# 2013–14 Conference USA men's basketball season

The 2013–14 Conference USA men's basketball season began with practices in October 2013, followed by the start of the 2013–14 NCAA Division I men's basketball season in November.

## Preseason
### Preseason polls

C-USA was the only conference not to publish an official preseason poll. However, other publications did publish preseason projections.
| | Athlon | Blue Ribbon | ESPN | Lindy's | NBC Sports | USA Today |
| 1. | Louisiana Tech | Louisiana Tech | Southern Miss | Southern Miss | Southern Miss | Louisiana Tech |
| 2. | Southern Miss | UTEP | UTEP | UAB | UTEP | Southern Miss |
| 3. | UTEP | Southern Miss | Louisiana Tech | UTEP | Louisiana Tech | Middle Tennessee |
| 4. | Charlotte | Charlotte | Tulsa | Louisiana Tech | Tulsa | Charlotte |
| 5. | UAB | Middle Tennessee | UAB | Charlotte | Charlotte | UTEP |
| 6. | Tulsa | Tulsa | Charlotte | Tulsa | UAB | FIU |
| 7. | Marshall | UAB | Middle Tennessee | Marshall | Marshall | UAB |
| 8. | Middle Tennessee | North Texas | Marshall | Middle Tennessee | Middle Tennessee | East Carolina |
| 9. | East Carolina | East Carolina | FIU | FIU | FIU | Tulsa |
| 10. | Florida Atlantic | Marshall | North Texas | East Carolina | East Carolina | Florida Atlantic |
| 11. | North Texas | FIU | East Carolina | North Texas | North Texas | Marshall |
| 12. | Tulane | Florida Atlantic | Florida Atlantic | Tulane | Tulane | UTSA |
| 13. | Old Dominion | UTSA | Tulane | Florida Atlantic | Florida Atlantic | Tulane |
| 14. | Rice | Tulane | Old Dominion | Rice | Old Dominion | North Texas |
| 15. | UTSA | Old Dominion | UTSA | UTSA | UTSA | Rice |
| 16. | FIU | Rice | Rice | Old Dominion | Rice | Old Dominion |
Although CBS Sports did not rank all the teams, they selected Louisiana Tech as their projected champion and mentioned Southern Miss and UTEP as contenders.

### Preseason Players to Watch

C-USA did not name a preseason all-conference team, but each of the coaches selected a player to watch from their team.
* Preseason Players to Watch
* Pierriá Henry, Charlotte Akeem Richmond, East Carolina Tymell Murphy, FIU Dragan Sekelja, Florida Atlantic Raheem Appleby, Louisiana Tech Elijah Pittman, Marshall Shawn Jones, Middle Tennessee Jordan Williams, North Texas Keenan Palmore, Old Dominion Max Guercy, Rice Neil Watson, Southern Miss Tre Drye, Tulane James Woodard, Tulsa Rod Rucker, UAB Julian Washburn, UTEP Jeromie Hill, UTSA

## Preconference schedules
### Early-season tournament victories

| Name | Dates | Location | No. teams | Champion |
| Puerto Rico Tip-Off | November 21–22, 24 | Roberto Clemente Coliseum (San Juan, PR) | 8 | Charlotte |
| Gulf Coast Showcase | November 25–27 | Germain Arena (Estero, FL) | 8 | Louisiana Tech |

## Rankings

Legend :
| | Improvement in ranking |
| | Drop in ranking |
| | Not ranked previous week |
| RV | Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll |
| | | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Wk 17 | Wk 18 | Wk 19 | Wk 20 |
| Charlotte | AP | RV | RV | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Charlotte | C | RV | RV | | | | | | | | | | | |
| East Carolina | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| East Carolina | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| FIU | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| FIU | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Florida Atlantic | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Florida Atlantic | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Louisiana Tech | AP | | | | RV | | RV | | | RV | | | | |
| Louisiana Tech | C | | | | | | | | | RV | | | RV | |
| Marshall | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Marshall | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Middle Tennessee | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Middle Tennessee | C | | | | | | | | | | RV | | | |
| North Texas | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| North Texas | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Old Dominion | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Old Dominion | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Rice | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Rice | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Southern Miss | AP | | | | | | RV | RV | RV | | | RV | | |
| Southern Miss | C | | | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | RV | | | RV | RV | RV |
| Tulane | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulane | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulsa | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Tulsa | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | RV |
| UAB | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UAB | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UTEP | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UTEP | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UTSA | AP | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| UTSA | C | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## Conference schedules
### Conference matrix

