December 2005 ArchivesBuried in the official recaps for Friday night summed up this game thus: "Eastern Illinois edged out host UMKC, 72-67, Friday night to improve to 2-8 on the season." That's it - no mention of the fact that the Kangaroos are a decent Mid-Con team, or that they did it in Kansas City's fabled Kemper Arena, or that this is probably going to be the best road win that EIU (RPI No. 326) is going to get all year (all due respect to Morehead State). OK, all of that's subjective, but they could have at least talked about the best shooting performance in the country, turned in by a decent little shooting guard named Josh Gomes. The 6'2" Panther senior scored 27 points on 9-of-11 shooting, seven of which were threes (7-for-8). What's a guy got to do to get some ink around here? It's put up or shut up time for Old Dominion (7-4, 1-1 Colonial). The preseason league favorites have swung wildly from pole to pole, showing signs of their predicted level of play in amongst blowouts at the hands of Drexel and UAB, doing serious damage to any CAA two-bid scenario in the process. Their primary problems: shooting (42.3%, 222nd nationally) and an underachieving Alex Loughton (13.1 ppg). This, tonight, a home game against a mid-level ACC team, is the kind of game a mid-major champion wins. Quick book on the Hokies: they don't cough up the ball (9th in D1 with a 16.6% turnover rate), they got beat by that last-second shot at Cameron Indoor, and they've loaded up on patsies (avg. RPI of victims: 254). So come on, Monarchs, you've got to take care of business here - if the final spread is in line to our average G!O!T!N! victory margin this week (28), we're going to move on.
Give the Aggies credit - they're not going to shy away from bringing decent competition to their Gossner Foods Holiday Classic (this year is edition No. 12), and playing them straight up. In tonight's opening game, they take on the 6-4 Trojans of Arkansas-Little Rock, ducking 2-8 Binghamton. Utah State is 6-3 (0-1 in Hawaii) and once again among the league leaders in field goal percentage (No. 4, 52%) -- but most importantly, they're 2-0 in G!O!T!N! action this season. They're led by an outside-inside combo of scintillating sophomore Jaycee Carroll (18.3 ppg) and Nate Harris (15.3 ppg, 7.2 rpg). UALR, the two-time defending champs of the Sun Belt East division, feature rebounding monster Rashad Jones-Jennings (13.5 ppg, 12.8 rpg), who broke our computers with his 30-board performance a couple weeks back. Winner gets those Binghamton Bearacats, if they can manage to sneak by 8-2 Idaho State. November 8th, the beginning of the season, seems like a lifetime ago. That was the day the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats took the floor at Syracuse and absorbed a 67-38 pounding in Coaches vs. Cancer. And, realistically, it had been expected all along. Well, the Wildcats seem to be growing up quickly. In the biggest win in school history, they topped another Big East squad, South Florida, a school they\'d never finished within 15 points of in 13 previous meetings. Leading the way was Mr. Webb, who scored 14 points in the final seven minutes of play. Will B-CC head coach Cliff Reed call up Jim Boeheim and demand a rematch? Probably not, but a win like this will give the young \'Cats plenty of confidence heading into the MEAC season. With the CAA and MAC frontrunners taking big and bad losses recently, the Missouri Valley has emerged as the be-all end-all mid-major league in the early going - at least when it comes to multiple Tournament bids. Tonight, we have a holiday treat with two of those likely bids squaring off in Omaha at the lovely and sparkling home of the Bluejays. Personally, I'd rather watch this game than either the Rolling Stones or "Cold Play." Creighton is still awaiting a redshirt decision from Nate Funk and his damaged shoulder, but they've won three straight in his absence. But the Jays' problem isn't being d'Voidoffunk, it's shooting - in those three games they've gone 30%-38%-36% from the floor, and haven't been above 50% this season. The don't-call-us Southwest Missouri State Bears, on the other hand, average 50.7% on the year. They're led by 6-2 guard Blake Ahearn, who's led them in scoring seven of eight games and features one of the top PPWS ratings in the land (1.31). Now that's what I call... Hot Play!
It took a great performance to cool off North Carolina-Wilmington, and tiny (5'11") Charleston guard Dontaye Draper played fireman on Tuesday. The Baltimore native poured on a career-high 33 points as the Cougars came from 10 down to defeat UNCW at their own place, and grant the Seahawks their third loss this season against nine wins. C of C has never lost at UNCW's Trask Coliseum (three games). For whatever reason, Draper just loves playing Wilmington. In last year's chapter of the Highway 17 Series last December 16, he sank the game-winning three as time expired to give the Cougs a 59-57 win, a shot that made December 17's SportsCenter reel. That was Draper's only field goal that night, but that's okay - he scored enough points to fill two games' statlines last night. Grab your funny tricorner hat and your flute, we've got the Patriot League regular-season champions against the Patriots at the Patriot Center. Both teams have toiled in the shadows of preseason favorites early on (Bucknell and Old Dominion, respectively). But a convincing win here, against relatively equal non-conference competition, may elucidate one team's chances to turn the tables come conference time. Homestanding George Mason is still explaining away their 20-point loss to Creighton last month, but their near-miss against ODU two weeks ago helps. It looks like Mason coach Jim Larranaga is getting his patented Scramble Defense™ back on track - the Patriots have the 44th most efficient D (88.7 rating) in the land this year. Holy Cross has struggled to find themselves in the early going, but may be better than their 5-6 record indicates. They're led by a three-man backcourt that's ranked nationally in steals per game (No. 52, 9.3 spg), a troika highlighted by senior guard and recent MMBOD Kevin Hamilton (17.6 ppg). Patriot fite!
