Blue Raiders prepped for Conference USA Tournament

FRISCO, Texas – Conference USA East Division Champion Middle Tennessee (22-9, 13-5) heads to the Ford Center at the Star in hopes of capturing the 2022 Heritage Supply Group Conference USA Championship.

Middle Tennessee will begin play at 8 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals against the winner of Wednesday's second-round game between 4W UTEP (18-12, 11-7) and 5E Old Dominion (13-18, 8-10).

Thursday's game can be viewed on Stadium. Fans can tune into the radio broadcast WGNS 1450AM/100.5 FM/101.9 FM; The Game 2 94.9 FM/95.1 FM with Chip Walters and Kyle Turnham on the call. Tickets are available on SeatGeek.

The Blue Raiders earned the top seed in the East on the strength of a 13-5 league record to obtain a double-bye and rest up the first two days of the tournament.

Middle Tennessee earned four C-USA postseason awards, announced on March 7.Josh Jefferson was named Second Team All-Conference, Donovan Sims made Honorable Mention All-Conference, and Teafale Lenard Jr. earned a spot on the All-Freshman Team. Head coach Nick McDevitt was named the Gene Bartow C-USA Coach of the Year.

Game 32: Middle Tennessee (22-7, 13-5 C-USA) vs. TBD
» Thursday, March 10, 2022 – 8 p.m. CT
» Ford Center
» Frisco, Texas

Blue Raiders Notes
» Fifth-year Blue Raider Donovan Sims on Feb. 10 became the 34th member of MT's 1,000-point club. The home-grown guard is fourth all-time with 104 career games started and 134 games played, fourth with 146 steals, seventh with 330 assists and 3,216 minutes, and eighth with 168 3-pointers made.
» The Blue Raiders have made one of the largest year-over-year turnarounds in the country, having improved upon last season's win total by 17. Only Towson (20), and Iowa State (18) have made bigger leaps. MT's +.541 year-over-year winning percentage increase is second-highest in the nation among teams that played 20 or more games in 2020-21.
» Josh Jefferson has scored in double figures in a career-high 10 straight games. He is tied for 10th-most in a single season in program history with 71 made 3-pointers.
» Middle Tennessee's 17-game home winning streak is the longest active streak in Conference USA and fourth-longest in program history.
» The Blue Raiders set a program record by winning eight games in the month of February. The last time MT won eight or more games in any month was January 2017 (9-0).
» Teafale Lenard Jr.'s 42 dunks on the season are the second-most by a Blue Raider since 2016-17, trailing only Reggie Scurry's 49 in 2018-19. His 42 blocks are the ninth-most in a season in program history.

Scouting the Miners
» Middle Tennessee defeated UTEP earlier in the season on Feb. 21 in Murfreesboro, 77-59. Redshirt-Junior Souley Boum led the Miners with 24 points, the only UTEP player to score in double-figures in the glass house.
» UTEP comes into postseason play winners of their last two contest, defeating 5W Rice and overall one seed in the tournament North Texas at home, both of those games were decided by one-possession.
» Boum leads the UTEP attack, averaging just under 20 points per game (19.9). The Oakland, Calif. product is also tied for second on the team in rebounds per game (4.1).
» Junior Jamal Bieniemy is second on the UTEP squad in scoring, putting up 14.8 points per game. The backcourt duo of Bieniemy and Boum account for over 50 percent of the Miners' total offense.

Scouting the Monarchs
» ODU and MT split regular season contests this year, both team winning their home game against each other. The Monarchs gave the Blue Raiders their most recent loss on March 5 inside the Chartway Arena, 68-64. The Blue Raiders were without their leading scorer Jefferson in the contest.
» The Monarchs enter the C-USA Campionship, winners of four of their last eight games.
» Second-Team All-C-USA pick Austin Trice leads ODU and the conference and is 40th in the country in field goal percentage at .544. He also leads the Monarchs in rebounds per game (9.0) and free-throw attempts (159).
» C.J. Keyser leads ODU in points per game, averaging 14.1 per contest.

The Semifinal Round
With a win against 4W UTEP or 5E ODU in the quarterfinals, Middle Tennessee would advance to the semifinals to face either 2W UAB or the winner of 3E Florida Atlantic/7W Southern Miss on Friday, March 11 at 2 p.m. CT.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Josh Jefferson

Teafale Lenard Jr.

Donovan Sims

Middle Tennesee State University Athletics