This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.
| | Charlotte | ECU | FIU | FAU | LaTech | Marshall | MTSU | UNT | ODU | Rice | USM | Tulane | Tulsa | UAB | UTEP | UTSA |
| vs. Charlotte | – | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 |
| vs. East Carolina | 0–1 | – | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. FIU | 1–0 | 0–1 | – | 0–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Florida Atlantic | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | – | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 |
| vs. Louisiana Tech | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | – | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Marshall | 1–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | – | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| vs. Middle Tennessee | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | – | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–2 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. North Texas | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | – | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Old Dominion | 1–0 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | – | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Rice | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | – | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 |
| vs. Southern Miss | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | – | 0–2 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 |
| vs. Tulane | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | – | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. Tulsa | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | – | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 |
| vs. UAB | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 2–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | – | 1–0 | 0–1 |
| vs. UTEP | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | – | 0–2 |
| vs. UTSA | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 0–1 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2–0 | – |
| Total | 7–9 | 5–11 | 7–9 | 5–11 | 13–3 | 4–12 | 13–3 | 6–10 | 9–7 | 2–14 | 13–3 | 8–8 | 13–3 | 7–9 | 12–4 | 4–12 |

## Player of the week
### Players of the week

Throughout the conference regular season, the C-USA offices named one or two players of the week and one or two freshmen of the week each Monday.
| Week | Player of the week | Freshman of the week |
| November 11, 2013 | Rakeem Buckles, FIU | Matt Willms, UTEP |
| November 11, 2013 | Elijah Pittman, Marshall | Matt Willms, UTEP |
| November 18, 2013 | Louis Dabney, Tulane | Jonathan Stark, Tulane |
| November 18, 2013 | C. J. Washington, UAB | Jonathan Stark, Tulane |
| November 25, 2013 | Chad Frazier, UAB | Sean Obi, Rice |
| December 2, 2013 | Chad Frazier (2), UAB | Kareem Canty, Marshall |
| December 9, 2013 | Pablo Bertone, Florida Atlantic | Kareem Canty (2), Marshall |
| December 16, 2013 | Shawn Jones, Middle Tennessee | Kareem Canty (3), Marshall |
| December 23, 2013 | Jonathan Stark, Tulane | Jonathan Stark (2), Tulane |
| December 30, 2013 | John Bohannon, UTEP | Vince Hunter, UTEP |
| January 6, 2014 | Alex Hamilton, Louisiana Tech | Ryan Taylor, Marshall |
| January 13, 2014 | John Bohannon (2), UTEP | Jonathan Stark (3), Tulane |
| January 20, 2014 | Michael Craig, Southern Miss | Vince Hunter (2), UTEP |
| January 27, 2014 | Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech | Ryan Taylor (2), Marshall |
| January 27, 2014 | Neil Watson, Southern Miss | Ryan Taylor (2), Marshall |
| February 3, 2014 | Shawn Jones (2), Middle Tennessee | Vince Hunter (3), UTEP |
| February 10, 2014 | Akeem Richmond, East Carolina | Marquan Botley, Florida Atlantic |
| February 17, 2014 | Kerry Hammonds, Middle Tennessee | Vince Hunter (4), UTEP |
| February 24, 2014 | Aaron Brown, Southern Miss | Vince Hunter (5), UTEP |
| March 3, 2014 | Daveon Boardingham, Southern Miss | Caleb White, East Carolina |
| March 7, 2014 | Shawn Jones (3), Middle Tennessee | Marquan Botley (2), Florida Atlantic |