Game 114: at Manhattan 81, Fordham 68 Game 113: at Central Connecticut State 72, Binghamton 68 Game 112: Maryland-Eastern Shore 59, at Brown 57 No, not that "Rumble in the Bronx," it's just the Rams and Jaspers renewing their ancient rivalry. The Manhattans are coming off a Dakota roadie to NDSU, SDSU and Wall Drug, and offer one of the most exciting underclassmen in the MEAC - team points/rebounds/assists leader C.J. Anderson. Fordham (3-6) is making strides towards finding its footing, and they offer slinky-smooth 6-8 Bryant Dunston. You can be sure that legendary pot-banger Freddy Schuman will be there, even if he won't be able to decide who to root for. And if you're in the area, you have no excuse not to pack Draddy Gym - the transit strike's over.
Game 111: at Boston College 80, Texas Southern 53 Something's been missing from VMI basketball in recent years, and it's not the strategically-placed letters "O" and "T." It's been "W"'s - take last season, for example, when they win three out of 16 conference games. But there's a new sheriff in town (former Virginia policeman Duggar Baucom), and he's got his troops on a five-game win streak. Okay, it's been mostly against the D2 teams that usually give them the bulk of their victories, but it's a start. Last night, Virginia Military marched on Baltimore and won the Battle of Towson, overshadowing the Tiger debut of a key figure from the LaSalle rape case, Gary Neal (28 points, 10-for-18). VMI team leader Reggie Williams poured in an impressive 27, but we're giving MMBOD honors to the 6'7" junior whose dubbity (16 and 11) put them over the top. Fourteen of Murrer's points kame in the klosing half, as the Keydets kame back from 17 down to kapture a krackling kontest. OK, so we're also missing the letter "C."
No, our crack staff isn't on permanent Indiana State watch, even though their 7-0 start is a great story. (Admittedly, however, keeping the G!O!T!N! satellite truck parked in Terre Haute does save money on gas.) This is the pick-to-click game tonight because it's New Year's 10 days early. As "Voice of the Valley" Mitch Holthus would tell you, it's the start of the race for the most prestigious, most storied, mid-major basketball championship in the nation - that of the 99-year-old MVC. (And when your top media-market is 67 Wichita, then oh yes you're a mid-major conference.) You know about the Sycamores by this point - Moss, Schnitker, so on, so forth. But we haven't talked about the Redbirds that much yet - they charged out of the gate with vim last year (8-2), but lost seven of their final eight. The cracks are already starting to show for the 2005-06 squad - they might have a 5-3 record and the 22nd ranked defense in the nation heading into conference play (84.9 D-rating, 55.9 ppg), but have had a lot of trouble finding scoring (they're led by Neil Plank's 11.5 ppg). They'll need all the Redbird Pride they can muster to pull out a win in Treeland. So happy new year, ISU and ISU!
Game 110: Ohio 71, at Rhode Island 63 When the second-leading scorer on the worst team in Division I announced his intention to test the NBA Draft waters, lots of folks said, "Are you serious?" Sure, the 6-9, 240 specimen attended a camp or two this spring, but Tim Parham was simply dreaming big. He just wanted to find out if he had any chance to become the first-ever player from the MEAC to leave school early and go to the pros. Last night, the Hawks went up the road and went all Ocean State on Brown, coming back from eight down in the closing minutes to pull off the upset special. The hero of the day was this one particular NBA-bodied senior, who owned the chocolate-colored paint and turned in a double-double (and a half) - he also hit some key freebies down the stretch to hold off the Bear attack. If the big-dreaming UMES Fighting Hawks turn around a 2-26 season into a MEAC championship next March, then... Wait, are you serious? When Morihei Ueshiba, a/k/a O Sensei, developed the martial art of aikido to neutralize and eliminate great size advantages. Using throws and locks and flowing movement, a little guy can use the energy of a larger opponent against himself and emerge victorious from a battle. Yesterday afternoon, the guard-rich, forward-not-so-rich Holy Cross Crusaders used basketball aikido to defeat Chattanooga, to advance in the semi-prestigious San Juan Shootout. By turning the Mocs' big-man Charles Anderson towards self-defeat (he played only 13 minutes due to massive foul trouble), HC was able to free up the floor, which allowed K-Ham get his Kenjutsu on. The 'Sader Samurai filleted the Chattanooga backcourt in the second half, scoring 10 points during a 15-4 run and finishing with a career-high 38. That's some serious ki. Tonight we have a matchup of two good teams (both went NIT last year) with lots of question marks heading into conference play. First of all, there's the 8-2 start of Wichita State, which has been largely overshadowed by Missouri Valley neighbors Indiana State (7-0) and preseason drool-towel Northern Iowa. The Shockers came within a point of defeating Illinois last month, and they played Michigan State pretty evenly except for that whole thing with the Spartans shooting 59%. OK, so the FG defense needs work. Then there's Miami of Ohio (4-2, 1-0), who figure to contend in the tooth-and-nail MAC East but haven't had a signature game since trouncing Dayton during Feast Week. The Redhawks and surging sophomore Tim Pollitz (13.8 ppg, 5.0 rpg) have had nine days to absorb their grinddown at the hands of Xavier. Tune in as the Shox and Hawks attempt to find answers at each other's expense.
