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Category Archives Season 2 (2005-06)
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S2 April 9, 2006 INDIANAPOLIS, Apr. 2 -- There are huge signs all over town -- on airport walls, strung over streetlights, over the main gate to the RCA Dome. They all read, "The Road Ends Here." There's also a giant logo on the side of the 45,000-seat venue, a green and gold star with zag-zigging trailers that has...
S2 March 11, 2006 Great college basketball traditions: Dickie V, pep bands playing "Hey Baby," and Utah State against Nevada in the Game! Of! The! Night!. This is the third such battle this year -- remember that it was UNR that stopped USU's winning streak in this box, with the 75-57 decision that made the Aggies 5-1...
S2 March 10, 2006 One of the great clichés of Championship Week is that it's difficult to beat a team three times. And it's true that familiarity breeds a lot of game tape, but in today's only game featuring a black bid binder and net-cutting, it should be one of the easier trifectas to accomplish. Buckn...
S2 March 10, 2006 Snoop would be so proud. Long Beach has been red-hot streaking into the Big West tourney (winning six in a row), and now they've won their first tourney game in six years... the emergence of a sparkplug guard from Cleveland is a primary reason. Davis led the third-fastest team in the nation (78.9 po...
S2 March 9, 2006 No bids being given out tonight, but we have a decent quarterfinal matchup in the Mid-American. It's actually a semifinal rematch from last year, the trial-by-fire, come-from-behind upset that sent the No. 7-seeded Bobcats on to the title game with brimming confidence. Miami has been the under-the-r...
S2 March 9, 2006 Frosh forward Jordan Hasquet only averaged 6.7 ppg and 3.7 rpg this year, but he saved his best performances for Montana's biggest conference rival. Against Northern Arizona, he went 10 and 9 in their first meeting, dropped 30 points in the schedule-ending message game against the regular-season cha...
S2 March 8, 2006 Last week, Montana (21-6, 10-4) destroyed Northern Arizona (20-9, 13-2) at home -- too bad the Lumberjacks had already clinched the No. 1 seed and the regular-season championship. One of the perks of claiming the Big Sky title is that you get to host the semifinals and title game, so their inevitabl...
S2 March 8, 2006 The scenario seemed so familiar: a hungry low-seeded opponent readying to upset the regular-season champs in the title game and go on to the Tournament. Much like last season's shock loss to No. 7 Oakland, No. 6 Chicago State hung around and led into the second half on No. 1 Oral Roberts' home floor...
S2 March 7, 2006 So what if their shooters can't hit the side of a barn? When you limit your tourney opponents to 33%, 30% and 38% shooting, you can afford to toss it into the pasture more often. UNC Wilmington will take the sixth most efficient defense in the country (.872 PA per def. possession) all the way to the...
S2 March 7, 2006 You probably don't remember who Ryvon Covile is, and there's a reason for that. He missed two free throws with 38 seconds left in last year's Horizon League title game. If he had hit either, Detroit would have likely gone on to the Tournament -- Hoops Nation would have remembered the Titans, and sti...
S2 March 6, 2006 bc (dc): Southern Illinois has had a great couple years, how do you see them this year?Kyle Whelliston: Everyone's sleeping on the Salukis now, but I really think this is going to turn out to be a good year for them. They'll likely to use the regular season to absorb their big graduation losses and ...
S2 March 5, 2006 What a fine mess the MVC tourney has become. Gone are the top seeds, and all the talking heads are having told-you-so field days with all the El Foldos going on. The Missouri Valley Conference is a bubble-busting bust, they say. Teams like Northern Iowa, despite their 23 wins, will have to sweat it ...
S2 March 4, 2006 Three champions will be crowned today: despite the fact that nearly everyone else will be meeting these teams for the first time today, we know how hard these players and coaches have worked to get to this point. Each winner today will be referred to as "champion" around these parts for the next yea...
S2 March 4, 2006 I reminisce for a spell, or shall I say think back Last night, when West 6 gave East 3 the whack I remember when Cedric Jackson scored 28 In the Sun Belt playoffs against Arkansas State, unh My God... It`s so... Yeah, so lovely That`s how we like to do it in the Oughties Bally Ball and K-Dub comin' ...
S2 March 2, 2006 "Ricky McBoingBoing" is one of the most explosive leapers in Hoops Nation, getting up two or three feet in the air with the absolute minimum of leg-muscle twitchings. His team is springing back too, winning seven of eight Southland Conference games after a five-game losing skid.Woods also became the...
S2 March 2, 2006 The A-Fun starts counting casualties today in Johnson City at the home of its new-oldest member. And while ETSU would much rather be fighting it out with their old SoCon buddies in Charleston, S.C. this week, getting to host the conference tourney isn't all bad. They'll get a tough test in hot No. 4...
S2 March 1, 2006 Northwestern State has taken control of their league and has received plenty of national love, but the Southland's supporting cast is aligning behind them to try and knock off the Demons in the upcoming conference tourney. McNeese (9-5) got blown out 97-79 in Natchitoches last weekend, but no team m...
S2 March 1, 2006 What's more painful than pain? More painful than having to listen to T-Pain? Winning 19 games, then having your entire season wiped out by a 21-point loss on your home floor to the No. 6 seed. Yowch! The Big South tourney, always good for an upset or two, didn't disappoint in Tuesday night's quarter...
S2 February 28, 2006 Northern Arizona wrapped up the Big Sky one-seed on Saturday afternoon at Sac-State, but their long-awaited trip to pre-season favorite (and No. 2 seed) Montana resulted in a romp that should give the Jacks pause as they move towards tourney time. The Grizzles took the lead five minutes in and never...
S2 February 28, 2006 In the NBA, the playoffs mean "win or go home," but in campus-site tournaments like the OVC's, an opening round victory means "win and go on the road." The winner of this game gets a trip to Nashville to (presumably) play No. 1 seed Murray State on Friday.The Gamecocks feature four double-figure sco...
