Conference USA Tournament: No. 3 seed gives USM Lady Eagles first round bye

For the 12th straight year, the Southern Miss women’s basketball team will be taking part in the Conference USA tournament, but the Lady Eagles won’t actually take the court when things tip off tomorrow. That’s because they’ve secured a first round bye as this year’s three seed by winning 13 games in league play and 21 overall.
That bye means way more than it did as the nine seed a year ago when USM lost its opening game in the second round to UAB. Back then the top four teams all got double byes, but that format has since been changed.
Instead of having to win four games to be crowned champions this year the black and gold only need three. Southern Miss head women’s basketball Coach Joye Lee McNelis said, “We’re excited about the opportunity, we’re excited about the bye. I mean goodness, you can’t ask for much more than that. You get the bye and you continue to play, and I think that anyone in our tournament has the chance to win our tournament. It’s going to be the toughness in the team and in the individuals in preparation for the conference tournament, and the toughness in the individual and the team to compete every possession in the game.”
The Lady Eagles have been practicing late at night to get ready for Thursday’s 9 p.m. quarterfinal game against the winner of Old Dominion and UTEP. USM went a combined 3-0 against those teams this season.