Mid-Major Monday: Kenneth Lofton Jr. and the Greatness of Conference USA
In a weekend that included an NBA Finals game and a stunning exhibition upset ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, arguably the biggest basketball star was an underclassmen from Louisiana Tech.
Kenneth Lofton Jr., coming off a 12.2-point, 7.5-rebound per game freshman season with the Bulldogs, positioned himself as one of college basketball’s potential stars next season with his nifty moves and timely buckets in Team USA’s FIBA U19 Gold Medal win over France.
While the name probably attracted some eyeballs, the answer is no: Kenneth Lofton Jr. is not the son of longtime, reliable MLB outfielder Kenny Lofton.
Though Kenny Lofton was a helluva hooper in his own right.
In terms of 1980s college basketball players, I just started reading L. Jon Wertheim’s book Glory Days so perhaps the following’s recency bias from the admittedly surface-level similarities very fresh in my mind.
Regardless, Chapter 1 of Glory Days’ narrative on the sports and pop-culture landscape in summer 1984 — which Wertheim details shaped Americana for generations to come — focuses on the star-powered US Olympic basketball trials.
A precursor to the Dream Team, the ‘84 squad featured three players in Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin who were later teammates on the world-changing Barcelona squad eight years later. Also part of the 1992 Olympic team and participating in the ‘84 trials were a pair of transformative power forwards.
One was Charles Barkley, a portly figure whose shape belied his graceful footwork, soft shooting touch and unrelenting motor. The other, Karl Malone, came to the Bloomington, Indiana workouts fresh off a monster underclass season at Louisiana Tech.
Before anyone reading this tweets, comments or emails to tell me to pump the brakes — Barkley and Malone are arguably the two best power forwards in NBA history — I understand how extreme invoking those names comes across. Rather than a straight-up comparison of skill set or potential, it’s more so just neat to witness in real-time the international stage launch a current star, in the same way it did for legends of the past.
And while Lofton’s set himself up nicely for a big-time season for a good Louisiana Tech team, he’s just one facet of a league well worth your attention.
Conference USA has consistently been one of the better mid-majors of the last half-decade, and should continue that trend in 2022. North Texas’ overtime defeat of Purdue in last year’s NCAA Tournament — an ostensible road game for the Mean Green — marked the fifth time in the past six postseasons C-USA scored a win at the Big Dance.
That statistic is made all the more impressive when considering that North Texas was the fourth different C-USA program to accomplish the feat over that stretch. Here’s the list:
No. 14 UAB over No. 3 Iowa State, 2015
No. 15 MTSU over No. 2 Michigan State, 2016
No. 12 MTSU over No. 5 Minnesota, 2017
No. 13 Marshall over No. 4 Wichita State, 2018
No. 13 North Texas over No. 4 Purdue, 2021
Conference USA’s run is all the more impressive still given it’s been relegated to one-bid status. While understandable in 2019 when it had no KenPom Top 100 teams, the snubs of 2018 were inexcusable. Marshall’s bid thievery in 2018 shouldn’t have denied either of MTSU or Western Kentucky at-large berths, as both finished the campaign in the KenPom Top 50.
No C-USA programs finished the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season any better than No. 72 per KenPom metrics, but the league had four in the Top 10, and a fifth at No. 102.
North Texas replaces the bulk of its Cinderella roster, but the Mean Green donned the glass slipper for the entire postseason. UNT needed an odds-defying run through the Conference USA Tournament to give itself a shot at March Madness.
That is to say the Mean Green undergoing an overhaul won’t diminish the league’s strength in 2021-22.
Louisiana Tech, C-USA’s best team in the 2020-21 regular season, pairs Isaiah Crawford with Lofton in the frontcourt. Amorie Archibald scored in double-figures for a third consecutive season, and in 2019-20, was near 40 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
The Bulldogs figure to be heavy favorites to win C-USA, especially after Lofton’s international star turn. However, Marshall reloads nicely with Taevion Kinsey spurning the NBA draft process much earlier than other prospects.
Of the top-rated 2020-21 C-USA teams, Western Kentucky faces some of the more dramatic changes with Charles Bassey headed to the pros and Taveion Hollingsworth transferring to Georgia State. However, Lofton had some noteworthy company among outstanding 2020 newcomers with Dayvion McKnight earning All C-USA Tournament on the Hilltoppers’ run to an overtime loss against North Texas.
UAB, an outstanding defensive that ranked 50th nationally in adjusted efficiency on that side of the ball, returns the core three of Tavin Lovan, Quan Jackson and Trey Jemison. The Blazers should be in the mix for C-USA’s auto-bid.
Realistically, though, Conference USA has the depth to produce multiple Dancers. La. Tech will be the pace-setter, and Kenneth Lofton Jr. promises to be the perfectly tailored breakout star for March.