Where Things Stand, Part 2

Gulf Coast -- 3-point shooting and FT shooting are in the top 3 in the conference, but they average close to 20 turnovers per game, resulting in a 9th-best PEP of 0.90. This is, however, against a decent schedule. Gulf Coast has run with some pretty big dogs this year (Michigan, Florida, Kansas), so as they play with teams their own size the numbers should improve. Derrick O'Neil has been the star (14.6 PEG), and Delvin Franklin and Reed Baker providing solid support. Weird: FGCU's opponents have taken 100 more 3-pointers than they have in 13 games, and only make 29.6% of them.

Conference Record Projection: 10-10

Jacksonville -- Speaking of strength of schedule. Georgetown, Florida State, Baylor, Ohio State, and Georgia Tech. No Transylvania moments, but the Dolphins are better for having played the games. More to the point, they're better than they look. Which is a good thing, because the numbers look a bit bleak. Jacksonville's opponents have made 48.5% of their FGs and 41% of their 3's, both last in the conference. Thus far, Ben Smith has been the leader, with decent help from Marcus Allen. But for Jacksonville to be as good as we thought they would be in the preseason, some other guys need to step up. Travis Cohn, Ayron Hardy, Evan Jefferson, and Lehman Colbert all have better game than the numbers have shown so far. The Dolphins will need that game if they want to make noise in the conference.

Conference Record Projection: 11-9

Kennesaw State -- Probably the opposite scheduling philosophy from Jacksonville and Gulf Coast, which makes apples-to-apples comparisons difficult. Kennesaw is shooting the ball well and doing a passable job defensively. Jon-Michael Nickerson has been the Owls' best player so far, with solid support from Kelvin McConnell. The problem is the rest of the guys haven't really done much. This does not bode well for conference play. J. D. Pollock's knee injury is a major hit. Very few point guards in this league take care of the basketball as well as he does.

Conference Record Projection: 11-9

Lipscomb -- Who knows, really. They can lose at home to Tennessee Tech and on the road at Elon, but then win in Assembly Hall. Exactly the sort of up-and-down season you might expect from a team that starts 5 sophomores. The numbers look promising, but inconsistent. 2-point and FT shooting are the best in the conference, but 3-pointers are second-worst. Lipscomb may actually look better than they really are, as opponent FT% is only 56.5%. The conference as a whole shoots 68% from the foul line. If Lipscomb can keep making their free throws, limit the amount of shots they take from beyond the arc, and most importantly play consistent defense, they could be pretty good. This team reminds me a lot of Belmont last year in terms of balance; Adnan Hozdic and Brandon Brown are as close as they have to all-conference type players, but seven other guys are making significant contributions. That said, they're young. We'll see if they can keep it up.

Conference Record Projection: 14-6

Last four later . . .