2015–16 Conference USA men's basketball season

2015–16 Conference USA men's basketball season
2015–16 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
2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
Regular season champions	UAB
Runners-up	Middle Tennessee
Season MVP	Alex Hamilton
Tournament
Champions	Middle Tennessee
Runners-up	Old Dominion
Finals MVP	Reggie Upshaw
Basketball seasons
	← 2014–15 2016–17 →

2015–16 Conference USA men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
UAB	16	–	2	.889	26	–	7	.788
Middle Tennessee †	13	–	5	.722	25	–	10	.714
Marshall	12	–	6	.667	17	–	16	.515
Louisiana Tech	12	–	6	.667	23	–	10	.697
Old Dominion	12	–	6	.667	25	–	13	.658
UTEP	10	–	8	.556	19	–	14	.576
Charlotte	9	–	9	.500	14	–	19	.424
Western Kentucky	8	–	10	.444	18	–	16	.529
North Texas	7	–	11	.389	12	–	20	.375
Rice	7	–	11	.389	12	–	20	.375
FIU	7	–	11	.389	13	–	19	.406
Florida Atlantic	5	–	13	.278	8	–	25	.242
Southern Miss*	5	–	13	.278	8	–	21	.276
UTSA	3	–	15	.167	5	–	27	.156
*Ineligible for postseason play due to self-imposed postseason ban.

† 2016 C-USA Tournament winner

The 2015–16 Conference USA men's basketball season began with practices in October 2015, followed by the start of the 2015–16 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November.

Preseason

Preseason Polls

	C-USA Coaches
1.	UAB (11)
2.	Old Dominion (3)
3.	Middle Tennessee
4.	UTEP
5.	Louisiana Tech
6.	WKU
7.	Rice
8.	North Texas
9.	Marshall
10.	FIU
11.	Charlotte
12.	Florida Atlantic
13.	UTSA
14.	Southern Miss

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Preseason All-Conference Team

C-USA Coaches
Adrian Diaz, F FIU Alex Hamilton, G Louisiana Tech Erik McCree, F Louisiana Tech Ryan Taylor, F Marshall Reggie Upshaw Jr.,G Middle Tennessee Trey Freeman, G Old Dominion Marcus Jackson, G Rice Robert Brown, G UAB William Lee, F UAB Earvin Morris, F UTEP

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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 4	Wk 11	Wk 12	Wk 13
Charlotte	AP
Charlotte	C
FIU	AP
FIU	C
Florida Atlantic	AP
Florida Atlantic	C
Louisiana Tech	AP			RV
Louisiana Tech	C
Marshall	AP
Marshall	C
Middle Tennessee	AP
Middle Tennessee	C
North Texas	AP
North Texas	C
Old Dominion	AP	RV	RV
Old Dominion	C	RV	RV
Rice	AP
Rice	C
Southern Miss	AP
Southern Miss	C
UAB	AP					RV
UAB	C				RV	RV	RV
UTEP	AP			RV
UTEP	C			RV
UTSA	AP
UTSA	C
WKU	AP
WKU	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	–	0–1	1-0	1-0	1–1	1-0	1–1	2-0	0-3	1-0	1-0	0-1	0-1	1–1
vs. FIU	1–0	–	0–2	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–1	0–2	0–1
vs. Florida Atlantic	0-1	2–0	–	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	0–3	1–0
vs. Louisiana Tech	0-1	1–0	1–0	–	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	1–0
vs. Marshall	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	–	1–1	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–2
vs. Middle Tennessee	0-1	0–2	0–2	1–0	1–1	–	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	2–0	0–1	0–1	1–1
vs. North Texas	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	–	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	2–0
vs. Old Dominion	0-2	0–1	0–2	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–2	–	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–2
vs. Rice	3-0	0–1	0–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	–	0–2	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1
vs. Southern Miss	1-0	0–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	–	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–0
vs. UAB	0-1	0–2	0–2	1–0	0–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	–	0–1	0–1	1–1
vs. UTEP	1-0	1–2	0–2	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	–	1–1	0–1
vs. UTSA	1-0	2–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	–	1–0
vs. WKU	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	–
Total	10–9	7–12	6–14	12–6	11–7	13–5	7–12	13–6	7–12	6–12	16–2	11–8	3–16	9–10

