SEASON 1
Recent Game Recaps
Epilogue, The Ninth: Only Love Can Break Your Heart
Memories
So We Meet Again
Rte. 139 - End of the Line
Hanging On
A Championship in Pictures
This Time of Year
Dotson Leads Ducks to the Sweet Sixteen
Grizzlies Overwhelmed by Orangemen
Empire
Challenge 11: Final Four Memories
By George, UConn is DeadButler and Us
Donning the Black and Gold
Challenge 10: Tourney Memories
The Madness of the Horizon LeagueThe Rare Ivy League Conference Tournament
MAC Madness
Anything Can Happen in the MAAC
Challenge 9: Shock The Neighborhood
A Youthful SurpriseFrom Worst to First
Peers and Seers
January 23, 2005 7:47 am ET by Kyle Whelliston |
Missouri Valley: Wichita State 58, Southern Illinois 56 (story) - The Shockers had the boards (42-32) and the defense (held SIU to 32% shooting in the second half), but the Salukis had enough streaks and runs to keep it close. WSU's Illinois transfer forward (and possible "evil twin" of your humble narrator) Kyle Wilson scored down low with a half-minute remaining; as time ticked away, Southern could not piece together a successful overtime-forcing possession. SIU lost its fourth MVC regular-season game in the last three seasons, and both teams are now 6-1 in the toughest mid-major league in all the land.
Mid-American: Ball State 66, Western Michigan 65 (story) - The Broncos' (13-4, 6-1 MAC) 25-game home winning streak, second longest in the nation, is now history. The Ball State (9-5, 4-2 MAC) players claimed afterwards they didn't know the streak existed - that may be a white lie, but they played blissfully ignorant defense all game. Reigning MMBOW Levi Rost was scoreless for the second half after tallying 14 in the first, and co-leader Ben Reed was held without a point for the entire game. In a rarity for such a tight contest, neither team scored in the final three minutes.
Western Athletic: Nevada 62, Rice 59 (story) - Trent Johnson may be coaching at Stanford and Kirk Snyder may be in the NBA, but Sweet 16'ers Nevada (13-4, 7-1 WAC) have shown us critics a thing or two about rebounding from the loss of a coach and top player. The Wolf Pack's only loss in eight WAC games has been that nailbiter last week against Texas-El Paso, and they sit a half-game ahead of the Miners after a stirring road win at Rice. Former MMBOW Michael Harris could not bail out the Owls with his 19 points and 12 rebounds, and senior guard Jason McKrieth missed a trey that would have taken the game to an extra frame.
Shootaround!
Missouri Valley: Besides the Shocker-Saluki classic, there were a number of other good games in the Valley yesterday. Bradley (11-5, 4-4 MVC) didn't score in the last three minutes either, but they held on to beat Northern Iowa 71-65; freshman center Patrick O'Bryant dub-dubbed with 20 and 12. And let's not lose sight of upstart Illinois State (12-5, 5-3 MVC) in this Valley race - the boys from Normal won their third straight by taking down Creighton in Omaha. The Redbirds got 30 points from 6'2" Trey Guidry and won in overtime, 82-77.
West Coast: St. Mary's (16-5, 4-1 WCC) holds on to their slim league lead with a dominating 83-66 win at Loyola Marymount behind All-Mid-Majority forward Daniel Kickert's 28. The San Francisco Dons won their third straight and are 10-0 at home, gaining a tight 74-70 overtime victory over Portland.
America East: The Vermont Catamounts (13-3, 8-0 AE) beat Albany 62-45, reminding the upsurging Great Danes that the felines still rule the Cats & Dogs Conference. Rock star Taylor Coppenrath had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and UVM held UAlbany scoreless for a 10-minute stretch.
Atlantic Sun: Gardner-Webb (11-6, 8-2 ASun) thrashed Jacksonville 81-53; big Brian Bender had 33 points and keyed a gamebreaking 17-0 run. It's worth noting that JU's leading scorer in this game, Haminn Quaintance (11 points), only sports the letter "Q" on the back of his uniform. The spirit of the ABA lives on!
Big Sky: Montana State (10-7, 5-0 BSky) stays perfect, beating Northern Arizona at home 88-68. Portland State (12-6, 4-2 BSky) is slipping a bit, losing their last two - yesterday, they allowed Idaho State their first league win. The Bengals rode a 10-1 game-closing run to win 72-69.
