The 2017–18 Conference USA men's basketball season began with practices in October 2017, followed by the start of the
2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season
The 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season began on November 10, 2017. The first tournament was the 2K Sports Classic and the season ended with the Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, on April 2, 2018. Practices offici ...
in November. Conference play began in late December and concluded in early March.
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...
claimed the outright regular season championship with a win over
Western Kentucky
Western Kentucky is the western portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It generally includes part or all of several more widely recognized regions of the state.
;Always included
* The Jackson Purchase, the state's westernmost generally recogniz ...
on March 1, 2018.
Old Dominion finished in second place in the regular season, one game behind the Blue Raiders.
Middle Tennessee's
Nick King was named
C-USA Player of the Year and UTSA's
Steve Henson
Steven Michael Henson (born February 2, 1968) is an American basketball coach and former professional basketball player who is an assistant for Baylor University. He previously served as the head coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio ...
was named the Coach of the Year.
The
C-USA tournament was held from March 7 through 10, 2018 at
The Ford Center at The Star in
Frisco, Texas
Frisco is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Collin County, Texas, Collin and Denton County, Texas, Denton counties. It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) and about from both Dallas Love Field and Dallas/Fort Worth In ...
.
Marshall
Marshall may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria
** Marshall railway station
Canada
* Marshall, Saskatchewan
* The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia
Liberia
* Marshall, Liberia
Marshall Is ...
defeated Western Kentucky to win the tournament championship for the first time. As a result, the Thundering Herd received the conference's automatic bid to the
NCAA tournament. No other C-USA school received an NCAA Tournament bid. The Herd went 1–1 in the Tournament. Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky received a bid to the
National Invitation Tournament
The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...
. The teams combined go 4–2 in the NIT, with Western Kentucky advancing to the semifinals.
North Texas
North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...
and
UTSA received bids to the
CBI and
CIT respectively.
Head coaches
Coaching changes
On March 5, 2017, North Texas fired head coach
Tony Benford
Tony L. Benford (born March 22, 1964) is an American basketball coach who is an assistant coach of the TCU Horned Frogs men's basketball team.
Biography
A native of Hobbs, New Mexico — and 1982 graduate of Hobbs High School — Benford playe ...
after five years without a winning season. On March 13, the school hired
Arkansas State
Arkansas State University (A-State or ASU) is a public research university in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System and the second-largest university in the state. The university ...
head coach
Grant McCasland
Grant McCasland (born October 14, 1976) is an American college basketball coach who is currently the head men's basketball coach at Texas Tech University. McCasland previously coached at North Texas from 2017 to 2023, where he guided the Mean Gre ...
to the same role.
On March 21, 2017, Rice head coach
Mike Rhoades
Michael David Rhoades (born September 21, 1972) is an American basketball coach. He is the head men's basketball coach at Penn State University, where he was hired on March 29, 2023. Prior to his position at Penn State, Rhoades served as the hea ...
resigned to become the head coach at
VCU. He finished at Rice with a three-year record of 47–52. On March 23, the school promoted assistant coach
Scott Pera
Scott Pera (born August 27, 1967) is an American college basketball coach, most recently serving as the Head Coach for the Rice Owls men's basketball team.
Coaching career
Pera started his coaching career at Elizabethtown College in 1992, befor ...
to head coach.
On November 27, 2017 UTEP dropped to 1–5 on the season, head coach
Tim Floyd
Timothy Fitzpatrick Floyd (born February 25, 1954) is a former American college basketball coach, most recently the head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). He was formerly the head coach of several teams in the NCAA and the NBA. ...
announced that he was retiring effective immediately. The school had previously announced a new athletic director,
Jim Senter, a week prior, but Floyd said that had nothing to do with his decision. Assistant
Phil Johnson was named interim head coach of the Miners the next day.
On December 14, 2017, Charlotte head coach
Mark Price
William Mark Price (born February 15, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. The last coaching job he held was as head coach of the Charlotte 49ers men's basketball, Charlotte 49ers. As a four-time NBA All-Star and ...
was fired after a 3–6 start to the season and was replaced by
Houston Fancher
Houston Fancher (born February 17, 1966) is an American basketball coach, previously the interim head coach of the Charlotte 49ers men's basketball team. Prior to that, he worked for a summer in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Later, he also worked for fo ...
. Fancher was named interim coach for the remainder of the season.
Coaches
''Notes:''
* All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only.
* Year at school includes 2017–18 season.
* Overall and C-USA records are from time at current school and are through the end of the 2017–18 season.
Preseason
Preseason Coaches Poll
Source
Preseason All-C-USA Team
Source
Conference schedules
Conference matrix
This table summarizes the head-to-head results between teams in conference play.
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.
All-C-USA honors and awards
Following the regular season, the conference selected outstanding performers based on a poll of league coaches.
Postseason
C-USA Tournament
Only the top 12 conference teams were eligible for the tournament.
NCAA tournament
National Invitation Tournament
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 Conference USA men's basketball season