The John Brown University basketball teams are exactly halfway through the Sooner Athletic Conference schedule.
Both JBU teams have played 11 games so far with 11 more remaining between now and the end of February before the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.
Certainly, there's a lot of basketball left to be played, and this week there's some important games being played at Bill George Arena with the Golden Eagles hosting Texas Wesleyan on Thursday and Southwestern Assemblies of God on Saturday.
Let's start with the JBU women, who are 8-3 in conference play behind Wayland Baptist (11-0) and Oklahoma City (9-1).
My take is that another solid round through conference play -- say 8-3 or 7-4, maybe even 6-5 -- could be enough to get the JBU women back in the NAIA National Tournament.
A third place finish in the Sooner Athletic Conference is nothing to sneeze at, and JBU has put itself in a good position so far.
JBU taking these next two games against Texas Wesleyan and SAGU would be a good start to the second half of league play.
On the men's side, the Golden Eagles got off to a hot start in conference play at 6-1, but they've lost three of their last four and sit 7-4 at the turn.
The Golden Eagles are among a cluster of teams all piled right there together and one win or loss can create huge shifts in the conference standings.
There is as much parity in the league this year as I can ever remember.
The men's side is still wide open. Wayland Baptist is in first place at 9-2, and JBU took down the Pioneers last Saturday.
There's so much competition in the league that I'm not sure going 7-4 again through these next few games will be enough to get JBU in the national tournament -- even with a solid conference mark of 14-8.
I suppose there's no clear-cut answer except go win as many as you can and let the chips fall where they may.
So for JBU, that starts Thursday against Texas Wesleyan, a program two years away from winning the NAIA National Championship.
The Rams are struggling so far this year at 4-7 in league play, and JBU has already defeated them once in Fort Worth.
But Texas Wesleyan is a team, just like about any other in the league, that can catch fire in the second half of the season.
JBU also won at SAGU earlier in the season. The Lions are 6-5 in league play and have knocked off some teams as well. In fact, SAGU got hot late last year and won the SAC Tournament at Bill George Arena.
It's anybody's league to win.
-- Graham Thomas is the managing editor for the Herald-Leader. He can be reached at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Sports on 01/23/2019