2014–15 Conference USA men's basketball season

2014–15 Conference USA men's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	14
TV partner(s)	CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports, American Sports Network
2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
Regular season champions	Louisiana Tech
Runners-up	UTEP Old Dominion
Season MVP	Speedy Smith
Tournament
Champions	UAB
Runners-up	Middle Tennessee
Finals MVP	Robert Brown, UAB

2014–15 Conference USA men's basketball standings

	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
Louisiana Tech	15	–	3		.833			27	–	9		.750
Old Dominion	13	–	5		.722			27	–	8		.771
UTEP	13	–	5		.722			22	–	11		.667
WKU	12	–	6		.667			20	–	12		.625
UAB †	12	–	6		.667			20	–	16		.556
Middle Tennessee	9	–	9		.500			19	–	17		.528
FIU	8	–	10		.444			16	–	17		.485
UTSA	8	–	10		.444			14	–	16		.467
North Texas	8	–	10		.444			14	–	17		.452
Rice	8	–	10		.444			12	–	20		.375
Charlotte	7	–	11		.389			14	–	18		.438
Marshall	7	–	11		.389			11	–	21		.344
Southern Miss*	4	–	14		.222			9	–	20		.310
Florida Atlantic	2	–	16		.111			9	–	20		.310
*Ineligible for postseason play due to self-imposed postseason ban
† 2015 C-USA Tournament winner

The 2014–15 Conference USA men's basketball season began with practices in October 2014, followed by the start of the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November.

Preseason

Preseason Polls

	C-USA Coaches
1.	Louisiana Tech
2.	UTEP
3.	Charlotte
4.	Old Dominion

Preseason All-Conference Team

C-USA Coaches
Pierriá Henry, G Charlotte Raheem Appleby, G Louisiana Tech Alex Hamilton, G Louisiana Tech Speedy Smith, G Louisiana Tech Aaron Bacote, G Old Dominion C.J. Washington, F UAB Vince Hunter, F UTEP Julian Washburn, F/G UTEP George Fant, F WKU T.J. Price, G WKU

Rankings

See also: 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings

Legend

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll

		Pre/ Wk 1	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8	Wk 9	Wk 10	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13	Wk 14	Wk 15	Wk 16	Wk 17	Wk 18	Wk 19	Final
Charlotte	AP
	C
FIU	AP
	C
Florida Atlantic	AP
	C
Louisiana Tech	AP	RV	RV									RV		RV
	C	RV	RV	RV		RV
Marshall	AP
	C
Middle Tennessee	AP
	C
North Texas	AP
	C
Old Dominion	AP				RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	25	RV	RV			RV
	C					RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV	RV
Rice	AP
	C
Southern Miss	AP
	C
UAB	AP
	C
UTEP	AP	RV	RV	RV
	C	RV	RV	RV	RV
UTSA	AP
	C
WKU	AP
	C

Conference schedules

Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.

	Charlotte	FIU	FAU	LaTech	Marshall	MTSU	UNT	ODU	Rice	USM	UAB	UTEP	UTSA	WKU
vs. Charlotte	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. FIU	0–1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. Florida Atlantic	1–0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. Louisiana Tech	0–1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. Marshall	2–0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. Middle Tennessee	0–1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. North Texas	1–1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. Old Dominion	0–2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. Rice	1–1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. Southern Miss	1–0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. UAB	0–1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. UTEP	0–1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. UTSA	1–0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
vs. WKU	0–2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total	7–11	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–

Player of the week

Players of the week

Throughout the conference regular season, the C-USA offices named one or two players of the week and one or two freshmen of the week each Monday.

Week	Player of the week	Freshman of the week
November 17, 2014	Vince Hunter, UTEP	Jeremy Combs, North Texas
November 24, 2014	Mike Thorne Jr., Charlotte	Bishop Mency, Rice
December 1, 2014	Vince Hunter (2), UTEP	Torin Dorn, Charlotte
December 8, 2014	Alex Hamilton, Louisiana Tech	Justin Massey, Florida Atlantic
December 15, 2014	Alex Hamilton (2), Louisiana Tech	Justin Johnson, WKU
	T. J. Price, WKU	Edward Simpson Jr., Middle Tennessee
December 22, 2014	Vince Hunter (3), UTEP	Keyshawn Woods, Charlotte
December 29, 2014	Vince Hunter (4), UTEP	Bishop Mency (2), Rice
January 5, 2015	Chip Armelin, Southern Miss	Xavian Stapleton, Louisiana Tech
January 12, 2015	Raheem Appleby, Louisiana Tech	Torin Dorn (2), Charlotte
	George Fant, WKU
January 19, 2015	Alex Hamilton (3), Louisiana Tech	Chris Cokley, UAB
January 26, 2015	Jeromie Hill, UTSA	Nick Norton, UAB
February 2, 2015	Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech	Torin Dorn (3), Charlotte
		Jeremy Combs (2), North Texas
February 9, 2015	Kaj-Björn Sherman, UTSA	Nick Norton (2), UAB
February 16, 2015	Seth Gearhart, Rice	William Lee, UAB
	Keon Lewis, UTSA
February 23, 2015	Trey Freeman, Old Dominion	Giddy Potts, Middle Tennessee
March 2, 2015	Trey Freeman (2), Old Dominion	William Lee (2), UAB
March 9, 2015	Adrian Diaz, FIU	Keyshawn Woods (2), Charlotte