S2 February 27, 2006 The farthest-flung teams in the MEAC go at it tonight in sunny Florida; northeast corner Delaware State (15-1, six straight wins) and far southeastern representative Bethune-Cookman (10-5, four straight) also happen to be the two hottest teams in the league. DSU has dominated the league for the seco...
S2 February 27, 2006 In early January, Manhattan looked like the class of the MAAC; academic and injury losses brought adversity. But last night, Manhattan fought back from a 10-point deficit against their closest rivals in front of an overflow SRO crowd at their green gym, led by Pawtucket's own Jeff Xavier. The Jasper...
S2 February 26, 2006 IUPUI had the hot 11-1 start and all the headlines (well, here anyway), crimping Oral Roberts' hopes of avenging their agonizing near-miss in last year's tourney. But on the last day of league play, ORU (18-11, 13-3) took advantage of an untimely IUPUI two-game skid, claimed a slice of the regular s...
S2 February 26, 2006 When these two MAAC titans met in January, the result was a Manhattan blowout at Iona's house. As expected, both teams are 13-4 heading into their return match -- tonight's game will end up settling the regular season title, the tourney No. 1 seed and a double-bye into the semis. The Jaspers had the...
S2 February 25, 2006 USU and UNR are old chums; they've got scrapbooks full of Big West memories, back when the Aggies would invite the Wolf Pack over to their house and kick the %&@ out of them just for fun (USU holds a 22-8 all-time edge vs. Nevada). And the last time this 2005-06 Nevada squad lost, it was the 59-...
S2 February 25, 2006 There are two types of people in this world: Ibby and anti-Ibby. When you're Ibby, you conduct your business with a calm dignity and dart-sharp exactitude. Why, being Ibby might make you the most efficient scorer in Division I basketball if you measure the highest effective FG% (64%) for ppg (19.1)....
S2 February 24, 2006 At some point, a team will simply refuse to accept a national ranking; George Mason was the most recent mid-20's mid-major to fall, losing at Hofstra last night and setting up the most incredibly thrilling Colonial tourney in league history. With GMU, Hofstra and UNCW (even Astyle=font-weight:bold H...
S2 February 23, 2006 The University of North Carolina at Wilmington is a classic mid-major tale in the making: a scrappy bunch who masks their shooting inefficiencies with nationally-ranked defense, who shook off an embarrassing loss to RPI No. 278 East Carolina to go 13-3 in conference. But they're competing with lots ...
S2 February 22, 2006 The Five-Bid Valley: wonderful idea in theory, but it proved to be a complicated Rube Goldberg device with far too many moving parts. Last night, the spoon-lever designed to move the golden egg from the mini-seesaw to the hamster wheel was smashed to pieces.Much like Wichita State's thunderous colla...
S2 February 22, 2006 Short odds that there would be a game like this this late in the Patriot League season; you'd be right if you guessed that 12-0 Bucknell would be one of the participants, but traditional power Holy Cross' losses (three) means that the 'Saders could make this particular party. Nobody expected Lehigh ...
S2 February 21, 2006 Two 9-4 teams go at it tonight with a share of the Southern Conference South division title on the line, and will get top seeding in next week's tourney should fellow 9-4 Elon stumble in the North. Davidson (16-9 overall) is a good team that has turned in too many awful performances, such as their d...
S2 February 21, 2006 Dr. Jerry Falwell might be tempted to explain Liberty's worst-beats-first win over Winthrop (18-7, 11-3) as evidence of the divine, but the Big South upset special was likely a combination of two very secular factors: fatigue from the Eagles' double-overtime BracketBuster victory and the uplifting p...
S2 February 20, 2006 It's back to work for the BracketBusting Cats and Dogs of the America East. Albany did the conference proud by dominating on the boards (+14) in their 70-67 near-miss against VCU on Friday night; Vermont had less luck, shooting 27% and losing to ex-AE Drexel in the radio-only portion of the event.An...
S2 February 20, 2006 Senior Day is a special occasion, a chance for the fans celebrate the careers of your outgoing players one last time. And while preseason America East favorite Boston University hasn't had much to crow about this season (they're 10-15, 7-7), the senior forward pictured to the left had the game of hi...
S2 February 18, 2006 One of the strengths of the Joint Photographic Experts' Group (JPEG) compression format is that pictures can be displayed over and over in web browsers, with no degradation of image quality over time. That's why we can put Nick Fazekas here in this space over and over, and not have to worry about ev...
S2 February 18, 2006 Sure, there's that Bucknell-Northern Iowa tilt, but this is the only game in BracketBusterLand that matches up the current leaders from two of America's premier mid-major conferences. In the midst of the Four-Bid Valley discussion (or 5BV or 6BV, if you swing that way), Wichita State (21-6, 12-4 MVC...
S2 February 17, 2006 No, not Gardner-Webb (although they did get a big win over Belmont last night), Rodney Webb. In an 83-78 win that likely saved their season, Florida Atlantic's hot guard scored 21 of his 30 in the first half and banged out jumpers at a 75% clip, all of which helped Matt Doherty's boys take down a bi...
S2 February 17, 2006 Here is is... it's BracketBusters time, and while we'll stop short of encouraging signal theft, do whatever you need to do to be in front of one of the 39 U.S. television sets that can pick up ESPNU tonight. Because you're going to get to see two teams that will likely have NCAA seed numbers attache...
S2 February 16, 2006 The Atlantic Sun race looks just like the Missouri Valley's: five teams with guady league records battling it out for conference supremacy. Well, at least until you look at the RPI numbers. Tonight is Thrill-A-Minute Thursday, as the A-Fun hosts two meaningful separation games among its elite. East ...
S2 February 16, 2006 The Southland race has devolved into a romp for 10-1 Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/NWSU>Northwestern State, so it's easy to forget about the other good team in the league - the one that's hovering just outside the RPI Top 100, the one the was stealing all the hea...
