In an attempt to salvage the current Mountain State Athletic Conference, officials have proposed a new organization system. This plan, which will go in effect in 2009, includes the division of the member schools into three pods determined by school enrollment figures. Pod A would consist of the largest schools, Pod B the medium schools, and Pod C the smallest schools. The set-up would be:
Pod A: Parkersburg, Cabell Midland, Huntington, Woodrow Wilson, Riverside
Pod B: Capital, Spring Valley, Greenbrier East, George Washington, Hurricane, Princeton
Pod C: South Charleston, St. Albans, Ripley, Lincoln County, Nitro
The new system almost reverts back to the MSAC's old Blue and Gold conference set up, which was also determined by school enrollment. It will allow teams to play against more opponents of their own size and ability, thus possibly saving the future of the conference as it is currently known.
The new plan also may prevent Greenbrier East and Lincoln County from leaving the MSAC (as they were considering before the pod system was proposed), but it would offer little room for expansion.
Under the pod system, MSAC teams would only have to play a minimum of six league games, whereas the previous mandate required eight.
Memphis' men's basketball team won 26 straight games through Feb. 23, when it was finally upset by then-No. 2 University of Tennessee 66-62. This is (so far) the Tigers' only loss of the season.
The Volunteers couldn't even maintain their No. 1 ranking for an entire day, though. Conference rival and then-No. 19 Vanderbilt defeated them 72-69 mere hours after the Vols were given the top ranking.
As of March 10, Memphis and Tennessee were ranked No. 2 and No. 4 respectively in the AP poll with Vandy at No. 18. When the brackets for the NCAA Tournament were announced, Memphis landed the No. 1 seed in the West region, Tennessee the No. 2 spot in the East region and Vanderbilt was No. 4 in the Midwest.
Unique Happenings:
| Since the shot clock era of NBA basketball, no team has scored five points or less in the first quarter and gone on to win the game. However, the San Antonio Spurs beat the Atlanta Hawks 89-74 on Feb. 25, even though they started off the game on the slow side: At the end of the first quarter, Atlanta had a 15-5 lead, and the Spurs had shot only 1-17 from the field.
| Presented with the obstacle of having no seniors on his 2007-2008 men's basketball roster, Villanova coach Jay Wright completed an honorable act on what normally would have been "Senior Night" for his Wildcat basketball team. Since there were no seniors to recognize on the team, Wright instead addressed the student section and recognized this year's seniors for being dedicated fans as well as encouraging them to cheer as loudly as they currently do when they return to games as alumni.