Dribblings 1/18/2005 (Top Ten Edition)

Southern: Georgia Southern 102, Chattanooga 84 (story | play-by-play) - Throw out the record book! The SoCon team record for three-point goals made in a game was set last night in Statesboro, Georgia, where the Eagles (8-7, 4-2 SoCon) nailed 22 to bring down the North division-leading Mocs. Diminutive (5'8") guard Elton Nesbitt made 11 of those and finished with 43 points (tied for best in Division I so far this year), and his backcourt-mate Terry Williams dropped eight on the way to 26. On any other night, Chattanooga's 84 points would probably have been enough to win and stay undefeated - they fall to 4-1, 11-3 overall.

Shootaround!

Atlantic Sun: Gardner-Webb moved back into a first place tie with Mercer by beating Georgia State on the road, 83-74 - the Runnin' Bulldogs From Boiling Springs hit 16 out of their first 20 shot attempts, and were able to stave off 9-0 and 8-0 GSU runs. Both A-Sun frontrunners are now 6-2.

Mid-Eastern: Most of the MEAC teams saw action on the King holiday. Coppin State (6-10, 6-1 MEAC) used the day to tighten their early grip on the conference - they rallied from 15 down on their home court to beat Bethune-Cookman 65-61. Looming behind are Hampton (6-9, 4-2 MEAC) - 80-54 winners over a messy Maryland-Eastern Shore squad - and the idle 4-1 Norfolk State Spartans.

Southwestern Athletic: Southern Wins Another Contest, a 69-65 decision over the Delta Devils of Mississippi Valley State. The Jaguars came back from an 11-point deficit to win and stay atop the SWAC at 5-1.

Southern: Elsewhere in the SoCon, last night's G!O!T!N! saw College Of Charleston beat down Furman 67-53. Somewhere, a Virginia Intermont alum is smiling.

Game! Of! The! Night!

Slim pickings with just 13 Division I games tonight, but we've got a doozy in the Mid-American Conference. Bowling Green (9-3, 4-1 MAC) tries to rebound from it's who's-your-daddy loss versus Western Michigan on Saturday. Tonight they're at David Letterman University, a/k/a Ball State (7-5, 2-2 MAC), who's had a year of fits and starts. It's "Squeeze The Falcons" night in Muncie, and the first 500 will receive a themed stress ball. But if you can't make it out for the 7:00 PM Eastern tip, you can find a free webcast here.

Contrary to popular belief, there's more to the Internet than this site and Hoop Time linking to eachother - Chris awards the beautiful crystalline lucite Hoop Time-Basketball U. Challenge Trophy to the Ivy League, which won this year's series with their fellow academic-firsters in the Patriot League. A Columbia win over Navy last night was the clincher.

It was the welding certificate that brought an entire program, and town, to its collective knees. John Wawrow files an Associated Press report from tiny Olean, N.Y., where St. Bonaventure basketball ain't what it used to be.

Next week, Street & Smith's will release a newsstand magazine entitled 100 Greatest College Basketball Programs of All-Time. While I don't plan to do anything rash like actually buy it, I'm curious as to see how much love the programs currently classified as mid-majors receive. An early clue: Tulsa is 58th.

Ken Pomeroy pays tribute to the late, legendary and lamented Channel 56. An old Drexel grad-student buddy of mine used to tell me stories about growing up in Reston, Virginia. He convinced his dad to install a bizarre Radio Shack tube antenna in his attic so he could pull in this magical UHF station from Fairfax that would show obscure college basketball games. Yes, Channel 56 was real.

Long-time readers know that every Monday we name a Mid-Majority Baller Of The Week. One of the immediate effects is that our web traffic reports show an influx of tens of visitors from fan message boards supporting the player's school. I mention this only because this week, the selection of Western Michigan's Levi Rost has revealed that at least three WMU fan forums are closed not only to posting, but to viewing as well. I'm wondering - is there a big troll problem in the MAC? I also mention this because one of them is called Dead Broncos Society, which is a lock for a slot in our TMM Top 10 Best Fan Message Board Names at the end of the season, along with the Wisconsin-Milwaukee UWMFreak forum at ProBoards.

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