S2 February 15, 2006 When I called Hofstra head coach last summer to get his take on this season's CAA race, he said, "It's all about Old Dominion, baby." Well, in a strange twist of fate, it's been partially about Hofstra. They're just a game out in the loss column as the Colonial's stretch run begins.Tonight's tilt fe...
S2 February 15, 2006 Eastern Kentucky was one of the great feel-good stories of last season, completing a five-year rebuilding program by winning 22 games and winning the OVC championship. One of the primary symbols of that team was a pass-first, shoot-last point guard who set the Colonel's tempo with a steady staccato ...
S2 February 14, 2006 The Southern Conference is one of the oldest and proudest leagues in college basketball. Once the stomping grounds of Duke and Carolina, events have conspired to unspin the most disappointing season in the SoCon's 85-year history: once unthinkable, it now looks like a possible play-in league. On a n...
S2 February 14, 2006 All due respect to the Valentine's Day bloodbath tonight between Penn and Princeton, there's no love lost in the upper reaches of the MVC. After a freaky weekend that saw five road wins, the best (and mathematically strangest) mid-major conference in America still features a four-way tie at the top ...
S2 February 13, 2006 When they say Big Monday, they mean it. Two 8-3 teams square off in a showdown that will determine sole possession first place in the Wizzac; third wheel Utah State made this possible by graciously obliging at home to NMSU on Saturday. Last time these two met was Groundhog Day, which saw a 65-53 Pac...
S2 February 13, 2006 Very, very few players in the NEC have Tournament experience that doesn't involve a high teen seed. A.J. Jackson does - he was the guy who came off the bench when Zakee Wadood had too many fouls, back in East Tennessee State's recent SoCon glory days. But that gets tiring. Jackson sat out a year and...
S2 February 12, 2006 The fifty minutes of a double-overtime game give everyone equal opportunity to be hero and goat -- oftentimes, all in the same contest. Wright's sparkplug junior guard had 20 points in regulation, but missed an opportunity to win the game with a wildly unsuccessful lane-drive at the buzzer; then he ...
S2 February 11, 2006 Ever since Moss Man and the Indiana State Sycamores upset the Salukis on their home floor, 10-4 SIU's been a bit blue. But a road win at 11-3 Creighton (a team that they beat back on Jan. 24) would certainly give them the emotional lift they need to head into the MVC's stretch run. The Bluejays, on ...
S2 February 10, 2006 Folks have questions about the surprise team atop the Big Sky (especiallyWestern Kentucky, the team that drew them in the BracketBuster), and The Mid-Majority has answers. The Northern Arizona Lumberjacks are not real lumberjacks, and the Walkup Skydome is not available from the Home Depot. And thei...
S2 February 9, 2006 Bobby Gonzalez played just seven guys in this one, and five of them played 30+ minutes. Exhausted? No way! One of those Jaspers who played a full 40 (pictured, left) was a high-hopping 6'0" guard who shot 64% from the floor including four big threes, and Wingate helped lead Manhattan to a big win ac...
S2 February 9, 2006 With the sad state of the MAC West these days, I'm ready to declare Northern Illinois (13-7, 8-4 Mid-American) an honorary member of the East division. Their current four-game win streak echoes the West-beating runs of the right-siders' thumpings of the Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.ba...
S2 February 8, 2006 There hasn't been too much of a reason to mention David Letterman U. in this space so far -- the Cardinals have really struggled to find points (62.3 PF, 42.8% FG) and have slumped to a 4-8 league record, continuing a slow and sad decline for a program that used to contend for the MAC title year in ...
S2 February 7, 2006 Doesn't it seem like every time you turn around, there's a life-or-death game in the MVC? With Wichita State's 2OT win over Southern Illinois on Saturday, the four-headed monster atop the Valley standings is now three: UNI, Wichita and Creighton are all 10-3 with five league games to go, with SIU a ...
S2 February 7, 2006 Mr. Holcomb-Faye started his season with a bang, leading his team in scoring 11 times in Radford's first 17 games (including a BOTD nod on Nov. 30). But in the past couple of weeks, Holcomb-Faye has struggled, shooting 28% from the floor over a recent three-game stretch against Birmingham Southern, ...
S2 February 6, 2006 When Old Dominion drew Marist in the BracketBusters Presented by The Mid-Majority event, it seemed like a slap in the face, an insult, a punishment for not living up to the hype. Now there's a real possibility they might lose that game. Why? The Red Foxes are starting to ramp it up, winning nine of ...
S2 February 6, 2006 All due respect to Grambling's Brion Rush and Josh Hinz of Beloit (he's D3-ineligible) - but we're not about gaudy stats around here, just the solid performances that win ballgames. The Big Freak is our first three-time winner of the BOTD award, and it's for his third 35+ performance of the season. ...
S2 February 6, 2006 It's tough toiling inUMPFN's shadow, but these two squads have done yeoman's work indeed - the Lions and the Toreros will battle for second place in the West Coast Conference tonight at the Slim Gym. LMU has shaken off a rough non-conference start (3-11) to run a 5-2 WCC record; they give up as many...
S2 February 4, 2006 This season's first meeting between the Shockers and Salukis was a see-saw showdown in which SIU held Wichita State to 32% shooting, their worst floor performance of the year. Tonight, when two of the four 9-3 MVC teams collide, 6-10 Shox center Paul Miller and co. will attempt to avenge that loss i...
S2 February 3, 2006 The two Division I newbies in the Atlantic Sun have taken drastically different paths. North Florida has performed exactly how a team new to this level should. They're second-to-dead-last in the RPI (No. 333), due primarily to their ugly 2-11 conference record, 5-15 overall. That's not to say there ...
