by Dave Ryan and Pete Gillen.

An additional conference call for media will be hosted on Wednesday, November 10. More details about that call will follow soon.

The 2010-11 Conference USA men's basketball season gets underway on Friday, November 12. The 2011 C-USA Basketball Championship will be held March 9-12 in El Paso, Texas.