More pictures from the road.
There will indeed be a golf-check presented to the visitors for making the trip up from Buies Creek, but this may turn out to be a better matchup than the disparate RPI's would indicate. Neither undefeated Indiana State (No .4) and resurgent Campbell (No. 329, 3-4 coming off a 0-20 Atlantic Sun season) go higher than 6'7" very often, and both have plenty of speedy shooters. This game may also feature a lot of one-on-oneing in the 6'5" area between Campbell's Maurice Latham (14.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and Indiana State's David Moss (18.5 ppg), so we've got the offensive fireworks covered. And forget about the domination on the boards that usually exists in a theoretical MVC vs. A-Sun mismatch. The Camels are rarely outrebounded - thanks to an inventive former coach, they have lots of these around. So tonight we'll have either a perfect 7-0 start by the Sycamores (to match Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/IONA>Iona's), or the biggest win for the Fightin' Camels in a generation. That's what I call a win-win, baby!
As a lot of coaches will tell you, basketball is a chess match - all that strategizing and outthinking and stuff. So let's take that metaphor one step further! You can play that game a whole lot better when your tallest piece can do damage all over the board, instead of plunking along one square at a time. Yesterday in Omaha, Creighton received a kingly double-double from their junior center. Most impressively, he disrupted and scattered the Xavier defense by playing away from the post, nailing two three-pointers on his way to 26 points and 10 boards. The Bluejays, who are without the services of knight Nate Funk (captured by injury), need all their other pieces on the board if they want to win the MVC... a career night by their 6'9" centerpiece against a very good team is a very good sign. And you know what they say: one night at Creighton, and the world's your oyster.
There were a mere handful of seconds remaining in regulation. In front of a sweaty,noisy Hinkle Fieldhouse crowd, the Butler ballers had stormed from behind, staging a frenetic 10-0 scoring run to go up 58-56. And then! While Butler concentrated on former MMBOD David Moss, but they left a certain someone open. Bingo, bango! While Moss is usually front and center, Mr. Schnitker is Indiana State's secret weapon, a deadeye assassin with a thing for knocking down buzzer-beating threes and an extra gear for crunch time. See those 20 points? All in the second half. And is there magic afoot in Treeland? They haven't won at Butler since 1985, and they haven't opened at 6-0 since That Year. With Missouri State's loss the other night in Arkansas, there are only two unbeatens left in the Mid-Majority. Seven-and-ohIona is one, a bunch of Terre Haute Trees who have won their first five are the other. Led by TMM favorite David Moss (20.8 ppg), Indiana State heads to Hinkle on the heels of two impressive home wins over Indiana and Ball State. After a season-opening blowout loss against UNC-Wilmington at the BCA Invitational (which doesn't look so bad now, considering the Seahawks' recent run), the Butler Bulldogs have been slowly putting things together, compiling a 5-3 record in the early going. They've won three in a row - most recently, a 70-60 deceision over Bradley - and have lulling opponents to sleep with a ponderous yet effective style of play. Can the law firm of Polk and Graves litigate the unbeaten list down to one? Stay tuned!