S2 February 3, 2006 David Fisher's had a rough couple of weeks (no, not that David Fisher). The New Mexico State guard was declared academically ineligible in mid-January, but appealed to the school and NCAA to "reinterpret" his grades and was successfully reinstated. Now, I don't know what any of that means (I got a D...
S2 February 2, 2006 This is it - preseason Big West favorite Pacific's last chance to rein in runaway UCI before the stretch run starts. The Anteaters (12-8, 8-0) were 4-8 in non-conference play, but they suddenly found their mojo once BWC play started. They've already beaten UOP once,a 70-61 decision at their Bren Eve...
S2 February 2, 2006 Of all the teams to break Southern Illinois' 33-game home win streak and all-time Valley 42-game run, you'd never figure it would be Indiana State -- the streaky Sycamores went in to the game losers of 11 straight (remember, they went 8-0 to start the year). It was ISU's first win at SIU Arena since...
S2 February 1, 2006 What can the Mid-American Conference do to catch a break? Take the Bracket Buster, for instance. Whellistonian darling Akron gets a sweet shot at Nevada (RPI No. 53), but Kent hosts Butler (98) and Ohio takes on Samford (79). How's that going to bring up the numbers, One Bid MAC?Tonight in Athens, t...
S2 February 1, 2006 Just as Northern Iowa ascended into the Top 25's popularity contest, Valley reality kicked in: last night, Creighton's home floor swallowed the Panthers up for the 10th straight time. That's the macro view; CU's won eight of their last nine (including the matchup with UNI in Iowa) since they lost Na...
S2 January 31, 2006 Wright State speaks for most of the Horizon League right now - decent little team, .500-or-so record, completely overshadowed by Wisconsin-Milwaukee. But they stuck with UWM in a 61-54 loss in Brew City two weekends ago, and broke a four-game slide last night with Youngstown State in the house. The ...
S2 January 29, 2006 Postseason-ineligible Fresno has made life difficult for postseason-hopeful Utah State and Nevada in the WAC, but postseason-maybe-just-maybe LaTech has been able to take care of them - twice, in fact. Last night, the Bulldogs' Ja'Vance Coleman lofted a three-pointer over the head of the man picture...
S2 January 28, 2006 Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/KENN>Kennesaw State may be reigning over the A-Sun right now, but they can't go to the conference tournament as a transitional D1. Last night on regional television, Belmont knocked Matt Doherty's FAU Owls out of "first," and did so ...
S2 January 28, 2006 The CAA's chances to avoid going stag to the Big Dance likely fizzled for another year when the last team having anything an at-large NCAA resumé, George Mason, lost to UNCW last Saturday. There are just too many untimely and/or embarrassing losses here. But now, hopefully, we can forge...
S2 January 27, 2006 We're sticking with the SoCon tonight. North-leading Elon has streaked to a 6-0 record and has won eight straight games. How are they doing it? Certainly not by shooting the ball: their 42% team FG rate is second-to-last in the league. And how they've been managing without the services of Chris Porn...
S2 January 26, 2006 It's on in the Ohio Valley tonight, as the two best teams in the conference battle for seeding position. Tech (9-2) is on a six-game win streak; the RPI No. 73 Golden Eagles are led by a three-man double-figure-scoring backcourt, and despite being solidly in the middle of all OVC statistical measure...
S2 January 26, 2006 After a rough December against tougher opposition, Penn is ramping up at the right time: January. Last night at the cozy Philly Palestra, the Quakers overcame an old Big 5 nemesis and A-14 foe in LaSalle. Four Penn men scored in double figures to give coach Fran Dunphy his 10th win of the season and...
S2 January 25, 2006 The Fightin' Leathernecks are a perpetual afterthought in the Mid-Con, and the only thing they've had to celebrate in recent years was the 29th-rated recruiting class in D1 last year. Didn't matter, WIU stumbled to 11 wins. They're not doing too much better this year (six wins and a 2-6 conference r...
S2 January 25, 2006 Undefeated powers collide tonight in the Patriot League! One of them you're aware of: league favorite and ESPY winners Bucknell, who are off to a 5-0 start after bravely battling the top teams in the nation. You probably aren't familiar with the home team tonight, Lehigh, unless you're old enough to...
S2 January 24, 2006 Scenes from my MVC trip. QWEST Center Omaha™©® Creighton's (Injured) Nate Funk The parade passes Funk by Creighton Huddle Bluejay Pep Missouri State gets set to defend the castle Hammons Student Center, Springfield MO Ahearn to the Line Branson, MO Carver Center, Peoria I...
S2 January 24, 2006 A lot of great performances on Monday night, but we turn to the latest chapter in intriguing two-headed race that's shaping up in the SoCon's two divisions, one which features a not-a-misprint 6-0 Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/ELON>Elon squad. After sweeping the ...
S2 January 24, 2006 The MAC is the blackest and bluest mid-major conference in America, and an up East division has feasted on a down West. The top four teams in the league all come from the right-hand geographical side, and they have two losses to Western teams between them, Ohio's loss last Tuesday at Northern Illino...
S2 January 23, 2006 If the WAC is indeed going to get two bids this year, here are the two that will most likely nab 'em, and they're on display on Big (Mid-Major) Monday on ESPN tonight. Utah State is doing quite well in their first season up from the Big West - after being broken in by a December trip to Hawaii, they...
S2 January 23, 2006 Yesterday afternoon, a big 6'7" sophomore Saluki had the breakout game the SIU coach and fans have been waiting for. He was the team's leading scorer and rebounder in a game in which Southern Illinois wobbled early, but clamped down in during the second half -- Shaw had key tip-ins during a 9-0 unan...
S2 January 22, 2006 There's a division of opinion as to whether current military operations are doing anything to truly protect this homeland of ours, but the fact remains that without the past efforts of our armed forces, we don't get to enjoy fun diversions like college basketball. No matter where I travel across Hoo...
