Dribblings 12/22/2004 (Rock and/or Roll Edition)

Alabama State 61, Troy State 48 (story) - Troy is starting from scratch after losing all the starters from their 24-win NIT team of a year ago, and now they're oh and eight. SWAC'ers-on-the-rise Alabama State were the latest to take advantage of the A-Sun club's rebuilding project, beating the Trojans at home. After a tight first half, Troy went on a 10-2 run - but the Hornets surged late with a 20-7 burst, overtaking the Trojans with five to go and then pulling away for the 13-point win. Senior forward Kevin Spicer had 16 points for ASU.

Southern: The Citadel 65, Western Carolina 60 (story) - When you win six games in a season, you might want to think about ramping down your early-season schedule a bit. That's what The Citadel did after 2003-04, exchanging their South Carolinas and Central Floridas for a raft full of Division II patsies. They headed into SoCon league play last night after compiling one of the least impressive 6-2 records in the nation, and upset a Western Carolina team that had beaten C-USA East Carolina a week before. The Catamounts led throughout, but WCU went into a six-minute stretch without a field goal to kill any hope of a sustained rally. Warren McLendon, a Charles Barkley-esque freshman, had 18 points and 16 rebounds for The Citadel, and his older yet shorter brother Donny added 15 points.

Wisconsin-Parkside 79, IIlinois-Chicago 73 (story) - Nine months ago, they were a proud Tournament 13-seed. A month ago, they were pushing Georgia Tech to the buzzer and hanging with Duke for a half. Last night they were getting three-pointed to death at home by Southeastern Wisconsin's (Division II) University of Opportunity. Astonishingly, the Flames' downward pattern matches the trajectory of pop songstress Michelle Branch's career - you may recall that she once topped the charts with the first-ever 1 love song addressed to a Horizon League university: "When I close my eyes, it's UIC."

Brad Rock of The Deseret News says that he's going to stick with Utah State in these "golden years," and that nothing's gonna touch them. However, Pacific still might do so before the Aggies bolt the Big West for the WAC next year.

They call Alabama the Crimson Tide, but Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will do everything in their power to avoid being called "Deacon Blues" this evening. Will the Islander love train come to an abrupt and screeching halt against nationally-regarded 9-1 SEC powerhouse Alabama tonight? Or is it just a quick fuel stop?

Jennifer Wielgus from the Bucks County Courier Times says that the Princeton-Temple matchup on Monday was good for a lot more than quadrupling The Mid-Majority's traffic with a goofy game recap. It was good for college basketball as a whole. But don't expect a rematch anytime soon, says the perpetually owly John Chaney. "Who wrote the old comic strip, the Katzenjammer Kids? You remember? People in cars, people in buses, 50 people on one page. You don't know what the hell they're doing. That's what this team is like." Congratulations, John! You've just really dated yourself!

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