A cold non-conference Friday night in December is a good time to reward a guy who rings up ridiculous numbers on a non-Division I squad, but we're not going that route. Instead, the daily award goes to a baller whose team fell to a nationally ranked superteam, but distinguished himself and managed to poke a few holes in the MSU mystique in the process. Cleveland State went all bombs-away last night on the Spartans (14-for-31 from three), leading by as many as 11 in the first half and entering halftime up by six. The Spartans put the pedal down for a 23-4 run, but never really did shake the pesky No. 295 Vikings. Running the show was Mr. English, who recorded the little guy's double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. Just think what might have happened if he'd made a few of his own shots (2-for-13 from the floor). Like I said, it was a cold non-conference Friday night in December. Game 109: at Boston University 67, New Hampshire 46 Time to put a dent in the ol' mailbag. What chance do you think there is for the NCAA to allow a 5th year of eligibility in basketball? There are a number of reasons it would be a good idea. First, it will enable kids to remain on scholarship another year and enhance their graduation rates. Second, it would encourage teams to take more chances on projects which with the decline in legitimate college centers (and NBA centers) might help to stem that tread. Third, hopefully it would encourage marginal academic player/students to attend junior college since they would still have three years of NCAA eligibility remaining. Fourth, it would further enhance the competitive balance between major conferences and the remaining conferences, and make March Madness more interesting. What To Look For: A possible upset by a D2 over a D1. Cal Poly is 1-5 and 311th in the RPI, and Stanislaus State already has one Big West scalp this year: UC-Irvine. What Got Cut: Lowlights of the CSUS Warriors' 82-63 blowout loss to Alaska-Fairbanks last week, up at the Patty Center. Do You Care? Do you care that CSUS second-string forward Richard Maraker is the brother of Swede sensation Christian Maraker, who plays up the road atPacific? Cheapies! Most bizarre fight song? I gotta go with that crazy moon-chinning, rusty-cutting tune of Cal Poly, Jason and Randy. When I talked to ULL coach Robert Lee over the summer, it was the day after Dwayne Mitchell had been granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA. He played in an exhibition game for Auburn before transferring, you see, and this had previously counted as a full year. Coach Lee was so happy, I could have sworn he was going to jump through the phone and give me a hug. Lee's going to need big production out of Mitchell after losing Orien Greene to the NBA and early exit Tiras Wade to... where is he, anyway? The Cajuns started slow out of the gate (1-5), but they found their form last night in a home rout of a very good Oral Roberts team. Leading the way was the hot-shooting 6-5 MMBOD, who went 9-for-11 from the floor and grabbed a team-leading eight boards. Spicy! After last night's Ohio blowout, the Mid-Majority is 0-2 in power-conference G!O!T!N! action. But this is just the kind of G! to get us back on the winning track. Ken Pomeroy's Gamble-O-Matic crystal ball agrees - this as a 10-point win over the Hogs, in large part thanks to Time to check in with Buzzball On The Coast, Mr. Peterson's seaside rebuilding project in scenic Conway, S.C.. Coastal Carolina led for a half in Minnesota and beat MEAC power S.C. State yesterday, a matchup they probably lose last season. The 3-3 Chanticleers have a nice little tandem going in 2005 Big South freshman of the year Leasure and the onamonopoetic senior guard Pele Paelay, and Coach Buzz is getting 34.7 ppg out of the combo. Last night, they lived the life of Leasure; Jack poured in a career high 33, made all his freebies, and knocked down three treys - it was his fourth time in six games he's led the team in scoring. Next up for the Chants is CAA surprise UNC-Wilmington, a team they lost to last year by only three. A win here, and Buzzball might go to the nex' level: Big Aquamarine Chicken Fever. If the 4-0 Ohio Bobcats outwork the Cincinnati Bearcats tonight - and they most probably will - you can expect another wave of media love for Tim O'Shea's young crew, the team that shocked the MAC last year after being picked last, who gave Florida a first-round scare, and who have returned a poised, confident sophomore core. Here's a preview of things to come: "Wow, that Leon Williams is really good." Ohio and Cincinnati, separated by three hours' worth of roadway, are ancient rivals - they've been playing each other since 1907-08 (UC has a 38-37 lead in the series). Not too much lately, though - the two Buckeye State schools spent most of the Huggins era at arms' length and haven't dated for almost six years. That was a different time and place, wasn't it? Cincinnati was the pollsters' top pick and living high on the hog. Now their program is a mess, and Ohio is It.
The Official Wife of the Mid-Majority™, little red-haired darling that she is, is still learning about basketball. "Kyle," she asked me last night while we were watching some game tape. "What does 'crashing the glass' mean?" If only this particular game was on teevee, so I could show her exactly what that quirky hoops colloquialism means. Last night in Little Rock, 6'8" Rashad Jones-Jennings crashed the glass 30 times, which is eight times more than anyone in D1 had this season. OK, so UALR's opponents last night, fellow Arkansas satellite Pine Bluff, couldn't throw anyone taller than 6'6" at Jones-Jennings, who's one hyphen away from being his own one-man law firm. And yeah, the Golden Lions (you'll have to read between the lines here) sorely, undeniably crave killer-instinct. But 30 rebounds is some serious, serious glass work - whether you're cleaning it, wiping it, Windexing it, or crashing it.