S2 January 22, 2006 Chant it with me now: "Chaminade, Valpo, North Dakota State." The independent Bison (RPI No. 187) and their nine freshmen lost on a buzzer-beating tip-in against Utah Valley State on Thursday, and the Wisconsin Badgers (RPI No. 3) had the extreme misfortune of being next on the schedule. Despite tur...
S2 January 21, 2006 Here's a matchup of two teams that have lived the harsh reality of the modern-day SoCon, long ago the romping grounds of Duke and Carolina but now a league that struggles to get out of the teen-seeds. Georgia Southern (12-5, 3-1) had a breakthrough 21-win season in 2003-04, but were nipped by Chatta...
S2 January 21, 2006 Memo to the airlines: do not put Lipscomb and Belmont on the same plane. When Music City's hottest basketball rivalry touched down at BNA lst night, a 6'5" junior swingman rose above. Air Ard kept hitting shots and threes and free throws, and 11-6 (7-2) Lipscomb broke open the city pair in a blowout...
S2 January 20, 2006 Here's an alternative way to look at tonight's Battle of Music City, an enticing matchup of 6-2 Atlantic Sun squads. Belmont is the new school, Nashville 2.0, slickly-produced CMT twang. The Bruins get a lot of hits (league-leading 50.2% FG, 9th nationally), but they're disposable and quickly forgot...
S2 January 20, 2006 The future of the Colonial Athletic Association may not only be "next," he might even be "now." Hofstra's star junior guard scored seven of a gamebreaking 11-0 run, and the Pride notched a tremendously large road win at league favorites Old Dominion. The Pride shot just 42% as a club, but Stokes too...
S2 January 19, 2006 The CAA went into the New York area to raise the league's visibility, so it's odd that of all the good-but-not-great teams that make up the league's core this year, Hofstra has received the least love. They won nine of ten against the middle of the RPI table in late December and early January, and a...
S2 January 19, 2006 Nevada's first WAC loss came against Hawaii two weeks ago, when three Rainbow Warriors came together to negate WAC scoring leader Nick Fazekas' 37-point outburst. The Freak only had 17 last night, but it took a total team effort to bring down the talented Pack - in a fast-paced game, five Fresno Sta...
S2 January 18, 2006 When Iona lost three of four in the wraparound week between 2005 and 2006, there was no mystery why they were tanking. Sure, the Gaels have a great backcourt, but they were being murdered inside. After spending a couple weeks on the back of an egg nog carton, their quint-captain and sturdy post pre...
S2 January 18, 2006 It's WAC-y Wednesday, and La-Tech is your surprise conference leader, sprinting out to a 4-0 start that includes nice wins against Hawaii and Fresno State. Defending two-time NCAA rebounding king Paul Millsap used the mini-run to climb back into the national lead in glasswork (12.5 rpg), and has his...
S2 January 17, 2006 Pictures from a southern swing. A quiet moment with High Point's AZ Reid Scary HPU Panther Liberty University, Lynchburg VA Who wants pizza? Alma Mater Winthrop After Hours Kennesaw State Cheerleaders Crazy Gardner-Webb Fans Campbell vs. G-Webb Middle Tennessee Tip-Off ...
S2 January 17, 2006 Georgia Southern has won eight in a row, and has raced out to a 3-0 record (12-4 overall) in the redundant SoCon South division. The Eagles feature the league's leading scorer (Elton Nesbitt, 21.8 ppg), they lead the league in threes (40.6%), speed (77.5 poss. per 40 minutes). and D (.95 points per ...
S2 January 17, 2006 I don't know what it is with diminutive nicknames, but undersized players with names like "Mookie," "Smush" and "Spud" will always find a place in the hearts of casual sports fans. Last night, a 5'11" Portland Pilot senior guard named "Pooh" helped lead his team a WCC overtime victory over Pepperdin...
S2 January 16, 2006 Martin Luther King didn't specifically mention basketball in his 1963 "I have a dream" speech, but its echoes were felt in the 1966 Texas Western national championship and later in the inclusion of HBCU's in the NCAA's Division I. Today, many of those historically black colleges and universities are...
S2 January 16, 2006 Brion Rush is the scoring machine you've never heard of. You know about Redick and Morrison (and if you read this site regularly, about Clark and Burtt and Neal), but this 6'2" senior guard from Shreveport is sixth in the nation in both points per game (24.1 ppg) and points per 40 min. (28.7 p40). G...
S2 January 14, 2006 Hot thunder in the Valley this afternoon. Here are two of the teams that have legitimate chances to capture two of the MoVal's presumed three bids, chances that have been enhanced by key injuries at Northern Iowa and Creighton.Blake Ahern (MVC-leading 18.8 ppg) is the floor leader of a Missouri Stat...
S2 January 14, 2006 What can you say about Gardner-Webb? So intriguing on paper, so enticing. They beat Minnesota, and almost beat UNC! But they've looked unfocused and wobbly in losing three straight league games at home, and are providing plenty of ammunition to the argument that pundits are dumb.But then again, what...
S2 January 13, 2006 Non-conference is officially over: the Ancient Eight are in the house! Tonight marks the annual Friday kickoff for Hoops Nation's brainiest, zaniest, no-postseason-tourney-iest league. Every game counts in the 14-Game Tournament®, and tonight's Palestra tip-off counts more than some other...
S2 January 13, 2006 Can't hold out much longer -- gotta give some BOTD love to the power forward on my ESPN.com mid-major all-star team from last month. The two-time rebounding champion had 23 points and 18 rebounds (his eleventh dub-dub of the season) as Louisiana Tech beat Hawaii at home. Millsap scored eight of the ...
S2 January 12, 2006 There are clapping dogs, rhythmic dogs, harmonic dogs, and America East dogs. Tonight at The Roof, the Terriers host the Great Danes in a battle of the most atomic dogs in the conference - like the boys when they're out there walkin' the streets, they may compete, but it's nothin' but the dog in the...