## Honors and awards
### All-Conference USA Awards and Teams

| Honor | Recipient |
| Player of the Year | Shawn Jones, Middle Tennessee |
| Coach of the Year | Danny Manning, Tulsa |
| Freshman of the Year | Vince Hunter, UTEP |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech |
| Newcomer of the Year | Chad Frazier, UAB |
| Sixth Man of the Year | Kenyon McNeail, Louisiana Tech |
| All-Conference USA First Team | Pablo Bertone, Florida Atlantic |
| All-Conference USA First Team | Chad Frazier, UAB |
| All-Conference USA First Team | Shawn Jones, Middle Tennessee |
| All-Conference USA First Team | Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech |
| All-Conference USA First Team | Neil Watson, Southern Miss |
| All-Conference USA Second Team | Vince Hunter, UTEP |
| All-Conference USA Second Team | Tymell Murphy, FIU |
| All-Conference USA Second Team | Akeem Richmond, East Carolina |
| All-Conference USA Second Team | Julian Washburn, UTEP |
| All-Conference USA Second Team | James Woodard, Tulsa |
| All-Conference USA Third Team | John Bohannon, UTEP |
| All-Conference USA Third Team | Kareem Canty, Marshall |
| All-Conference USA Third Team | Michael Craig, Southern Miss |
| All-Conference USA Third Team | Alex Hamilton, Louisiana Tech |
| All-Conference USA Third Team | Pierriá Henry, Charlotte |
| All-Freshman Team | Marquan Botley, Florida Atlantic |
| All-Freshman Team | Kareem Canty, Marshall |
| All-Freshman Team | Ryan Taylor, Marshall |
| All-Freshman Team | Sean Obi, Rice |
| All-Freshman Team | Jonathan Stark, Tulane |
| All-Freshman Team | Vince Hunter, UTEP |
| All-Defensive Team | Pierriá Henry, Charlotte |
| All-Defensive Team | Michale Kyser, Louisiana Tech |
| All-Defensive Team | Speedy Smith, Louisiana Tech |
| All-Defensive Team | Tweety Knight, Middle Tennessee |
| All-Defensive Team | Julian Washburn, UTEP |
| All-Academic Team | Ben Cherry, Charlotte |
| All-Academic Team | Justin Raffington, Florida Atlantic |
| All-Academic Team | Jackson Trapp, Florida Atlantic |
| All-Academic Team | Vertrail Vaughns, North Texas |
| All-Academic Team | Austin Ramljak, Rice |

### NABC

The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced their Division I All-District teams on March 12, recognizing the nation's best men's collegiate basketball student-athletes. Selected and voted on by member coaches of the NABC, 252 student-athletes, from 25 districts were chosen. The selections on this list were then eligible for NABC Coaches' All-America Honors. The following list represented the District 11 players chosen to the list.