Pay no attention to that 1-3 record - St. Mary's has so far had the misfortune of running into three Top 100 power-conference teams at the wrong times. Tonight, the team that defied theUMPFN monopoly in the WCC and made the 2005 Tournament go through heavy security at USAFA, Colorado - you can bet that ass-kicking Aussie Daniel Kickert's papers are all in proper order. This is the back end of an intricate home and home and someone else's home, an odd three-way that came about two summers ago between the two schools and Rutgers. Last year's inaugural meeting of SMC and AFA resulted in a gruesome, grinding 59-58 win for St. Mary's, the Moragans' first up-close-and-personal with a Princetonian system in over 20 years. Can they shut the backdoor and challenge the Academy's six-game winning streak? Tune in! I'm so glad... we got a decent performance out of last night's G!O!T!N!. Lilburn, Georgia native Mr, Arnold, a former Peach State Mr. Basketball and future co-alum of Oprah, came on and felt the Eastern Illinoise last night. He rained down seven of eight from behind the arc to lead the Tigers to a convincing road win. On a somewhat related note, we have a winner in a new contest I just made up a few minutes ago: the Tennessee State athletics department has achieved the soon-to-be-coveted "Gilbert Gottfried Lifetime Achievement Award For Annoying Web Design" in the Breakthrough Audio category. Click around a few pages, and you too will find yourself wondering why that little voice in your head is urging you to cancel your New Year's party plans and buy a bus ticket to Nashville instead. "Stop music" doesn't mean what it used to. When you have something on your website called "Game! Of! The! Night!", that means every night. Even when you only have nine games on the national slate, even when a good number of those involve power conference teams, there must, must, must be a Game! Of! The! Night! Thank gosh there's a conference contest, so we don't have to go to the dartboard. Tonight, the G!O!T!N! spotlight shines on the Ohio Valley and Charleston, Illinois. This may be the night when the 0-5 Panthers or 1-2 Tigers step forward and announce their OVC intentions. But what the TSU Tigers and EIU Panthers lack in hooping prowess, their respective schools make up for in school spirit. It's doubtful that many faithful from Oprah's alma mater will make the trip north on Interstates 24 and 57 to unleash a mighty round of "I'm so glad I go to TSU," but you'll most probably hear the oddly-phrased cadences of "We are loyal EIU, we're loyal and true" in the background when you tune in. Enjoy.
The SPC ballers are still playing with heavy hearts from the loss of a teammate over the summer, and the nation's two-time defending scoring champion has been fighting off leg tendinitis. But after going 0-4 to start the season and hanging in bravely against a couple of Big East squads, the Peacocks may have turned the corner - they've won four in a row and are 2-0 in the young MAAC season. In their thrilling OT roadie, Clark scored nearly half his team's points and jumped 13 spots on the Sucka Free Countdown to 19. OK, so the diminutive (5'9") "Kee Kee" puts it up a lot - even during his world-leading seasons (26.7 and 25.8 PPG, respectively), he had lots of those 4-for-20 types of nights that were erased by 30+ point outbursts. But Clark shouldn't need to shoulder the load so much this year - as Ken Pomeroy points out, they've got other options.
This is the 9th in a series of 10 early-season essays. "A dream is a wish your heart makes," it's said, "when you're fast asleep." That's nice and everything, but why does Disney have the market cornered on all that dewy fantasyland crap? Here's another chance to see relative league strength on the floor, instead of on paper - UNCG is division-winnable in the Southern Conference's North division despite having only one senior, while the Runnin' Bulldogs from Boiling Springs are scientifically engineered to win the Atlantic Sun. Even though the A-Sun is a 15-seed-level league and the SoCon a 13-or-so, the first-ever meeting of the two schools should produce a decent little Sunday game. Watch Greensboro forward Kyle Hines - along with his totally awesome first name, his 17.1 PPG and 10.0 RPG have landed him a possible-POY tag from SoCon insiders. G-Webb is led by the bruising duo of 6'9" Simon Conn and 6'6" possible-POY Brian Bender (15 RPG between them) - we'll see today how they do when faced with a big n' beefy front line. Reports of the Tigers' demise have been... well, they're B.S. To further paraphrase a certain Mr. Clemens, be careful about reading preseason predictions, because you may die of a misprint. Forget about all the graduations - last night's road trouncing of Western Kentucky proves that Pacific deserves to be the favorite in the Big West. Last night, a California Swede in King Diddle's Court triumphed over a group of Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Warren County. Mr. Maraker paced Pacific out to an early 10-0 lead, then he and his buddy Anthony Esparza tandemed on a gamebreaking 18-7 after the halftime speeches. With 34 and 12, the senior leader recorded his sixth dub-dub of the young season. As the greatest-ever American writer once said, "If you have a mobile big guy with soft hands, you're going to win a lot of ballgames." OK, so he didn't really say that. Game 107: Villanova 79, at Bucknell 60 Always good when you can get a game in December that pits two mid-major conference favorites against each other, acts as a guage of relative league strength. Pacific