Dribblings 1/7/2005 (PSA Edition)WAC: Texas-El Paso 96, Rice 67 (story) - Reigning MMBOW Michael Harris had 10 points and 15 rebounds - but most were during the first ten minutes, when the visiting Owls established dominance down low. UTEP was able to make successful adjustments, and for the remainder of the game they kept Rice out at the perimeter and away from their point of strength. A track meet ensued, and lanky Miner forward Omar Thomas scored many of his game-leading 26 points in transition. It could just be that the Western Athletic is as stratified as Neapolitan ice cream - with UTEP (12-2, 2-0 WAC), then Rice (7-4, 2-1 WAC), and the rest of the pack stuck in the plain-vanilla area. But which flavor will Nevada be? They beat Louisiana Tech 64-56 last night. Northeast: Mount Saint Mary's 64, Central Connecticut State 63 (story) - Central is a small and smart ball control team, but li'l Blue Devil Lenny Jefferson travelled with 23 seconds to go. This set off a Mountaineer five-point rally that allowed them to overtake and defeat CCSU, behind the heroics of junior combo guard Landy Thompson. Thompson scored the last five MSM points, and hit the winning live-action free throw as time ran out. Central, the Mid-Majority's conference pick, is now 0-2 in league play, but we're not worried yet - they did the slumbering-giant act last year. Metro Atlantic: Niagara 91, Saint Peter's 80 (story) - Most mid-major followers probably know about big Juan Mendez, the 6'8", 245 pound thundering inside force for the Purple Eagles (8-4, 3-1 MAAC). But speedy Puerto Rican point guard Alvin Cruz is really what makes this team tick - in this game, St. Peter's guards had built a nine-point halftime lead, but the cerebral Cruz (26 points, seven assists) orchestrated two brilliant runs of 14-3 and 16-0 to put the game away. Mendez added 19 points, and he's now 19 away from becoming the all-time D1 scoring leader among Canadian-born players. Shootaround! Mid-American: Bowling Green 69, Marshall 64 - The plucky Falcons of the MAC West appear to have more staying power than Bowling For Soup, and are now 7-2 with a 2-0 league record ... Buffalo 83, Central Michigan 67 - A 17-0 second-half run and a tearful reunion with their defense sealed the first MAC win of the year for the Bulls (8-3, 1-2 MAC). America East: Albany 73, New Hampshire 51 - A big road win for the up-and-coming Danes, who have now eclipsed last year's win total with six ... Binghamton 65, Maine 52 - The underachieving Bearcats (4-8, 1-2 AE) defended their home floor against the preseason consensus league favorites, and big guy Alex Adedrian declared that "this is going to be the turning point of the season and we're going to start winning." Games! Of! The! Night! It's a Friday night before Patriot and Ivy seasons start, so that means little to choose from. Try out the first West Coast Conference game for resurgent squads San Francisco and Loyola Marymount (10 pm ET, free webcast), or an early-season Northeast game between surprising St. Francis (PA) and Fairleigh-Dickinson (6 pm ET, free webcast). Bruce Bosley from Vermont's sports information office was nice enough to forward my goofy 100GP Game 26 recap to the team, then kindly corrected me (or was that Kay-Dub the annoying hipster, one of the growing cast of beloved TMM characters). Phish does have a lot more to do with UVM than Slipknot has to do with the Simpson sisters! Here is the late and lamented jam band performing the national anthem at the America East championship game last year. Tom Housenick of the Susquehanna Valley's Daily Item looks at the changes in the Patriot League. From a fan's perspective, the adjustment that affects me the most is the mothballing of the good old traditional women's-men's doubleheaders, which means that I will probably go through this entire season without seeing any women's hoops at all. Call it a public service: Mid-Majority Pantheon Of Heroes member Jeff Shelman goes all Ad Council, informing ESPN.com's target readership (college dropouts) that there really is such a thing as the Missouri Valley Conference and that they play some really good basketball there. Speaking of the WWLIS: it's been against this blog's rules to mention poll results of any kind since the beginning, but this is a steaming crock of shit that demands a call-out. The person who compiles ESPN's useless "Bottom 10" must be padding his timecard if he takes any more than two minutes a week scrolling down to the end of the RPI table and randomly picking teams that took bad losses. I'll bet my iPod that he's never seen LaSalle, Maryland-Eastern Shore or Santa Clara actually play, but somebody somewhere must be getting a kick out of this disservice. The Mid-Majority is seriously considering adoption of a Division II team to follow and cover for the rest of the season, hopefully the few hundred of us can lift them up to glory. Early candidates include the Lander Bearcats (we've already written a song about them), the Wisconsin-Baraboo Fighting Spirits (cos of the name), Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks or Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves (they rock those November tournaments). You can make nominations or suggestions using the word balloon below this post, and the decision will be made sometime next week. New Mexico State coach Lou Henson has been fighting viral encephalitis since September - it's a brain inflammation that caused paralysis in his right leg. He was scheduled to make his return to the bench this weekend in a wheelchair, but those plans were scrapped when he was struck with a bout of pneumonia. We wish him all the best for a speedy recovery. |
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