November 2005 ArchivesThis is 8 in a series of 10 early-season essays. Here's the scene: you're sitting at the sports bar, watching the sports ticker out of the corner. There it is - a score that sticks out like a sore thumb. You do a double-take, your mind racing to fit this mammoth upset into some type of context. You blurt out, "Holy s**t, did you see that? Sacred Heart beat Syracuse by 27?" Tonight we say Yes! to Michigan, the Great Lake State. Both Bowling Green of the Mid-Am and NCAA Play-in Champions Oakland went down south to start the season (Blacksburg and Gainesville, respectively), and both had a modicum of success. BGSU beat their Hokie hosts, and the Golden Grizzlies both beat beat St. Peter's and launched Calvin Wooten to the top of the Mid-Majority leaderboard in scoring (26.3 ppg). Tonight's game will also be one of those homecomings-of-sorts that sportswriters love so much... Oakland coach Greg Kampe graduated from Bowling Green. With all the talk about Northern Iowa and Old Dominion and Nevada, it might end up being the Hilltoppers who emerge from the deep to torpedo your March bracket. Moving with the speed and power of a high-tech nuclear submarine, WKU travelled to UAB last night and dusted a high-tempo team that's won 20+ for three straight years and has three Tournament victories in the last two. Leading the charge was young master Lee, a hyper-explosive leaper who dropped 21 of his career-high 31 (including seven in a 12-0 run) in a torrid 56-point second half. If this kid keeps it up, the Sun Belt season might just turn into a Hunt For Big Red March. If you need the Big Ten-ACC Challenge to get excited about November hoops, you're at the wrong site. If you like to see upper-class mid-majors getting shots at taking down nearby power conference schools, then you have the kind of attention span we like around here. Near-consensus preseason MVC pick Northern Iowa and Wooden Award watchlister Ben Jacobson battle Iowa State of the Big VIII+IV tonight in the nation's heartland. The Panthers will hope to take a chunk of their 33-7 deficit in the all-time series, and with the stunned Cyclones reeling from a loss to Iona in their own tournament, they have a solid chance to do just that. (Honorable mention to Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/STJ>Hofstra-St. John's, because that's the kind of kick-'em-when-they're-down thing that never gets old.) Southeastern Louisiana was a big favorite around these parts last year. They had a nationally-ranked defense that held Southland foes in the 40's, and won a tense battle with Northwestern State for the league title. But for their efforts, they got a quick-exit 15-seed, their coach left to be an assistant at Miami, and then their campus was flooded by Katrina. Well, strike up the band and fire up some smothered pork chops - folks in Hammond, LA have something to celebrate again. Thanks in large part to a 6'6" warrior who ventured deep into the tall power-conference trees all evening and tapped in several key baskets down the stretch, SELU has their first-ever win over Mississippi State (on the road, no less). It broke a string of 35 straight losses over 39 years to SEC schools, mostly in guar-on-tee games. After a run of postseason magic, the Siena Saint (Bernard)s have been off the face of the earth in the last two years, something that's not a good idea when you have a notoriously impatient fanbase and a 15,000-seat soft-drink-branded arena to fill. So Rob Lanier out as coach, Fran McCaffery in. Tonight Siena will look for their first win in two tries against downstaters Fordham, a passionate and patient school on the way up in the Atlantic 14. Watch NBA-bodied Patrick Dunston, a preseason all-conference first-teamer. Dunston, who will hear the phrase "checks in" from glib scorer's desk radio announcers for as long as he chooses to play basketball, has had an up-and-down year so far: he dropped 18 and 14 in a losing cause versus Old Dominion at the Paradise Jam, but was neutralized in a Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/SFNY>Saturday loss to the NEC's St. Francis (NY) Terriers. Woof!