Big South: Winthrop (13-5, 5-1 BSC) won its fifth straight after a league-opening loss at Coastal Carolina by avenging the decision 80-66 in the home-and-home's back end: they broke their first-place tie with Charleston Southern, who lost to Birmingham Southern. There's a pair of other 4-2 teams in second; the Eagles maintain a one-game lead in the conference over High Point and Liberty.
Big West: Pacific (14-2, 9-0 BWC) is streaking towards the one-seed, and won at California-Santa Barbara, 58-43. And how about provisional D1 California-Davis? They're playing nearly full-slates of Big West games leading up to their full membership in 2007 - with their 78-74 overtime win against Long Beach State, they're 3-3 against the conference. That would be good enough for a six-seed at this point.
Colonial: North Carolina-Wilmington (10-6, 5-2 CAA), the 2003 champions, were building a nice little record until they ran into league leaders Old Dominion (17-2, 7-0 CAA); 70-56 was the final tally there. Last year's Dancers, Virginia Commonwealth, are also two games back at 5-2 - the Rams won an overtime thriller at William & Mary thanks to the A-Team heroics of B.A. Walker. He hit the game-tying trey to force OT, as well as the two winning free throws.
Horizon: Wisconsin-Milwaukee continues to get freaky; they're 8-1 after their seventh straight win, a 61-48 beatdown of Detroit. But the Horizon League game of the day happened at the murky depths of the conference: Cleveland State won at Youngstown State 78-77 in a down-to-the-wire shootout that saw both teams shoot 54%. Freshman Steve Gansey - the pride of Westerville, Ohio - hit a three-pointer to win it.
Metro Atlantic: In a taut thriller of a rematch between league heavyweights Manhattan and Niagara, the Purple Eagles (11-6, 6-3 MAAC) gained a modicum of revenge for last week's loss (and for the last two years' worth of MAAC tourney heartbreakers, as well) by winning 75-73 in overtime. Point guard Alvin Cruz laid it up and in with less than a second remaining in the extra session, and the Jaspers' seven-game death grip on Niagara was pried open. Marist continues to lead the conference at 7-1, bopping Loyola (Md.) 71-53 as the snow swirled outside their McGann Center.
Mid-American: After dropping a pair, Bowling Green righted itself with a 70-69 home win over Toledo - after erasing a 17-point halftime deficit to win on small forward Germain Fitch's late layup, they're now a single game back of WMU in the MAC West. A trio of Eastern teams are organizing an upper-division parity party - Miami (Oh.), Kent State and Akron have all won five, including yesterday's victories over sub-.500 squads.
Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts (5-1, 13-4 Mid-Con) stayed a game behind idle Missouri-Kansas City by winning at Chicago State 79-76. The Golden Eagles' wonder twin powers, Caleb Green and Ken Tutt, scored 23 points each, and even the ORU faithful are conceding that they got some help from the zebras in this one.
Ohio Valley: Tennessee Tech has won all six of their Valley games, their latest being an 81-68 thrashing at lowly Eastern Illinois. Next up for the Golden Eagles is a team that ran the table in the OVC last year, Austin Peay. Murray State and Samford are a game behind at 5-1; both won yesterday.
Southern: Davidson doesn't have a flashy guard-powered offense like the SoCon teams of recent vintage - they have serious athletic skill at all positions, and they keep winning ballgames. They went into Greenville, SC yesterday and beat Furman, 68-61 - Junior forward Brendan Winters and Richmond transfer guard Jason Morton both scored 17, and they held leading Paladin Eric Webb to zero points. And that gold and blue blip on the radar is North Carolina-Greensboro, who's taken a couple years off but has raced out to a 5-1 record in the SoCon North. The Spartans beat The Citadel 78-68, and has matched last year's win total with 11.
Southland: First-place Northwestern State (11-9, 5-1 SLC) took their first Southland loss of the year, falling at league champion Texas-San Antonio 86-78. UTSA shot 64% in the second half, and moves into a second-place tie at 4-1 with Southeastern Louisiana. Both teams are a half-game back of the leadin' Demons.
Southwestern Athletic: In the conference with the acronym most likely to show up on the TV screen when Batman punches a bad guy, there was an exciting tussle at the top of the table. SWAC second-place Alabama State improved to 4-2, taking down Southern at home 52-51. The ASU Hornets came back from eight down to tie it at 49, and senior forward Kevin Spicer tipped it in for the win.
