Well I'm back in business. I just returned from a trip to Allan Love's Body Shop to retrieve the beautiful '86 Celebrity.

After paying a smaller fee than I had assumed I left feeling a little bit better about the new year. And when I thought about the basketball being played at the Farris Center tonight, things truly were looking up for me.

This should be a stellar night of basketball as Henderson State comes to visit. The Lady Reddies come in undefeated in the GSC to tackle the equally undefeated Sugar Bears. HSU and UCA has turned into quite the women's basketball rivalry. Especially since I've been a student at UCA.

Tech's Golden Suns have been down of late, but the Lady Reddies and Sugar Bears have been great. So the rivalry between these two squads has resulted in better games in my time here. And I don't figure tonight will be any different. The Sugar Bears play great at home and they probably love being here, since this will be home game No. 2 for them.

The Lady Reddies have played three tough conference games already. Knocking off the likes of Delta State and UAM, two teams on the rise in the GSC and then needing overtime to knock off always stingy and physical SAU.

The Sugar Bears haven't exactly had it easy, knocking off an improved Tech team in hostile territory Monday, getting by what looks like a much improved OBU team and then pretty much dominating Christian Brothers.

This early in the season it's really hard to get a feel for just how good anyone is.

Which brings me to the men's game. The Bears are 3-0 in the conference, while HSU is 0-3. The Reddies struggled last year, missing the GSC tournament for the first time in a while. But all indications they would be much improved this year. So I'm not so sure that 0-3 record is as bad as it sounds. They lost to UAM and Delta State, two of the best teams in the west division last season. Then fell short in an OT game with SAU.

Meanwhile the Bears have been able to hang on and slide past everyone despite adversities early on. Poor shooting, players getting sick, lapses on defense at times and turnovers have all plagued the Bears, but they have overcome it and been able to pull out victories. The effort has been tremendous. Guys are stepping up and becoming solid players.

LeMar Phillips has been tearing it up lately, Stephin Booth had a great game at Tech and Joey Cortez has been solid as a do-everything point guard. It's odd that on a team composed of nearly all-new players this team is playing as a team and getting it done. So much so that you don't give up on them when they're down seven at the half.

I think tonight's games will tell us a lot about both teams and that may be the most exciting thing about the night. It's rare to have a couple games this big in the early conference season, but the GSC seems to be pretty solid this year from top to bottom, this won't be the last big game.