By: Mike Anthony

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

To say that the Sun Belt men’s basketball race is wide open might not be doing things justice.

If the regular season race were put in terms of a horse race, the pack would be rounding the final turn with mud flying in all directions and no one hitting their finishing kick just yet.

With seven games remaining for most Sun Belt teams, Texas State and UT Arlington are tied for the top spot. But there are six more teams within three games of the top and no listing of the conference standings will be safe until the dust settles on March 9.

Georgia Southern is one of the huge mob of teams sitting just off the pace. The Eagles split a pair of tough road games in Louisiana last week and are currently tied with UL Monroe and Coastal Carolina at 6-5 in conference play.

A strong finish could easily see the Eagles snag a top-2 finish and a free pass all the way to the semifinals of the conference tournament, but a few more losses could force them to win as many as four games in New Orleans if they want to take home the title.

It’s been an up-and-down ride for Georgia Southern this season, but now is the time for it to show the talent and leadership that has been four years in the making.

When this year’s senior class were freshmen, they were thrown right into the fire. Guys like Tookie Brown, Ike Smith and Montae Glenn showed promise, but also had to learn lessons about the college game the hard way as they were immediately inserted into the lineup.

The trio has grown – and has soaked up plenty of help in the classes that have come after them – and knew it would have one more shot for a tournament run this spring.

Unfortunately, Smith will have to watch from the sidelines as he has been ruled out for the year with a back injury. Glenn felt that pain – literally – last season when he injured a knee during conference tournament practice and never saw the floor in New Orleans.

Brown has been the steady hand throughout his career and this is unquestionably his team, but it will take a trip to the NCAA tournament to elevate his status at Georgia Southern from great to legendary.

So, while things haven’t gone to script and the Eagles will be short-handed down the stretch, it’s also fair to say that this should be their time to shine.

The Sun Belt is as deep as it has ever been, but the Eagles have already proven that they can play with anyone in the league. Come conference tournament time, the majority of players in the lineup will have played big roles and meaningful minutes in previous trips to New Orleans.

While the win-loss record isn’t where many hoped it would be at this point in the season, the Eagles have to realize that everything important – including, hopefully, their best basketball – is still ahead of them.

For the upperclassmen on this year’s team, no refresher course is needed on what can go wrong at the end of the season. Bad breaks, fluke injuries and hot-shooting opponents have all spelled disaster for Georgia Southern in previous late-season games and conference tournaments.

They’ve learned all of the tough lessons and no one doubts their ability to be the better team when things are going right for them. But they’re out of time to worry about what obstacles might pop up in the coming weeks.

If the Eagles want to win, they’ll have to put it all together and they’ll have to start right now.