was short-sold in the preseason polls due to graduation losses, but people who saw how well they played big, tough Nevada, or what they did to San Jose State the other night, know that they're not to be slept on. The 5-1 Hilltoppers have been exactly as good as advertised, and would have a more prominent place in the national conversation if not for a trip-up at home versus Georgia. Diddle me this: 6'4" senior Anthony "A-Dub" Winchester (24.5 PPG/51.5% FG) is a legitimate candidate for the national scoring title, and sophomore Courtney "C-Lee" Lee (18.7 PPG) is quickly becoming a Sun Belt star. I cringe when pundits on the teevee talk about a team knowing "how to win" or "not knowing how to win." I mean, geez - you play the game and if you do it better than the other team, you win. No special degrees or prior work experience needed. Siena hasn't been better than the other team very much in recent years, and even the players who were there for the 21-win season in 2002-03 seem to have forgotten what it takes. So a sophomore shall lead them - Mensah, who sat out most of last year due to injury, followed up the program's first-ever triple-double with a scorching performance at Niagara. Eighteen of his 29 came in the second half, as he led the Saint(Bernard)s back from nine points down with 5:06 remaining, and Siena grabbed a key MAAC-opening road W. Knowledge is a powerful thing - the Saints are now 4-2. Game 108: at Iona 80, Rider 59 To put the Loyola Greyhounds and their 4-0 record in perspective, they've won as many games as they did all of 2002-03, and four times as many as they did the next season. As they enter conference play tonight, they may get within one of last year's total, continuing the turnaround we've been forecasting since last year. But rebuilding is old hat to head coach Jimmy Patsos, he was there when Maryland wene from outhouse to penthouse over the century's turn. The denizens of the arena just down the highway from WWE headquarters lost blocked-shot champion of the world Deng Gai to a different sports-entertainment enterprise, but Fairfield has plenty of backcourt scoring to stay competitive. Check out the 6'0" duo of Terrence Todd (12.6 PPG) and Jonathan Han (12.2 PPG), who'll try to make turn the MAAC into a Stag party this season.
People from Missouri are just so demanding - show me this, show me that. Last night at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau, an inbound transfer from Montana did just that, career-highing with 27 points, a total that included six three-pointers. Three of those threes came in consecutive order, during the run that would give SEMO the lead it would cling to for the rest of the game. Then, Booker hit a free throw with :04 left to make it 70-67, putting the game out of field goal range. The Montana transfer has quickly established himself as a player to watch in the OVC. He was the league player of the week for his 23-and-11 performance against Nebraska on November 27, and has been the Redhawks' leading scorer four times out of six (20.0 PPG). Show 'em, Roy, show 'em! In tonight's Ohio Valley lidlifter for both teams, we get a showdown of the two teams picked to contend for the league title - the defending champ and the traditional power (respectively). Eastern's struggled to a 2-4 record in the post-Travis Ford era, and Murray's 2-2 mark doesn't show that they took Cincinnati to overtime or led Tennessee for 30 minutes. Instead of pointing out stat-sheet stuffers as usual, I'd like to draw your attention to an EKU guard named Bubba Long, who is the 7th least effective player in D1 - of 4,115 - for the amount of time he spends on the court (the ones below him are mostly burly foul-sponges). His 0.0 points and 1.5 assists in nearly 10 minutes may seem like pure garbage time, but is there any statistic that can adequately measure the length of a Bubba? Does he at least have a fan club?
You can't spell "Davidson" without "Ian" - Mr. Johnson recorded his second straight double-double (the first in a blowout against prohibitive SoCon North favorite Appalachian State), and helped put the Snigers down on the Wildcats' home court. Don't fire him - he's dumb enough to schedule home-and-homes with good mids, and the Mid-Majority needs those wins. If you're a regular here, you remember Davidson's star-crossed 2004-05 season - going 18-0 in conference, and losing in the SoCon tourney. They did lose 27 PPG to graduation in Oh-Five, but don't short-sell senior leadership - Johnson (18.3 PPG) and guard Brendan Winters (18.0 PPG) are picking up the slack quite nicely. These Wildcats are equipped with shoulder chips and ready to make sure that NIT stuff doesn't happen again. The weather outside may be relatively frightful, but the March MAAC Madness in December is so delightful. Tonight in New Roc City, we'll see two of the favorites in the Metro Atlantic Conference duke it out in a rare early-season conference duel. Iona has developed into one of the feel-good stories of the year, going a perfect 5-0 and beating Iowa State at their own tournament. They're led by the dynamic backcourt duo of Ricky Soliver and Steve Burtt, the latter of which leads the Mid-Majority in scoring with 26.6 PPG. Rider is 2-3, but have shown flashes of the solid team conference followers are predicting them to be: they nearly took out Bucknell on their home floor, and feature a long and lanky 6'8" sophomore named Jason Thompson who has shown gamebreaking capabilities in his young career. So buy some corn for popping and turn the lights way down low, there's a MAAC game on tonight.