Game 104: Nevada 77, at Vermont 62 Regulate... the Nate Funk era is now in full effect. In a torrid double-overtime thriller against a Dayton team that just wouldn't go away, number 10 in white kept scoring, kept hitting free throws and kept coming back for more - he only sat for five minutes of a double-OT game. Too bad we have to wait until January 11 to see this Funky Bunch play preseason Valley favorite Northern Iowa. For now, they're three-for-three and could very well be a perfect 8-0 going into MVC play. Is this a great time to be the Northeast Conference, or what? First, Sacred Heart toppled the Seabiscuity Albany Great Danes up at their place. Then, while you were sleeping off your L-tryptophan on Thursday, Monmouth took down Southern Illinois - a perennial Tournament team - in the blubbery wilderness of Alaska. Your hero was a 6'1" senior who ran Arctic circles around the Salukis and shot like he was loaded for bear. So you'd better watch out, Hoops Nation - the NEC is serving notice! Fear the blue triangle! Time to make amends. Last week, in front of thousands of people, I said that Drexel didn't have a chance against the likes of Duke. If they play that same type of steady, grinding, athletic (if unspectacular) team-ball for the rest of the year, they could certainly make things miserable for all the other people who short-sold them early on, as well. Less than 24 hours after their coulda-shoulda against UCLA in the Coaches vs. Cancer consolation, the Dragons turn their attention back to the Big 5 1/2 at the storied Palestra. Penn's a shaky pick to win a Dance card in what could be a topsy-turvy year for the Ancient Eight. They return Palestra favorite Ibby Jaaber, whose name sounds great with "clap, clap, clap-clap-clap." Thanksgiving is the day to dig into a tableful of glorious bounty. With that in mind, I'd like to look past all the exciting and exotic tourney action on the tube today and focus on a game that's all about leftovers. By applying rational and scientific techniques, the MEAC's football-free Maryland-Eastern Shore was the worst team in college basketball last year (#330 of 330). The Southland's Nicholls State weren't much better (#326). If the old Mid-Majority adage proves true (all you need for good basketball is two evenly matched teams), then this'll be a better game than the Coaches vs. Cancer final. Forget the Top 25 - when the Hawks and Colonels meet up in Princess Anne today we'll get the rare chance to see two Bottom 5 teams play. You'll hear plenty about Fazekas, Charlo, Sessions and Shiloh this year, but don't forget about the dangerous assassin the Wolf Pack have on their bench. Wednesday night in snowy Burlington, Marcellus Kemp nailed a soul-crushing three from the right corner every time Vermont tried to make it a game. The Seattle native missed all of last season with a torn ACL, but you'll hear his name attached to the phrase "key three-pointer" a lot this season. Game 103: Michigan 51, at Boston University 46 Game 102: at Providence 87, Vermont 77 Sure, cute-n-furry Jack White and his buddies had their fun last night in Hawaii. But they're power-conference imposters. The real small-town feel-good story is Bucknell, who continues to topple national powers. Last night, the team with eight scholarships went into Syracuse and came out with a guarantee-game check, scads of RPI points and another wave of national pub. Electrical engineering major McNaughton (the 2005 Patriot League Men's Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year) continued his giant-killing streak - he dropped a dub-dub in a game that the Bison didn't steal, but rather led three-quarters of the way. Get Behind MeUMPFN... Bucknell is the real deal. If last night's G!O!T!N! pounding of George Mason by Creighton was a miniature MVC-CAA Challenge, tonight the Valley turns its attention to throwing down with the MAC. Northern Iowa, led by Wooden award candidate Ben Jacobson, is a near-unanimous pick to come out ahead in a two- (or three-) bid tussle in the MoVal, and Western Michigan has secured what Blue Ribbon considers to be "possibly the best mid-major [recruiting] class in the country" in their attempt to secure its fourth straight postseason bid. The result of this game will undobtedly give the midwest's mid-major smack-talkers something to chew on besides their turkey tomorrow. George Mason's psychic RPI (PRPI?) has doubled in the 10 idle days since their Coaches vs. Cancer adventure in Winston-Salem. Before coming up just short in overtime against formerly nationally-rankedWake Forest, they surgically dismantledCalifornia-Irvine. UCI, as you might remember, went on to throttleStanford up at their place. Valley power Creighton nearly derailedWVU's Pittsnogle Express in March (a 63-61 first-round loss), and open the season in the shadow ofUNI's expectations. You know that they'll be bringing the Funk to the Patriot Center tonight. And then there's that burgeoning CAA vs. MVC thing, a who's-the-best-mid-major-conference debate that will dominate sport talk radio right around 2008. As some old-timey radio announcer might say, "Hide the matches grandma, some barns are gonna burn tonight!"