S2 January 12, 2006 If there are two things that never fail to satiate my entertainment jones, it's "Dueling Banjos" and dueling backcourts. The MAAC provides precious little of the former, but plenty of the latter. Last night, two of the highest-scoring players in the country went at it in Jersey City, Iona's Steve Bu...
S2 January 11, 2006 It takes a special breed of player to be mentioned in the G!O!T!N! preview, then go out and have a BOTD-worthy performance. The Fairfield Stags hit a team-record 16 three-pointers last night in a victory at Rider, two of which were directly made by the sweet and streaky Mr. Todd, and many were creat...
S2 January 10, 2006 After every Manic Monday is a Tragic Tuesday. Last season, I'd often conveniently forget to tab a G!O!T!N! on Tuesdays, and only one or two of the 25 regular readers cared. But now that The Mid-Majority is the number one site with D1 assistant coaches and sports information directors, godda do it da...
S2 January 10, 2006 Arkansas is a large battlefield - 52,068 square miles. So the Sun Belt's Trojan-Indian war for the Natural State is pretty big stuff, and has produced some memorable scrums in years past. Last night's Battle of Wounded Knee was no exception yet an exceptionally good one, as injury-depleted Arkansas ...
S2 January 9, 2006 Hey hoops nuts, it's Monday night in the SWAC! We have three teams with no league losses yet, and just behind at 2-1 is our league pick, the Jackson State Tigers. One of those undefeated teams is the Delta Devils of MVSU, who offer the most efficient offense in the Swickity (relatively... they score...
S2 January 9, 2006 It's not for me to say, but now that it's official that Nate Funk will redshirt and undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, chances are that other Creighton Jays will have to step up and play like a man-and-a-half. In Omaha yesterday, Johnny Mathies was wonderful! wonderful!, hitting shots (includin...
S2 January 8, 2006 Giving up 115 points to a Division III squad, and losing, pretty much ensures that you'll be a punchline for the remainder of your season -- quite possibly for the remainder of the decade. But two and a half weeks since R'Side lost to Puget Sound 115-111, they stunned the Pacific Tigers, embarrassin...
S2 January 8, 2006 A lot of ink's been spilled about the Valley in the past month or so: Indiana State's 8-0 start, Northern Iowa and Mo-State and Creighton and three four five bids and blabbity-blabbity. But what about the mid-pack squads that will provide the league its RPI strength and crouch in the shadows come Ar...
S2 January 7, 2006 Trap game! On Jan. 7, 2005, St. Mary's blitzed the Unnamed Major Program 89-81, and stole many of the RPI points they needed to sneak in as a tournament at-large. SMC would go on to lose in the WCC title game - their resumé is slightly worse this year, due to a four-game losing...
S2 January 7, 2006 Friday evening was a night of firsts for Division I newbie Kennesaw State: they notched their first-ever road win as a member of the NCAA's top flight, and their first-ever televised win as a D1. And that it came against -- and at -- Atlantic Sun favorite Gardner-Webb was pretty neat too. After a se...
S2 January 6, 2006 This is it - the New York mid-major explosion we've (and, hopefully, you've) been waiting for. The two class teams of the MAAC go at it tonight on ESPNU (never graduate, m-f's!), and won't meet again until the regular-season finale on Feb. 26, so this one will set the tone for the next two months.Th...
S2 January 6, 2006 You might have noticed that this space is only big enough for one person, so there's no way to appropriately honor all three Rainbow Warriors (Matt Lojeski, Julian Sensley, Matt Gipson) who came together to defeat Nevada in a pitched overtime thriller last night. Like three safeties trying to pull d...
S2 January 5, 2006 Most of you mid-major fans have heard about Montana by now - the Griz gave Washington a hafway-decent fight as a 16-seed last season, beat Stanford, and have compiled a 10-2 start on their way to establishing themselves as the team to beat (again) in the Big Sky. But what about Idaho State? They did...
S2 January 4, 2006 High school exchange program: meet kids from a distant land and learn to better appreciate another culture. MAC exchange program: meet teams from a distant division and beat the RPI out of each other. We've already gained some understanding about the Mid-American Conference's East-West divide with M...
S2 January 4, 2006 Memo to Big West teams who think that Pacific is nothing more than The Christian Maraker Show after the Tigers lost the other four starters from last year's team: nope, sorry. Meet Johnny Gray, a juco transfer from Moorpark College (Calif.), who spent a lot of time on the bench during his first year...
S2 January 3, 2006 We're keeping a close eye on ODU lately, because this is the stretch when they either prove themselves worthy of their hype or become an argument for the abolition of preseason magazines. Old Dominion's G!O!T!N! win last Friday night over the ACC's Virginia Tech is impressive until you start looking...
S2 January 3, 2006 You can start that "true parity in Division I basketball" conversation for real now - the Youngstown State Penguins won a road game a last night. It was their first since the 2003-04 season, a streak that had reached 25. That it ended at the expense of Loyola, which had started the season 9-2 and ha...
S2 January 2, 2006 Like a new day finally dawning, a sunburst of conference play breaks over Hoops Nation on January 2. We've got games in the SWAC, Valley, A-Sun, NEC and Mid-Con on tap. But we're going to focus our G!O!T!N! cameras on Boston tonight. The Colonial was a major disappointment in the 2005 portion of the...
S2 January 2, 2006 Even with the super-light holiday schedule on Monday, we were able to keep the G!O!T!N! machine running and rang in 2006 at the same time. On New Year's Afternoon in Cheney, Wash., San Diego dropped the ball on Eastern Washington, led by the strong inside play a Torero sophomore forward.A big reason...
S2 January 1, 2006 Happy New (Calendar) Year, Hoops Nation! There's a lot of hot conference action that will spread like wildfire all across the land in the days and weeks to come, but today we have a tepid holiday slate of four games. Only one is a matchup of mid-majors, and it gives us the opportunity to talk about ...
