Expectations for the C-USA tournament

Originally Published: Mar 7, 2011 9:11 PM CDT

I'm heading to El Paso for the Conference USA tournament on Wednesday morning. Tulsa enters the field as the #2 overall seed and could make a run to the title game. It won't be easy, though.Here are a few things I expect to see in West Texas:

1 Memphis will lose its first game. They are disinterested and haven't been playing well lately. They got blown out by Rice on the road and barely beat Tulanethe 12 seed. They're one and done, despite having a first round bye.

2 The crowd will be fierce. UTEP draws well to begin with. The #3 seed in its own house? The Don Haskins Center will be rockin' enough that the Miners could win the whole thing just based on the crowd support.

3 Justin Hurtt will show why he's the best player in the tournament. The Tulsa star has carried his team in stretches this season and has caught the eye of numerous coaches around the league. Larry Eustachy said Hurtt was "two notches about everyone else" in the league. If Tulsa wins the tournament, it's because #15 goes off from the field.

I'm jetting to El Paso soon. I'll update the blog from the C-USA tournament.