Troy University Athletics
News & Notes From Media Days
10/13/2008 5:00:00 AM | Basketball (W)
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The annual basketball media days have begun at Summit Arena, the site of the next three Sun Belt Conference Basketball Tournaments.
For only the third time in the Sun Belt Conference's 32-year storied history, the league will play its Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament Championships at a neutral site. A total of 16 teams - eight women and eight men - will qualify to travel to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Teams will gather at Summit Arena to vie for not only the conference tournament crown, but for one of the league's automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament as well.
The Sun Belt Conference has partnered with both the city of Hot Springs and Summit Arena for three years, bringing its annual year-end event to the state's number one tourist destination.
Not since the 1992 and 1993 seasons has the Sun Belt Conference aligned itself with a neutral venue. During those two years, the league championships were played at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. However, this agreement with Hot Springs will mark the only time the conference tournament has not been played in the city of one its member institutions.
Hot Springs offers the major components the league was searching for when it selected its first truly neutral site - it falls within the conference's geographic footprint, provides an appropriate and first-class arena , offers attractive entertainment and will be supported by the local community.
Notes involving the Troy Trojans include:
- The Sun Belt Conference released their television schedule for the upcoming season, with both the men and the women being featured on SBC TV against Louisiana-Monroe. The men will face ULM at 3:00 pm on Saturday, January 17; while the women will face ULM at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 18.
- Troy's Don Maestri is the longest tenured coach at his institution in the Sun Belt Conference entering the 2009 season.
Notes involving other teams from around the Sun Belt Conference include:
- The Sun Belt Conference will feature four men's games on national television beginning November 30 with Western Kentucky at Louisville on FCS. Other games include Georgia at Western Kentucky (ESPN2) on December 2, South Alabama at Western Kentucky (ESPN2) on February 7, and the Men's Sun Belt Conference Championship on March 10 (ESPN2).
- On the women's side, the Sun Belt Conference will feature Air Force at Denver on December 10 on FSN, with three other match-ups featured on ESPN+.
- Yolanda Griffith, a former Owl at Florida Atlantic, was recently honored as one of the WNBA's All-Time Greats.
- In 33 years of coaching women's basketball at Florida International, Cindy Russo has recorded a 582-226 (.690) record in 29 years.
- After being displaced by Hurrican Katrina and spending three seasons at the Human Performance Center, second-year head coach Joe Pasternack and the Privateers will finally return to the newly renovated Lakefront Arena this season. UNO will open the season November 15 at home against NC State.
- Sun Belt Conference teams will once again go head-to-head with some of the top programs in the nation this season, including a dozen teams that made an appearance in last year's NCAA Tournament. Most notably, Middle Tennessee will host in-state rival Tennessee (11.21), FIU will travel with UCLA (11.29), Troy plays at LSU (11.30), WKU squares off with fellow Commonwealth of Kentucky Institution institution Louisville (11.30), FIU heads to our nation's capital to battle Georgetown (12.23) and Florida Atlantic will play at Kentucky (12.27). Sun Belt Conference schools were 84-67 (.556) against non-conference opponents last season.
notes were compiled with the assistance of the Sun Belt Conference Office, John McElwain and Melissa Kristofak.
