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State college basketball heats up this week
Published: 1/8/2013 12:39 PM
Last Modified: 1/8/2013 12:39 PM

I know basketball doesn't ring the bell with state college fans like football does.

But at least college football fans adjusting to basketball will be greeted by the biggest year of the local hoops season to date.

After it's dramatic -- if not pretty -- Conference USA-opening win at SMU on Sunday, Tulsa faces Marshall on Wednesday. Marshall has struggled, but was predicted to be one of the top two or three teams in C-USA. A win could give TU fans a little more hope that first-year coach Danny Manning has the program going in the right direction.

You'll know a lot more about the Southland Conference basketball race late Saturday night after Oral Roberts hosts Stephen F. Austin.

SFA looks like the class of the SLC, already with road wins against Oklahoma and Tulsa. ORU has struggled at times this year, but did pick up road wins at Southeastern Louisiana and Nicholls State to open league play.

And Bedlam basketball should be a lot of fun Saturday, as Oklahoma State travels to Norman to take on Oklahoma.

OU got a nice conference-opening road win at West Virginia. OSU's bubble has burst some with back-to-back losses to Gonzaga and Kansas State.

Can OU make an NCAA run? Is OSU truly back? You'll know more by late Saturday afternoon.

Just in time for this big week, the NCAA released its first RPI of the season Monday. Like other polls, RPI is mostly a conversation piece -- especially early in the year.

But because RPI is part of the NCAA tournament committee's evaluation process, it can be informative.

For the record, Oklahoma is tops in the state, ranked 19th. Kansas is the best in the Big 12 at No. 2, right behind Duke.

Oklahoma State is listed at 36, Tulsa at 106 and Oral Roberts at 115. Southern Mississippi is the highest rated C-USA team at 56. SFA is the best in the Southland at 53.

(Here is the link to the full RPI list.)

A year ago, Marshall at 43 was the top RPI team to miss out on the NCAA field. Mississippi, at 57, had the best RPI of any BCS conference team to miss out on the NCAAs.

So, if OU and OSU keep winning and history repeats itself, the Sooners and Cowboys might be able to break the state's NCAA tournament drought.

We'll know more about all four state teams after this weekend.

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Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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