With the exception of Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern, the Southwestern Athletic Conference basketball teams encountered tough times on the road during recently completed pre-league action.
The SWAC, in the past decade or so, played what’s called “money games” during the early part of their season prior to getting down to serious business in conference play that starts after the Christmas Holidays.
Combined, the other eight SWAC schools were 12-66 against major college teams during the pre-conference schedule.
Prairie View was 5-6 during that November and December stretch, while Texas Southern managed to produce a 4-8 slate. Of course, all of their opponents were not your big time schools either. Prairie View played and of course lost to the likes of Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Iowa and Air Force. But they also beat five pansies that included Florida Gulf Coast CC, Dallas Christian College, and Schreiner College. On the other hand, Texas Southern won games over the likes of Dickerson State, Jarvis Christian College, Northern Idaho and Southeastern Louisiana.
Prairie View’s Coach Byron Rimm II, whose Panthers are currently 9-7 overall and 4-1 in the SWAC, figured his team could gain some momentum and confidence by winning a few games during the pre-conference run. “We play the major colleges for the tremendous experience that we gain in such games and at the same time, obviously we play for the money that those games generate for our athletic program,” Rimm stated. But by the same token we try and scheduled some teams in there we felt we could beat as well.”
Interestingly, Texas Southern at 8-9 had the next best overall record during that time frame and is also currently 4-1 in conference competition.
Of course the down side of the matter is two SWAC schools came out of the pre-conference run with zero wins – Alcorn State 0-13 and Arkansas-Pine Bluff 0-11. Jackson State finished the pre-SWAC season with a 1-10 record, while Mississippi Valley State was 1-12. Grambling went 2-7, Alabama State was 3-8 and Alabama A&M managed a 3-5 record in the pre-conference run.
Perhaps, the most extensively traveled SWAC team during the pre-conference schedule was Arkansas – Pine Bluff. The Golden Loins, coached by Jackson (Ms.) Native and former Mississippi Valley State great George Ivory, traveled to Colorado, University of Denver, Texas-El Paso, Arizona State, Michigan, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Oregon, Missouri and Georgia Tech. Ivory said the pre-conference whirlwind schedule produced over $800,000 for the schools athletic budget. That’s comes to about a fourth of the total sports budget for the university.
“It’s very tough on you, but we certainly needed the money. Plus it was an experience that our guys enjoyed, seeing the country and all that, and I think its help our game as we enter league competition,” Ivory said last week.
Jackson State’s Tevester Anderson credits the tough pre-SWAC road challenges as preparation opportunities. “We look forward to those games every year. They provide us with an adversarial environment that helps us when we get into conference play,” Anderson said back in November.
The question still remains, is the money for those games worth the humiliation? For Prairie View and Texas Southern it appears to be about both, the money and maintaining the player’s confidence by scheduling teams in the mix they can beat as well.
Still, Jackson State and Arkansas-Pine Bluff, with just one pre-conference victory between them, are tied for the SWAC lead at 4-1 with Prairie View and Texas Southern.
So much for confidence!
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