## Postseason
### Conference USA Tournament

* March 11–15, 2014 Conference USA Men's Basketball Tournament, Don Haskins Center, El Paso, Texas.
2014 Conference USA men's basketball tournament seeds and results :
| Seed | School | Conf. | Over. | Tiebreaker | First round March 11 | Second round March 12 | Quarterfinals March 13 | Semifinals March 14 | Championship March 15 |
| 1 | Louisiana Tech † | 13–3 | 27–7 | 2–1 vs Tul/MT/SM; 1–0 vs Tul | Bye | Bye | Defeated Charlotte 86–65 | Defeated Southern Miss 88–70 | Eliminated by Tulsa 69–60 |
| 2 | Tulsa † | 13–3 | 21–12 | 2–1 vs LT/MT/SM; 0–1 vs LT | Bye | Bye | Defeated Tulane 70–49 | Defeated Middle Tennessee 76–69 | Defeated Louisiana Tech 69–60 |
| 3 | Middle Tennessee † | 13–3 | 24–9 | 1–2 vs LT/Tul/SM; 1–0 vs. SM | Bye | Bye | Defeated Old Dominion 62–48 | Eliminated by Tulsa 76–69 | |
| 4 | Southern Miss † | 13–3 | 27–6 | 1–2 vs LT/Tul/MT; 0–1 vs. MT | Bye | Bye | Defeated UTEP 64–56 | Eliminated by Louisiana Tech 88–70 | |
| 5 | UTEP # | 12–4 | 23–10 | | Bye | Defeated East Carolina 77–68 | Eliminated by Southern Miss 64–56 | | |
| 6 | Old Dominion # | 9–7 | 16–17 | | Bye | Defeated Marshall 78–58 | Eliminated by Middle Tennessee 62–48 | | |
| 7 | Tulane # | 8–8 | 17–16 | | Bye | Defeated North Texas 66–61 | Eliminated by Tulsa 70–49 | | |
| 8 | UAB # | 7–9 | 18–13 | 1–0 vs Charlotte | Bye | Eliminated by Charlotte 80–70 | | | |
| 9 | Charlotte # | 7–9 | 17–14 | 0–1 vs UAB | Bye | Defeated UAB 80–70 | Eliminated by Louisiana Tech 86–65 | | |
| 10 | North Texas | 6–10 | 16–16 | | Defeated Rice 63–62 | Eliminated by Tulane 66–61 | | | |
| 11 | Florida Atlantic | 5–11 | 10–22 | 1–0 vs East Carolina | Eliminated by Marshall 63–59 | | | | |
| 12 | East Carolina | 5–11 | 17–16 | 0–1 vs Florida Atlantic | Defeated UTSA 79–76 | Eliminated by UTEP 77–68 | | | |
| 13 | UTSA | 4–12 | 8–22 | 1–0 vs Marshall | Eliminated by East Carolina 79–76 | | | | |
| 14 | Marshall | 4–12 | 11–22 | 0–1 vs UTSA | Defeated Florida Atlantic 63–59 | Eliminated by Old Dominion 78–58 | | | |
| 15 | Rice | 2–14 | 7–23 | | Eliminated by North Texas 63–62 | | | | |
| † – C-USA regular season co-champions and received a double-bye in the conference tournament. # – Received a single-bye in the conference tournament. Overall records include all games played in the C-USA tournament. FIU is ineligible due to Academic Progress Rate violations. ||||||||||

### NCAA tournament

| Seed | Region | School | First Four | Round of 64 | Round of 32 | Sweet 16 | Elite Eight | Final Four | Championship |
| 13 | South | Tulsa | n/a | Eliminated by UCLA 76–59 | | | | | |
| | | W–L (%): | 0–0 – | 0–1 .000 | 0–0 – | 0–0 – | 0–0 – | 0–0 – | 0–0 –Total: 0–1 .000 |

### National Invitation Tournament

| Seed | Bracket | School | First round | Second round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals |
| 3 | Florida State | Louisiana Tech | Defeated Iona 89–88 | Defeated Georgia 79–71 | Eliminated by Florida State 78–75 | | |
| 3 | Minnesota | Southern Miss | Defeated Toledo 66–59 | Defeated Missouri 71–63 | Eliminated by Minnesota 81–73 | | |
| | | W–L (%): | 2–0 1.000 | 2–0 1.000 | 0–2 .000 | 0–0 – | 0–0 – Total: 4–2 .667 |

### College Basketball Invitational

| School | First round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals |
| Old Dominion | Defeated South Dakota State 72–65 | Defeated Radford 82–59 | Eliminated by Fresno State 71–64 | |
| Tulane | Eliminated by Princeton 56–55 | | | |
| UTEP | Eliminated by Fresno State 61–56 | | | |
| W–L (%): | 1–2 .333 | 1–0 1.000 | 0–1 .000 | 0–0 – Total: 2–3 .400 |

### CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

| School | First round | Second round | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals |
| East Carolina | Eliminated by Wright State 73–59 | | | | |
| W–L (%): | 0–1 .000 | 0–0 – | 0–0 – | 0–0 – | 0–0 – Total: 0–1 .000 |