S2 January 1, 2006 Reaganomics may not have helped the little guy very much, but there's a trickle-down effect in college basketball that works pretty well. At Maryland, Andre Collins was picked up as a backup for Steve Blake and spent a lot of time buried on the bench, but at Loyola (Md.) he's a star, showing up on t...
S2 January 1, 2006 Game 116: at Delaware 79, Central Connecticut State 73 Thursday, December 30, 2005 Bob Carpenter Center - Newark, DE The difference between being a Real Actual Sports Journalist and a citizen journalist (or "blogger," if you prefer) goes far beyond the fact that coaches and sports information di...
S2 January 1, 2006 Game 115: Carnegie Mellon (D3) 51, at Princeton 46 Wednesday, December 29, 2005 Jadwin Gymnasium - Princeton, NJ This is, perhaps, the only surviving film footage of the Carnegie Mellon Tartans closing and celebrating their historic victory atPrinceton. Please enjoy this rare opportunity to watch...
S2 December 31, 2005 Buried 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 Ar...
S2 December 30, 2005 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. T...
S2 December 29, 2005 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 Sta...
S2 December 29, 2005 ...
S2 December 28, 2005 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 ...
S2 December 28, 2005 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...
S2 December 27, 2005 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 relative...
S2 December 27, 2005 Game 114: at Manhattan 81, Fordham 68 Friday, December 23, 2005 Draddy Gymnasium - Bronx, NY The 21st Century is amazing. Thanks to scientific advances and mass-production, all you need is a phone line, a computer and a microphone and you're on the radio. Or live on the internet, with RealAudio o...
S2 December 27, 2005 Game 113: at Central Connecticut State 72, Binghamton 68 Thursday, December 22, 2005 Detrick Gymnasium - New Britain, CT The voice is unmistakable - the rich and folksy tones brighten the corners of CCSU's home court with warm, gooey honey poured all over a chilly December night. Good evening, l...
S2 December 26, 2005 Game 112: Maryland-Eastern Shore 59, at Brown 57 Tuesday, December 20, 2005 Pizzitola Sports Center - Providence, RI It's the kind of portrait that haunts you before you even look at it. The subject seems so familiar, so eerily familiar. Unadorned and untitled, the portrait has a Dorian Gray effe...
S2 December 23, 2005 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...
S2 December 22, 2005 Game 111: at Boston College 80, Texas Southern 53 Sunday, December 18, 2005 Silvio O. Conte Forum - Chestnut Hill, MA When it comes down to it, there's only one difference between a mid-major squad and a team of power conference prima donnas - our boys end their seasons a few days or weeks before...
S2 December 22, 2005 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 h...
S2 December 22, 2005 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 ...
S2 December 21, 2005 Game 110: Ohio 71, at Rhode Island 63 Saturday, December 10, 2005 Ryan Center - Kingston, RI If you skiied through high school English with yellow Cliff's Notes strapped to your feet, or if you received the bulk of your literary education on the can from "Don't Know Much About Books" books, you p...
S2 December 21, 2005 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...
S2 December 20, 2005 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 ...
S2 December 20, 2005 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 Norther...
S2 December 20, 2005 More pictures from the road. Villanova-Bucknell: Sold Out We're on ESPN (360) Sojka Psychos Rejected ESPN blog title: "Retractable Backboards" Mulcahy Center, New Rochelle NY Rhody can't watch URI lose to Ohio The Silvio O. Conte Forum, Boston MA The BC trainer tends to Craig Smith...
S2 December 19, 2005 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 seas...
S2 December 19, 2005 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 ...
S2 December 18, 2005 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 so...
S2 December 17, 2005 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 t...
S2 December 17, 2005 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 t...
S2 December 17, 2005 Game 109: at Boston University 67, New Hampshire 46 Thursday, December 8, 2005 Case Gymnasium - Boston, MA On Thanksgiving Tuesday in 2005, the city of Boston made a collective decision to leave town early. The city's residents clogged the westbound MassPike with their automobiles, stringing up a...
S2 December 16, 2005 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,...
S2 December 16, 2005 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? D...
S2 December 16, 2005 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 co...
S2 December 15, 2005 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 SMS' No. 6 ranking in th...
S2 December 15, 2005 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...
S2 December 14, 2005 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...
S2 December 14, 2005 The Official Wife of the Mid-Majorityâ„¢, 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 h...
S2 December 13, 2005 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 t...
S2 December 13, 2005 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 c...
S2 December 12, 2005 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...
S2 December 12, 2005 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...
S2 December 12, 2005 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? This date - 12-12-2005 - marks a key development in the his...
S2 December 11, 2005 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 ...
S2 December 11, 2005 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 deserve...
S2 December 10, 2005 Game 107: Villanova 79, at Bucknell 60 Tuesday, December 6, 2005 Sojka Pavilion - Lewisburg, PA When you sling adjectives and metaphors about the Patriot League these days, especially to a national audience, you do so under a long and cold shadow. Someone's already been there and done that. So I...
S2 December 10, 2005 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 the...
S2 December 10, 2005 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 ...
S2 December 10, 2005 Game 108: at Iona 80, Rider 59 Wednesday, December 7, 2005 Mulcahy Center - New Rochelle, NY Most kids who sport the mohawk haircut don' t care what you think, if you crack Travis Bickle or Mr. T jokes, if you tell them that punk is dead. Their feelings are protected by pointy liberty spikes and ...
S2 December 9, 2005 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 foreca...
S2 December 9, 2005 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, durin...
S2 December 8, 2005 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 t...
S2 December 8, 2005 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-h...
S2 December 7, 2005 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 o...
S2 December 7, 2005 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 - ...
S2 December 6, 2005 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 Keyst...
S2 December 6, 2005 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 Ok...
S2 December 5, 2005 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 ...
S2 December 5, 2005 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 th...