How bad is Sacred Heart? Since joining the RPI-challenged and very triangular NEC back in 1999, they haven't even made the eight-team conference tourney. But last night at Albany, New England's favorite guarantee-game punchline snuck by a program tabbed by some national (cough) pundits to make a big splash. The Pioneers were led by a gentle Trinidadian giant who outscored everyone else in the RACC and stoically sank two winning freebies to ice the upset. Mr. Trim's had trouble with injuries and motivation in his four-plus years, and a monster game like this could be just what the guy needs to turn things around. And don't jump off the Albanywagon just yet, sports fans. They're probably reeling from the national (cough) attention they've received (hack) lately (horf). This loss will be good for them... underdogs, Great Danes especially, need to stay hungry. Game 101: at Harvard 65, Vermont 57 "Feast Week" is great and all, but there's too much poi and squid for my tastes. Instead, why don't you come on down to the Old Country Buffet of mid-major hoops? Scheduled league season is six weeks away, but the Miami Valley Conference is in full swing. Tonight we have two squads trying to find out who they are, regular-season champion Miami from the MAC, and Dayton from the mid-major side of the Frosted Mini-Wheat that is the Atlantic 14 Conference. The visiting Flyers regroup after the transfer loss of PG Trent Meacham to Illinois, and the host 'Hawks reload after the graduation of punishing glasscleaner (and former MMBOW) Danny Horace. Dig in! It's odd for a team from the Pac 10 to make an appearance against an OVC team in a small Tennessee town, in a Mystery, Alaska sort of way, but the movie ending - a solid thwacking by the home club - is a seemingly improbable plot indeed. The Golden Eagles of TTU - still reeling from the coach Mike Sutton's sudden illness - took it hard to the Oregon State Beavers, a team picked by many to finish in the middle of that legendary western power conference. The star of the show was a brand new Golden Eagle who swooped in off the bench, and generated a full game's worth of output in about half the time. Rivers, an Atlanta product, was one of the many who didn't have the patience for Bill Herrion's ponderous approach in East Carolina, and sat out the 2004-05 season due to transfer rules. But it looks like he's fitting in fine in Cookeville - why, he may have even earned a spot in the starting lineup now.
The thrilling 1996 Tournament upset is etched in your memory, sure - the game in which Princeton used the backdoor to topple UCLA. But do you recall the setup - the neutral-site playoff win against Penn? The teams met halfway at Lehigh, and battled into overtime. Afterwards, Pete Carrill wrote "I am retiring" on the Stabler Arena blackboard. Ten years later, Princeton returns to Bethlehem for a game of wild-cards in school-first conferences. Lehigh made the Big Bracket two years ago, and is reorganizing under big center Jason Mgebroff, and the 2005-06 Tigers are still head-scratching material after a bad loss to Drexel last week. If Lehigh can pull this out, it would be their first win against PU since 1930 (they didn't even have an NCAA Tournament back then.) Even the young'uns in Irvine remember a time when the Big West was basically them and Utah State, when Pacific was just a blip. But the glory days are becoming smaller in the rear-view, and after a freak injury to star guard Jeff Gloger over the summer, there was no joy in 'Eaterville. Add in a 79-56 beatdown by George Mason last week, and things were looking mighty grim for 05-06. But yesterday at storied Maples Pavilion, a big young greenhorn from Fullerton had the game of his life - outhustling and outmuscling highly-recruited basketball robots to come within a board of a dub-dub. With the help of Ross Schrader's 19, the might Anteaters prevailed and gave coach Pat Douglass his 500th career victory. Zot! Zot! Zot! OK, we have our first game with intriguing March implications, so the season can start now. Oral Roberts begins their campaign to end the Curse Of Pierre Dukes, named after the Oakland last-second hero who ended their Tournament dreams in the 2005 Mid-Con tourney - these Eagles will storm the conference unless the sound of their own wheels drives them crazy. Utah State begins their life as WAC members, and look to make noise right away, behind the sharpshooting of former MMBOW Jaycee Carroll. The Aggies are fresh off their successful farewell tour of the Big West - trust me, there will be no "Hell Freezes Over" tour there. When you're playing an inexperienced team that still thinks "winning basketball" involves fouling a lot to get the ball back, make them pay for their youthful ignorance. Purple Ace upperclassman Matt Webster sank all 14 of his attempts from the line, and matched a career high in points with 24, as Evansville beat Marshall in a game of potential league Cellarellas.