According to the wire story, David Moss tried to hug some fans after his Indiana State team upset over the cross-state Hoosiers, but they were more interested in dancing on the logo at midcourt. Where, I ask, is the love? Don't worry, big guy, it's right here. Mr. Moss is no stranger to this space - he was our fifth-ever MMBOW, right around this time last year. Moss and fellow Tree Tyson Schnitker both had 19 to pace the Sycamores last night, but it was David's 9 boards that put him over the top and earned him some more Mid-Majority face time. State's resumé is starting to look pretty impressive in the early going - along with the Indiana win, they beat Sun Belt tough-out Middle Tennessee too. It's tough being the number whatever team in the country. Folks are always following you around, debating your every move and utterance and injury, analyzing you to within an inch of your basketball lives. Tonight, Villanova will bring their travelling sideshow to humble little Lewisburg for a Keystone State throwdown with Giant Killer University. Fellow unbeaten Bucknell is coming off a wire-to-wire "upset" win at DePaul, which was played at the Blue Demons' preferred speed: slow and bruising. Forget Kansas and Syracuse... dictating the pace is fine, but beating the other guys at their own reindeer games is the mark of a champion. If they're flexible enough tonight to be the Breakin' Bison or the Barragin' Bison, they just might pull this one out. It's a good time to be the Southland Conference. First you had Sam Houston State in the PNIT, then Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana taking beating turns on Mississippi State in Starkville, and now this. Last night NSU went into Storied Gallagher-Iba Arena and delivered a shock to the Oklahoma State Cowboys, ending grumpy-Gus Eddie Sutton's 44-game non-conference home winning streak. The Demons took the lead with 2:10 left in the first half and never looked back, thanks primarily to the efforts of the "Big Smooth." Lee dropped in 24 and came within a tick of a dub-dub, as his team turned their semi-annual death march to Stillwater into a wild Demonic hell-abration. And you know I can't end this without mentioning the obvious... dude's got a sweet 'fro. It's tough finding RPI-boosting games when you've ascended to the upper-middle-class parts of Mid-Majorville - power-conference coaches won't answer your summer scheduling booty-calls anymore. But one of my favorite developments in recent years is the in-season home-and-home; it's all about helping out a neighbor. Utah State and Middle Tennessee have already played once this season. That game, played in Murfreesboro, TN on November 21, was a taut thriller that came down to the final 3.3 seconds and was won by MTSU, 60-59. Can the return game live up to the first one? Either way, one thing is clear: if more school pairs followed USU and Middle's lead, pre-conference scheduling problems in the upwardly-mobile 'hoods would be a thing of the past. Most attempts to read the tea leaves of the 2005-06 season have been scuttled by the UIC Flames, who have won over the hearts of Chicago's schizophrenic community by losing its home opener to a Division II team and upsetting Georgia Tech in a guarantee game two days later. Now they've surrendered the Keys to the City to Chi-State, a team whose annual struggles to get double-digit wins have won over the hearts of Chicagoans who think the Cubs have become too good. But we're not here to talk about UIC, it's time to honor the pint-sized dynamo who took them down yesterday. Royce Parran is a 5'10" scoring machine whose effort helped his Cougars erase a 19-point second-half deficit. Then, in the final moments, his key steals and assists helped seal the deal in a town with my kind of razamatazz, that has all that jazz.
Some pictures from the first few weeks of the season.
Game 106: at Holy Cross 71, Fordham 63 (2OT) Some people complained when it became necessary to have a Ph.D in geekology to decode the expanded Colonial Athletic Association's new new scheduling format, but you can't kvetch much when the opening weekend of play is capped by a hot game with seeding implications galore. The home of the 5-1 Seahawks will be rocking when the old rival Rams come to town this afternoon - the series stands at 14-14, and VCU eliminated them at the tourney in March so there's some of that lingering resentment stuff. Fans in attendance will see two of the league's marquee senior stars going at it, UNCW's guard John Goldsberry (12.7 PPG, 55% FG) and 6'6' Ram Nick George (11.3 PPG, 6.0 RPG). Trust me, you won't need an advanced degree to enjoy this CAA showdown. Down south at new D1 entry Kennesaw State, there's a Coach Tony Ingle, an assistant Tony Ingle Jr., and guards Israel Ingle and Golden Ingle. That's a lot of Ingles. But it's not a hoop sitcom like "Just the Ten of Us" or that Dick Vitale project that's in perpetual turnaround - it's damm good basketball. Don't look now, but Kennesaw State is 2-0 in the Atlantic Sun. Golden stands just 5'10" (brother Israel is an inch shorter), but he's been been dropping big numbers. He's been filling it up (19.6 PPG), dishing it out (5.0 APG), and grabbing a few down as well (3.1 RPG). Then he goes and does something like drop 34 and lead the entire Mid-Majority in scoring yesterday. Fun fact: Golden is one of those rarities in college basketball - a double transfer. He played for the Owls when they were a D2 powerhouse back in 2001-02, transferred to Western Kentucky for a year, took two years off to focus on missionary work, and now he's back. Cue the theme song!
