Tape-delayed live-blogging the Conference USA Media Slam

The CSTV broadcast features Steve Lappas as the in-studio basketball analyst. Seth Davis and Pete Gillan are the broadcasters hosting the event from the FedEx-Calipari arena in Elvisville.

Some quick tidbits: New arena for Central Florida, CSTV's editiorial thinks Turnaround Tom's Houston is the likely #2 in the conference. Two new coaches are introduced in the conferences at Marshall (almost Florida head coach Donnie Jones) and East Carolina. In the coaches poll, UAB and Houston tied for the #2 spot.

First up some McCarthy-ism at East Carolina as he enters the season as an interim head coach but with lots of mid-major head coaching experience. They do have a seasoned AD and basketball mind in Terry Holland. The interim coach promised a faster style of play and earlier shots.

Next up, the University of Central Florida with a brand new 10,000 seat arena. This is one of the biggest schools you may not heard about, they have an enrollment of almost 50,000 students in Orlando. Pete Gillan got re-united with his former ACC opponent Mike O'Donnell during the event. UCF has the human interest story of a 30 year old former Marine Stanley Billings and a sixth year student-teacher.

Next up UTEP with Tony Barbee who is going to be running his flava of the Vance Walberg AASAA offense. All-conference Philly guard Stefon Jackson joined the coach. The team has gotten bigger in size thanks to the new incoming players including Manny Cass. UTEP is working on a new multi-million practice facility. There we learn about the Cheetah girls.

Of course everyone is undefeated at the moment, so this is the best part of the season for the coaches. The sky is the limit, zero losses and undefeated, and everyone's rooting for them.

Next up Rice, who will be homeless this season as they are renovating their arena. Willis wants to turn this disadvantage into an advantage. Coach Willis did not bring a player with him, but he was lamenting the loss of Morris Almond et al. He promises a faster pace. Sure, they all do at media days, but when the games count, then they'll do whatever it takes to win, and slugfest wins games.

Next up, a branch from the Izzo tree, Doug Wojcik at Tulsa, hoping to make the John Philips era a distant memory. He even looks more like Izzo this season. He is accompanied by seniors Brent McDade and Rod Earls. The team has an interesting project in 7-footer Jordan. Wojcik took an innocent quasi-cheap shot at the Vaden situation at UAB.

Next up Marshall with Floridian assistant Donnie Jones accompanied by wing Markel Humphrey. Goodbye Ron Jirsa, hello P-Mac! Unfortunately this format does not allow Pete Gillan to freewheel, so we are not getting his famous lines. No donuts, and no zingers. So why is P-Mac eligible to play right away at Marhsall even though he played for the Zags for the whole 2006-2007 season? Because he graduated in three years so he was able to take advantage of the new morphed free agent/graduate student rule. Because he wanted to be a point guard. Oops, I mean because he wanted to join the graduate program at Marshall. Pardon me for that slip :-)

Next up SMU with toxic personality coach Matt Doherty who promises to play faster and attack the defense before they are set. Sure, sure, sure. SMU does have a solid recruiting class and Matt D. reminded everyone of his UNC recruiting prowess. He is accompanied by mature senior Jon Killen. He is hopeful of Papa Dia, comparing him to Pete Gillan's Travis Watson at Virginia. Seth Davis hinted at Matt D's personality jokingly: "Just do as he says and you'll be fine". That's what brought him down at UNC?

Next up, another coach with experience at a big program and with drama behind him, Mike Davis at UAB with what CSTV called "Darth Vaden". He addressed the club incident and Davis installed a lifetime kerfew on his players. He is accompanied by Paul Delaney the 3rd and Robert "Darth" Vaden. Vaden said transfering to UAB with Mike Davis was one of the "easiest decisions of my life". But UAB is not just the high profile transfers, he also brought in some new players this year, including a 7-footer Z-man from Europe and teammate of royalty Keenan Ellis.

Up next, Larry "Party Animal" Eustachy with his clip-on tie and Southern Miss! What beverages did he have before the event? He yelled "Bring it on baby". Okay, just kidding about the beverages :) Scheduling is a toughie he said. He said "best basketball job I had to win games". Well look at your schedule :) Also mentioned is a promising Brazilian forward. Lappas projected that if he has a 25 game season and an NCAA tourney appearance he will be a hot commodity in the coaching carousel. The co-eds would agree?

Turnaround, turnaround, it's time for Turnaround Tom and Karl Malone's cuz Marcus Malone. As usual a wave of new players and seven seniors, Kelvin Lewis of Auburn eligible to play right away because of hardship rules. Will Lanny Smith be ready? TT said "we are more like the Phoenix Suns". Except without Steve Nash, Matrix, and Amari? TT likes having multiple guards who can play the point and run the Phoenix Mike D'Antoni offense. Then TT went on into lecture mode breaking down most of the teams in the conference.

The second to last team, the Tulane Green Wave with former Maryland assistant Dave ickerson and senior power forward Dave Gomez. Finally Pete Gillan went into a fast break with his patented "Coach, you look great, you smell great". Tulane as you may recall on the road to recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Next the jewel of the crown and the raison d^etre of Conference USA, the Memphis Calipari Tigers and Roses Show. The Joe Biden of basketball coaches surprisingly shared the spotlight with CDR (Chris Douglas Roberts) and Robert Dozier. No, no Derrick Rose, he's just another freshman :) They also discussed about missed free throws, and Cal revealed that Dorsey missed free throw shots even during the visualization exercises ;-)

We are not done yet, the C-USA commish Britton Banowsky is up next, talking about the rebuilding of CUSA after the famous five left for the Big East and the A-10. Obviously the commish is bullish on the present and future of the conference. He also has the secret formula for conference success ("win games").

Seth Davis and Pete Gillan predict 2 NCAAs and 2 NIT bids from C-USA. Gillan's sleeper team is Tulane, while Lappas thinks 3 NCAA teams for C-USA.

That's all folks! If you missed the broadcast, it will re-air tonight at 1130pm eastern, and Friday noon and 830pm eastern on CSTV. It may also be available online at CSTV or at the official C-USA website.

Time-permitting, next week I will be tape-delayed-live-blogging the Mountain West media days.