(Simple two-step plan for UE: bring back T-shirt uniforms, improve karma.) This is 7 in a series of 10 early-season essays. He had a valid excuse, though - the game wasn't invented until eight years after he died. But if ol' bushy-beard had ever had the chance to witness aVillanova-http://schools.basketballstate.com/MTSU >Middle Tennessee game, he would have recognized a genius economic model when he saw it. Maybe he would have opened a popcorn stand instead of writing all those manifestos. Happy new season! In amidst tonight's sea of 25-point blowouts, made-for-TV dramas and vague semi-regional rivalries: an intriguing MAC-MAAC city game. Mid-American finalist Buffalo moves forward without league POY Turner Battle, and desperately needs a heart transplant. Early donor pick: last year's backup sparkplug, Calvin Cage. On the other side, this could be the year the Golden Griffins flap upwards through the soft middle of the Metro Atlantic. Look for 6-3 senior combo Kevin Downey (16.5 ppg/5.6 rpg) to make an impact. There will be plenty of time to discuss Drexel's ascension to The Garden, but this mop-headed Texan has been the mid-major revelation of the P-nutty PNIT. Last night, without much support, he kept a poor man's Princeton hang in with MMBOD runner-up Bashir Mason and a much more athletic Drexel squad. With the loss, the Southland Conference freshman of the year for 2004-05 won't be heard from for a while in the national conversation, but he'll be a key factor in his league's race. Could the Bearkats disrupt the Northwestern State-SE Louisiana axis? This is 6 in a series of 10 early-season essays. But there are a few 17 and 18-year old ballers out there who think they're good enough to skip a level after high school, go straight to the basketball-themed entertainment of the NBA. Mostly thanks to coaches, homies and shoe salesmen, some figure that they're better than all 4,484 of those guys. This is 5 in a series of 10 early-season essays. And in the end, as they always do, the good guys carried the day. The hero - tanned, silver-haired and beaming - prevailed over all his enemies and won the prize. But as the patrons filed out of the theater, the question hung in the air: which side was that slightly-creepy geek with the funny name on? This is 4 in a series of 10 early-season essays. As the pass came in from midcourt, the defense arranged itself, doubling down to eliminate the home team's post force. The star forward took the ball near left elbow-extended, drew a second defender of his own, and the inbounder streaked all alone towards the basket. The ballhandler - three open men around him - ducked his shoulder into the double-team, swung his elbows menacingly, and finally forced up a weak heave-ho as the horn blared. As the visitors' reserves spilled out from their bench to celebrate their win, the shooter groused to the officials, exasperatedly demanding an explanation for the no-call, his arms wide open. This is 3 in a series of 10 early-season essays. A popular modern application of chaos theory is the so-called "butterfly effect," which holds that tiny movements have far-reaching consequences. How could the good Canadian doctor have known that his humble adaptation of "duck on a rock" would be so good, so fun, so engaging, that it would someday unleash a connundrum of massive proportions? Over three hundred planets of differing shape and size, spinning and whizzing around in regional, conferential - not a word - and even make-believe orbits, bumping into each other now and then, but never colliding. (Tests as to whether the flapping wings of a Hawk atMaryland-Eastern Shore result in anIowa State Cyclone have, so far, been inconclusive.) This is 2 in a series of 10 early-season essays. If you examine our history as a planet, you'll notice that a crucial element of progress is the development of authoritative hierarchy, structures that dictate what's better than what. Tribes evolve from hunting and gathering to dividing labor, and then to deciding as a group whose labor is more important. Organisms organize into a tidy vertical line, each looking downward to find out what's for dinner. (And when it comes down to it, the science/creationism debate is just a mild disagreement about whether authority had to be discovered, or if it was was simply there all along.) This is 1 in a series of 10 early-season essays. |
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