Okay, so that UC-Irvine Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/STAN>upset over Stanford has been recast in a completely different light after UCI's loss to Stanislaus State last week. That wins and losses are open to constant redefinition is why our game is great. But still, beating Stanford is still mighty impressive - it's Stanford. All that legacy - Jim Pollard, George Yardley, arena namesake Marla Maples. Meet Mr. Matthews, a guy who'd rather chop a Tree than hug one. In front of 6,929 screaming Griz fans, the 6'3" mini-giant had a career-high 23 points and came within four items of a triple-double in Montana's blowout W. He was also the guy who took UMT from a Big Sky three-seed to the 2005 Big Dance. During their short stay, Matthews & Co. played another Pac-10 school - one-seed Washington - much closer than 8 Pacific would. And now they're back. Timberrr! Long-time readers of the site (if you consider nine months a "long time") will recall our March campaign to send four mid-majors to the Sweet 16, how we implored Hoops Nation to officially adopt one by buying a logo t-shirt. We ended up having to adopt the old "wait 'til next year" approach, but two of our original Chosen Four resume acquaintances tonight. We know what Nevada's done so far - kill everything in their path on their two-week cross-country road trip. Pacific? They lost four starters and to Santa Clara. But don't even think about counting UOP out - they're tapped into Cali's juco pipeline, and I'm certain that Christian Maraker didn't bust his butt for three years just to have a whimpery senior season. Storylines? Yes! Pacific stung Nevada 72-69 in Reno last December, and the Pack has a 20-game losing streak at Pacific. Something doesn't necessarily have to give, but will it?
To help mid-major teams fill out their schedules, Bally takes matters into his own hands. Never mind that beating Kansas is happening so often lately that it's going to end up as a carnival midway attraction at county fairs next summer. Or that all the requisite motions have been captured by green-screen CGI cameras for a video game, coming out in time for the Tournament. It's still Kansas. You know, all that legacy - James Naismith, Phog Allen, Danny Manning. Last night's 9 p.m. start time gave viewers at home plenty of time to recover from the shock that Joey was a rerun, but once All-Everything Nick Fazekas started heating up in Lawrence, prime time had officially begun. The 6'11" Wolf Pack member scored 21 of his career-high 35 in the second half - then provided the News at 11 with the thunderous block that sealed the upset. Fazekas to Hoops Nation: "How YOU doin'?" The Atlantic Sun season, just two days old, has provided plenty of chills and spills. Last night, Kennesaw State came from behind to claim its first-ever Division I conference win; Belmont outlasted East Tennessee in last night's G!O!T!N!; and Campbell, who was 0-20 last year in conference, beat the crap out of Stetson. But wait, there's more! In a quaint little football-mad city in Florida, "The Fish That Saved Jacksonville will square off tonight against a program just a few short miles away, the newly-minted D1 Ospreys of UNF. They've met once before (a 78-73 JU win last year), but this one's a conference game, with TV cameras and everything. Tune in and watch a cuddly-wuddly little cross-town rivalry make its baby steps, before it grows up to become a big ol' city war.
Game 105: at Bucknell 87, Yale 60 Some would say that starting the conference schedule early is like skipping the December holidays and going straight to the January post-holiday depression. Ridiculous, I say! Meaningful basketball should know no season. The Atlantic Sun slate got underway last night (welcome, Matt Doherty, and North Florida too!), but tonight it achieves "full swing." And there's already a game with implications - SoCon refugee ETSU, a victim of its own budgetary constraints, kicks things off at home with cross-staters Belmont. Both teams figure to get high seeds when the tourney comes around (held in Johnson City, incidentally), and both are all about the guard play - look for a three-pointer duel between Buc bomber Tim Smith (21.7 PPG in 3 games) and recent A-Sun Player of the Week Bruin Justin Hare.
When this hyphenated Highlander was indefinitely suspended in February for a violation of team rules (specifically, the "don't smoke dope" one), the 2004-05 Radford season went with him - they went 2-5 after that. "I've worked harder this summer than I've ever worked," he told the Roanoke Times last month. "And I've taken it more seriously, with the situation that happened. I was just ready to get back on the court." And he's making the most of his second chance, Holcomb-Faye is - he's been Radford's leading scorer in five of their seven games so far (24.0 PPG in 38.0 MPG), including the 34-point outburst that led the entire Mid-Majority last night. And I think you can rest assured that he's truly cleaned up his act - as anyone who's ever stepped on the court knows, you can't play at this level of intensity if you've been bangin' on the bong. |
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