Tennessee State Tigers men's basketball

But I still have fond memories of this conference.

And this year, I mean, I'm going to ask you guys, are we just all kind of picking Tennessee State at this point? Is this is that just kind of where we're at?

Yeah, I think Tennessee State is kind of coming up as my number one.

At least, you know, you're the OVC guy, so you know better than me.

But at least in my research, Tennessee State does seem to be my number one.

My big question mark with this conference is looking through the rosters, especially of the teams that were in the top half of the conference last year, Who's back? There's one, maybe two players it feels like that played significant minutes on each team who is returning.

And then outside of that, it's a lot of new faces.

So it's difficult to pinpoint at this point.

Go ahead.

Tennessee State.

Oh, that's right.

Nolan Smith.

So, at Howard, where Kenny Blakeney is, his assistant coach now is Nate James.

That's right.

And Tennessee State, where Nolan Smith just did phenomenally well in his first year, and they're expecting really good things out of them again, his assistant coach is a guy named Vince Taylor.

Don't expect you to know who he is.

running the football program.

Speaking of Kenny Payne assistants, Nolan Smith kind of has a wagon at Tennessee State.

He's got Aaron Bradshaw down there.

He's got Arterio Morris, who is probably not a good person.

And

by the way, Tennessee State, I know you like them.

Nolan Smith is building a really good program.

Tennessee State's gross but UT Martin to stick on them for a second very intrigued they don't seem to have a ton of size like they did last year I think they had a little bit more but they have a lot of guys who are like bigger wings and forwards which who

knows we can't we can't sit here and tell you how good they're gonna be because we have no offense to we did this last year we did not sit here and watch his tape like

No, do they have anybody returning from last year? Yeah, Vladimir Kriapa is returning, I think.

But once again, they are rolling out a roster that is absolutely ludicrous.

Eyes on UT Martin per usual.

I'm going to call the games that are in South Dakota.

But, you know, whether it be Tennessee State and Nolan Smith and the talent he's improved, Ryan Miller at Murray State, they actually play each other.

There's going to be a lot of really intriguing basketball, not just at the high major level, but a lot of talent at the mid-major level, too.

One thing that has become very interesting to me is what's happening over the summer.