ENMU women have slim path to No. 1 seed

Don’t give up hopes, Green and Silver nation. One path remains for Eastern New Mexico’s women to repeat as the Lone Star Conference’s regular season hoops champion.

The Greyhounds are one of four teams with a chance to finish first, along with Angelo State, West Texas A&M and Texas A&M-Commerce.

Six games need to go ENMU’s way, and you’ll know God’s a Greyhound fan if they do.

On Thursday: Eastern New Mexico must defeat Angelo State, and Texas A&M-Commerce must defeat West Texas A&M. That puts all four of these teams at 1-1 against each other. It matters later.

Now, four more things need to happen Saturday. They’re listed in order of probability:

• The Greyhounds win at Texas A&M-Kingsville (probable)

• West Texas A&M loses at Tarleton State (plausible)

• Texas A&M-Commerce loses at home to Texas Permian Basin (unlikely)

• Angelo State loses at home to Western New Mexico (divine intervention)

If all six of these things happen, we have a four-way tie for first place. Because Eastern, WT, Angelo and Commerce are all 14-6, we’ve exhausted Tiebreaker A: LSC record.

Since all four teams went 1-1 against the other three, that exhausts Tiebreaker B: Records in games among tied teams.

On to Tiebreaker C: Records against other LSC teams, in descending order of finish.

With the first four tied, we start at the LSC’s No. 5 team. That’s Tarleton State, whether the TexAnns go 13-7 or 12-8. In our scenario, the TexAnns split with Angelo, WT and Commerce, but were swept by ... wait for it ...

Your back-to-back LSC champion Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds.

Now that ENMU’s the No. 1 seed, we have a three-way tie to settle for No. 2.

Short version: West Texas A&M would finish second, Angelo State third and Texas A&M-Commerce fourth.

Long version: Because the Buffaloes, Lions and Rambelles all split with No. 1 ENMU and No. 5 Tarleton, we go to the No. 6 seed.

The No. 6 seed is either going to be Cameron or Midwestern State. Cameron gets the spot with a win Thursday over Texas Woman’s. Midwestern State gets it with a Cameron loss, followed by their own win Saturday against Texas Woman’s.

If Cameron’s No. 6: Commerce loses out on the tiebreaker and goes to fourth, because the Lions split with the Aggies and the other two swept. West Texas A&M and Angelo State settle their tie with records against No. 7 Midwestern State; WT wins it because it swept Midwestern and Angelo split.

If Midwestern’s No. 6: West Texas A&M wins the three-way tie and the No. 2 seed because of the season sweep. The final tiebreaker is between Angelo State and Commerce. Angelo State gets the No. 3 seed because it swept No. 7 Cameron while Commerce split.

The Greyhounds, by the way, would face Texas Woman’s. The Pioneers are already locked into the No. 8 seed.

The other seven? That’s why you play the games.

Kevin Wilson is managing editor of The Eastern New Mexico News, and loses sleep studying LSC tiebreakers. Contact him at: [email protected]