S2 December 5, 2005 Some pictures from the first few weeks of the season. Harvard-Vermont handshake line (Game 101) Creepy close encounter with the Providence Friar (Game 102) Burlington, VT Catamount Country (Game 104) The Wolf Pack (Game 104) Bucknell's Sojka Pavilion (Game 105) Bison chair (Game 105) The Mi...
S2 December 5, 2005 Game 106: at Holy Cross 71, Fordham 63 (2OT) Sunday, December 4, 2005 Hart Center - Worcester, MA The first snowfall is like the first seasonal anything - the first skinned knee of the summer, the first sniffle of the autumn. There's a little bit of a shock, and then when it happens again you're ...
S2 December 4, 2005 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 Seahaw...
S2 December 4, 2005 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 baske...
S2 December 3, 2005 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 sti...
S2 December 3, 2005 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...
S2 December 2, 2005 To help mid-major teams fill out their schedules, Bally takes matters into his own hands. ...
S2 December 2, 2005 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 Kans...
S2 December 2, 2005 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...
S2 December 2, 2005 Game 105: at Bucknell 87, Yale 60 Saturday, November 26, 2005 Sojka Pavilion - Lewisburg, PA There's a white sign that greets you when you drive onto their campus, a lush green acreage dotted by vermillion-brick buildings. "Welcome to", "http://schools.basketballstate.com/BUCK >Bucknell" it s...
S2 December 1, 2005 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...
S2 December 1, 2005 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...
S2 November 30, 2005 This is 8 in a series of 10 early-season essays.Yeah, you, buster. You're as guilty as the next one. There's nobody around, it's okay to admit it - it's happened to you too. 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...
S2 November 30, 2005 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 bea...
S2 November 30, 2005 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 2...
S2 November 29, 2005 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 ...
S2 November 29, 2005 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 assi...
S2 November 28, 2005 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.Toni...
S2 November 28, 2005 Game 104: Nevada 77, at Vermont 62 Wednesday, November 23, 2005 Patrick Gymnasium - Burlington, VT Interstate 89 northbound is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about. There are plenty of "Next Exit 15 Miles" reminders, too many unsettlingly incomplete gas/food/lodging triads, and tr...
S2 November 28, 2005 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 w...
S2 November 26, 2005 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 wilde...
S2 November 26, 2005 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 ...
S2 November 25, 2005 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-Ea...
S2 November 25, 2005 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....
S2 November 24, 2005 Game 103: Michigan 51, at Boston University 46 Tuesday, November 22, 2005 Agganis Arena - Boston, MA (with full and absolute apologies to John Gasaway) Wednesday, November 23, 2005 Is There A Triaminic For Coughing Up the Ball? Michigan beat Boston University 51-46 last night at the gleaming...
S2 November 24, 2005 Game 102: at Providence 87, Vermont 77 Monday, November 21, 2005 Dunkin' Donuts Center - Providence, RI Here's an old joke for you. There are two types of people in this world, those who divide humanity into two types of people and those who don't. But in sports, there are actually three types of p...
S2 November 23, 2005 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 guar...
S2 November 23, 2005 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 tuss...
S2 November 22, 2005 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 thr...
S2 November 22, 2005 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...
S2 November 21, 2005 Game 101: at Harvard 65, Vermont 57 Saturday, November 19, 2005 Lavietes Pavilion - Cambridge, MA In one single second of eternity, our planet spins billions of times around its sun, water and earth crash into eachother for territorial control, civilizations rise and fall. Same could be said for on...
S2 November 21, 2005 "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 ou...
S2 November 21, 2005 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 ...
S2 November 20, 2005 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 ...
S2 November 20, 2005 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 79-5...
S2 November 19, 2005 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 confer...
S2 November 19, 2005 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 E...
S2 November 18, 2005 This is 7 in a series of 10 early-season essays.Karl Marx was a smart guy, he had some revolutionary ideas about class struggle and stuff. But even though the East German city named in his honor would field a dominant women's team named the Karl-Marx Stadt Chem Cats, the father of modern communism d...
S2 November 18, 2005 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'...
S2 November 18, 2005 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....
S2 November 17, 2005 This is 6 in a series of 10 early-season essays.There are 4,484 young men currently playing Division I college basketball for 334 schools. These players come of all shapes, sizes and ability levels. Some are thin, some are fat, some think they'll wear a draft-night hat. Some are far and some are nea...
S2 November 14, 2005 This is 5 in a series of 10 early-season essays.It was a dark and stormy night. The villain, sweater-vested and scowling, paced the floor. Boo! Hiss! the audience cried. But just then, the mood was leavened by a comic-relief appearance of the drunk clown, teetering and leering at girls half his age ...
S2 November 7, 2005 This is 4 in a series of 10 early-season essays.With five seconds remaining in overtime, the home team was down by a single point. A packed and sweltering arena roared. The wise old coach, a veteran of these tense situations, quickly drew up a play during the final timeout and sent his charges back ...
S2 November 4, 2005 This is 3 in a series of 10 early-season essays.In 1891, as James Naismith considered the equation of ball and hoop, a French physicist named Henri Poincaré was contemplating a similar issue involving roundish objects. Kepler's laws of planetary motion had only dealt with the orbit of one pla...
S2 November 3, 2005 This is 2 in a series of 10 early-season essays.I think we can all agree that progress is a good thing: forward is preferable to back, and up is a hell of a lot better than down. Progress is all about development, advancement, evolution. If you examine our history as a planet, you'll notice that a...
S2 November 1, 2005 This is 1 in a series of 10 early-season essays.The ball makes no secret of itself; to grasp full control requires both hands. The primary instrument of our game announces its presence loudly - to maneuver the ball across the playfield is to print it repeatedly against the wood court with typewriter...
S1 August 30, 2005 Disillusioned with mid-major life, Bally accepts a gig as the official mascot of the Big XVI Conference. ...
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