Dribblings 1/19/2005 (Dirty South Edition)

Mid-American: Ball State 86, Bowling Green 62 (story) - BSU went into the break with 49 points and a 12-point lead, and magically doubled the margin despite shooting 30% in the second half. The Ball State Basketball Cardinals (8-5, 3-2 MAC) executed their first-half battle plan perfectly, driving and dishing the plodding Falcons into an orange-colored state of flummoxment. Their poor second-half shooting was candy-coated by a 16-2 game-closing coast - forty-minute efforts have been an issue with this crew, but they got away with it tonight against a fading Falcon squad. Early MAC West leaders BGSU (9-4, 4-2 MAC) may have peaked too early, and now the book's out on them. Six-three senior Dennis Trammell led all scorers with 22, and speedy three-slotter Skip Mills added 20.

Shootaround!

Missouri Valley: Lost in Sunday's Shootaround was an "incident" that took place in the late stages of Saturday's tight Southwest Missouri State-Southern Illinois thriller, a 61-60 Saluki win. After a dive for a loose ball, SMS guard Treyvor Fisher and SIU's Jamaal Turner exchanged brief pleasantries - because Fisher had gained possession and had called timeout, bench players were coming out into the non-sideline area and things got a tad nasty. Five players were ejected, and the Missouri Valley Conference declared yesterday that nobody will serve time. SMS (7-8, 1-6 MVC) was beaten again last night by defending Valley champs - and increasingly sexy chin-scratchers' pick - Northern Iowa (12-4, 4-2 MVC), and are off to their worst conference start in 15 years.

Atlantic Sun: No bearing on the conference race or anything, but let's go down south to the home state of the Drive-By Truckers and pay a visit to the Troy State Trojans. They want you to call them just "Troy," but I'm holding out on dropping the "State" until the official relaunch of Troy University this August. Now, TSU lost all its starters from a team that won 24 games and made the NIT last year. Last night, they beat Florida Atlantic 99-93. But the Men Of Troy are among the country's leaders in two key categories - three-pointers attempted (532 over 16 games), and points allowed (80.6 - only the MEAC's Maryland-Eastern Shore is worse at 83 even). Average it all out, and you get 100% pure mediocrity: a 5-11 record so far, 4-4 in the A-Sun.

So let that be a lesson to all you kids at home: the three-pointer is not going to solve all your problems. Work on your legs, because defense is very important. Just ask Troy State.

Games! Of! The! Night!

Ever since Old Dominion (15-2, 5-0 CAA) allowed a blowout romp dwindle to a one-point Houdini act at Drexel two weeks ago, they've been taking out their frustration on the lower reaches of the Colonial Athletic Association. Tonight may be their final meaningful test before everyone Jams On The James in March: a trip to Hempstead, NY to play the revitalized Hofstra Pride (10-4, 2-3 CAA). A Hofstra win would make everyone forget about a three-game losing streak which includes a seven-point loss to fellow CAA dark horse North Carolina-Wilmington. If ODU passes this, it's okay to start talking about an undefeated league season. 7:00 PM Eastern tip, webcast here.

But if you're a hoops hipster who wants to go a little more underground tonight, try a rematch at the top of the Southland Conference between Southeastern Louisiana at Lamar. The defense-first SELU Lions (10-6, 3-1 SLC) beat the offense-first Cardinals (10-4, 2-1 SLC) on their own terms back on January the 5th, in a 60-56 squeaker decided by free throws. Now they're playing at Lamar's house, and it's the Southland! Game! Of! The! Year! It starts at 8:00 PM Eastern, free webcast here. I guess you need WinAmp.

I met Hoop Time's Chris Courogen at 100GP Game 33 - I asked him afterwards if anyone had written the definitive statement on why Army is so bad. His piece today on the subject proves once again that you should leave such things to professionals, and not to basketball drifters with bits of Subway sandwich all over their shirts.

"The question is, though, if you fire [Army coach Jim] Crews, where do you turn? At some point, you run out of Knight-Krzyzewski disciples who will be willing to take a dead-end job."

A nice feature on John Tofi and Giovanni St. Amant, the inside-outside tandem belonging to the WAC's increasingly adorable Texas-El Paso Miners. It's easy to forget that this is a team that won only six games in 2002-03, and these two have seen it all. (via the mighty CBB)

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