Honors and awards

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 16, 2015	Chris Cokley, UAB	Ja'Michael Brown, North Texas
November 23, 2015	Adrian Diaz, FIU	Andrien White, Charlotte
November 30, 2015	Earvin Morris, UTEP	C. J. Burks, Marshall
November 30, 2015	Earvin Morris, UTEP	Marcus Evans, Rice
December 7, 2015	Adrian Diaz (2), FIU	Marcus Evans (2), Rice
December 14, 2015	Alex Hamilton, Louisiana Tech	C. J. Burks (2), Marshall
December 21, 2015	Erik McCree, Louisiana Tech	Marcus Evans (3), Rice
December 28, 2015	James Kelly, Marshall	Marcus Evans (4), Rice
January 4, 2016	Adrian Diaz (3), FIU	Andrien White (2), Charlotte
January 4, 2016	Alex Hamilton (2), Louisiana Tech	Andrien White (2), Charlotte
January 11, 2016	James Kelly (2), Marshall	Jon Davis, Charlotte
January 18, 2016	William Lee, UAB	Marquez Letcher-Ellis, Rice
January 25, 2016	Trey Freeman, Old Dominion	Jon Davis (2), Charlotte
February 1, 2016	Trey Freeman (2), Old Dominion	Marcus Evans (5), Rice
February 8, 2016	Trey Freeman (3), Old Dominion	Marcus Evans (6), Rice
February 15, 2016	Erik McCree (2), Louisiana Tech	Marcus Evans (7), Rice
February 22, 2016	James Kelly (3), Marshall	Marcus Evans (8), Rice
February 29, 2016	Alex Hamilton (3), Louisiana Tech	Marcus Evans (9), Rice
March 7, 2016	Alex Hamilton (4), Louisiana Tech	Marcus Evans (10), Rice

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All-Conference USA Awards and Teams

Award	Recipient(s)	Team
2016 Conference USA Men's Basketball Individual Awards
Player of the Year	Alex Hamilton	Louisiana Tech
Gene Bartow Coach of the Year	Jerod Haase	UAB
Defensive Player of the Year	William Lee	UAB
Freshman of the Year	Marcus Evans	Rice
Newcomer of the Year	James Kelly	Marshall
Sixth Man Award	Dirk Williams	UAB

First Team	Second Team	Third Team	All-Freshman Team	All-Defensive Team	All-Academic Team
2016 Conference USA Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams
Alex Hamilton (La. Tech) James Kelly (Marshall) Trey Freeman (ODU) Marcus Evans (Rice) Robert Brown (UAB)	Joseph Uchebo (Charlotte) Adrian Diaz (FIU) Erik McCree (La. Tech) Jeremy Combs (N. Texas) Chris Cokley (UAB)	Giddy Potts (MTSU) Reggie Upshaw Jr. (MTSU) William Lee (UAB) Nick Norton (UAB) Lee Moore(UTEP)	Jon Davis (Charlotte) Andrien White (Charlotte) Zoran Talley (ODU) Marcus Evans (Rice) Terry Winn (UTEP)	Adrian Diaz (FIU) Alex Hamilton (La. Tech) Brandan Stith (ODU) Marcus Evans (Rice) William Lee (UAB)	Jon Elmore (Marshall) Austin Loop (Marshall) Trey Freeman (ODU) Nick Norton (UAB) Dominic Artis (UTEP)
† - denotes unanimous selection

^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Postseason

Conference USA Tournament

The conference tournament is scheduled for March 8–12 at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, AL.

NCAA tournament

Seed	Region	School	First Four	Round of 64	Round of 32	Sweet 16	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
15	Midwest	Middle Tennessee		W, 90–81 vs. #2 Michigan State – (St. Louis)	L, 50–75 vs. #10 Syracuse – (St. Louis)
		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

Seed	Bracket	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
7	St. Bonaventure	UAB	L, 79–97 vs. #2 BYU
		W–L (%):	0–1 .000	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 –	0–0 – Total: 0–1 .000

Vegas 16 Tournament

References

^ ^a ^b "UAB Men's Basketball Voted C-USA Preseason Favorite". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
^ "March 7 Men's Basketball Players of the Week". Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
^ "Haase and Hamilton Claim C-USA Men's Basketball Top Honors". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
^ "C-USA Men's Basketball Specialty Awards Announced". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
^ "C-USA Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams Announced". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
^ "Men's Basketball All-Academic Team Announced". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.

[:0-1] "UAB Men's Basketball Voted C-USA Preseason Favorite". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2015.

[2] "March 7 Men's Basketball Players of the Week". Archived from the original on March 28, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.

[3] "Haase and Hamilton Claim C-USA Men's Basketball Top Honors". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.

[4] "C-USA Men's Basketball Specialty Awards Announced". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.

[5] "C-USA Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams Announced". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.

[6] "Men's Basketball All-Academic Team Announced". www.conferenceusa.com. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.

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v t e Conference USA men's basketball
Current teams	FIU Panthers Jacksonville State Gamecocks Kennesaw State Owls Liberty Flames Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders New Mexico State Aggies Sam Houston Bearkats UTEP Miners (leaving in 2026) Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
Future teams	Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens (joining in 2025) Missouri State Bears (joining in 2025)
Championships & awards	Conference USA men's basketball tournament Player of the Year
Seasons	1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25