Honors and awards

All-Conference USA Awards and Teams

Honor	Recipient
Player of the Year	Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech
Coach of the Year	Michael White, Louisiana Tech
Freshman of the Year	Torin Dorn, Charlotte
Defensive Player of the Year	Julian Washburn, UTEP
Newcomer of the Year	Trey Freeman, Old Dominion
Sixth Man of the Year	Chris Cokley, UAB
All-Conference USA First Team	Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech
	Trey Freeman, Old Dominion
	Vince Hunter, UTEP
	Jeromie Hill, UTSA
	T. J. Price, WKU
All-Conference USA Second Team	Dennis Mavin, FIU
	Raheem Appleby, Louisiana Tech
	Alex Hamilton, Louisiana Tech
	Seth Gearhart, Rice
	George Fant, WKU
All-Conference USA Third Team	Pierriá Henry, Charlotte
	Ryan Taylor, Marshall
	Jordan Williams, North Texas
	Chip Armelin, Southern Miss
	Robert Brown, UAB
All-Freshman Team	Torin Dorn, Charlotte
	Giddy Potts, Middle Tennessee
	Jeremy Combs, North Texas
	Nick Norton, UAB
	William Lee, UAB
All-Defensive Team	Pierriá Henry, Charlotte
	Adrian Diaz, FIU
	Michale Kyser, Louisiana Tech
	Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech
	Julian Washburn, UTEP
All-Academic Team	Kris Gulley, FIU
	Austin Loop, Marshall
	Trey Freeman, Old Dominion
	Seth Gearhart, Rice
	Marcus Jackson, Rice
	Jeromie Hill, UTSA

Postseason

Conference USA Tournament

Main article: 2015 Conference USA men's basketball tournament

• March 11–14, Conference USA Basketball Tournament, Legacy Arena, Birmingham

	First Round Wednesday, March 11 ASN					Quarterfinals Thursday, March 12 ASN					Semifinals Friday, March 13 CBSSN					Championship Game Saturday, March 14 FS1
						1	Louisiana Tech	70
						9	Rice	64
	8	North Texas	54
	9	Rice	82
											1	Louisiana Tech	62
											4	UAB	72*
						4	UAB	53
						5	WKU	52
	5	WKU	59
	12	Marshall	45
																4	UAB	73
																6	Middle Tennessee	60
						2	UTEP	83
						10	FIU	71
	7	UTSA	54
	10	FIU	57
											2	UTEP	50
											6	Middle Tennessee	53
						3	Old Dominion	52
						6	Middle Tennessee	59
	6	Middle Tennessee	63
	11	Charlotte	60

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2015 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

Seed	Region	School	First Four	Round of 64	Round of 32	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
14	South	UAB		W, 60–59 vs. #3 Iowa State – (Louisville)	L, 75–92 vs. #11 UCLA – (Louisville)
		W–L (%):	0–0 –	1–0 1.000	0–1 .000	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 –Total: 1–1 .500

National Invitation Tournament

Main article: 2015 National Invitation Tournament

Seed	Bracket	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
1	Old Dominion	Old Dominion	W, 65–56 vs. #8 Charleston Southern	W, 50–49 vs. #4 Illinois State	W, 72–69 vs. #3 Murray State	W, 60–67 vs. #2 Stanford – (New York City)
3	Temple	Louisiana Tech	W, 89–79 vs. #6 Central Michigan	W, 84–72 vs. #2 Texas A&M	L, 59–77 vs. #1 Temple
6	Old Dominion	UTEP	L, 66–81 vs. #3 Murray State
		W–L (%):	2–1 .667	2–0 1.000	1–1 .500	0–1 .000	0–0 – Total: 5–3 .625

CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

Main article: 2015 CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
Middle Tennessee	L, 56–68 vs. Kent State
W–L (%):	0–1 .000	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 – Total: 0–1 .000