Sun Belt: A battle of division leaders saw the wild West's Denver beat the mild East's Arkansas-Little Rock by a 68-58 margin. The Pioneers were down low so much that the paint peeled - big Yemi Nicholson had 20 points, and slashing four-slotter Antonio Porch rang up 23 points and 10 boards. Elsewhere: Lou Henson, legendary coach of New Mexico State, retired yesterday due to his failing health. His distracted Aggies have stumbled to a 4-13 record this year.
Western Athletic: Texas-El Paso (14-3, 6-1 WAC) had a little more trouble with 4-11 San Jose State than expected; their string of close games continued with a 69-65 win at their Don Haskins Center. Guard Jason Williams (how many of them are there, anyway?) had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Miners.
The MEAC tournament may be moving from Richmond to Raleigh, as it seems the Research Triangle really, really wants it. If this happens, I will hold the green and yellow rubber floor of the Arthur Ashe Center in my heart forever.
A blizzard hit the Northeast last night. In its wake were three mid-major game postponements in New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland, a cancelled 100 Games Project road trip into the Nutmeg State, and lots of TV shenanigans. ESPN was guaranteed a packed house for some boring power-conference matchup, but College Sports TV pulled the plug on its coverage of today's Army- Navy game. Like the late and lamented Mister Dangerfield liked to say, no respect.
Corky Blake of the Express Times examines Lafayette's struggles to compete in the newly scholarship-rich Patriot League, an issue we touched on back at Game 31. Interesting sidebar on this story: John Feinstein, the patron saint of the PL, is working on a children's book. The story is about two teenagers who go to the Final Four and plot to fix the championship game, and there will be subtle digs at NCAA policies therein. Sidebar to the sidebar: Feinstein has put out so many books recently, I'm beginning to wonder if he wants his own wing at Borders. John, if you're reading this, I provide ghostwriting services. Call me.
Mid-American: Ball State 66, Western Michigan 65 (story) - The Broncos' (13-4, 6-1 MAC) 25-game home winning streak, second longest in the nation, is now history. The Ball State (9-5, 4-2 MAC) players claimed afterwards they didn't know the streak existed - that may be a white lie, but they played blissfully ignorant defense all game. Reigning MMBOW Levi Rost was scoreless for the second half after tallying 14 in the first, and co-leader Ben Reed was held without a point for the entire game. In a rarity for such a tight contest, neither team scored in the final three minutes.
Western Athletic: Nevada 62, Rice 59 (story) - Trent Johnson may be coaching at Stanford and Kirk Snyder may be in the NBA, but Sweet 16'ers Nevada (13-4, 7-1 WAC) have shown us critics a thing or two about rebounding from the loss of a coach and top player. The Wolf Pack's only loss in eight WAC games has been that nailbiter last week against Texas-El Paso, and they sit a half-game ahead of the Miners after a stirring road win at Rice. Former MMBOW Michael Harris could not bail out the Owls with his 19 points and 12 rebounds, and senior guard Jason McKrieth missed a trey that would have taken the game to an extra frame.
Shootaround!
Missouri Valley: Besides the Shocker-Saluki classic, there were a number of other good games in the Valley yesterday. Bradley (11-5, 4-4 MVC) didn't score in the last three minutes either, but they held on to beat Northern Iowa 71-65; freshman center Patrick O'Bryant dub-dubbed with 20 and 12. And let's not lose sight of upstart Illinois State (12-5, 5-3 MVC) in this Valley race - the boys from Normal won their third straight by taking down Creighton in Omaha. The Redbirds got 30 points from 6'2" Trey Guidry and won in overtime, 82-77.
West Coast: St. Mary's (16-5, 4-1 WCC) holds on to their slim league lead with a dominating 83-66 win at Loyola Marymount behind All-Mid-Majority forward Daniel Kickert's 28. The San Francisco Dons won their third straight and are 10-0 at home, gaining a tight 74-70 overtime victory over Portland.
America East: The Vermont Catamounts (13-3, 8-0 AE) beat Albany 62-45, reminding the upsurging Great Danes that the felines still rule the Cats & Dogs Conference. Rock star Taylor Coppenrath had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and UVM held UAlbany scoreless for a 10-minute stretch.
Atlantic Sun: Gardner-Webb (11-6, 8-2 ASun) thrashed Jacksonville 81-53; big Brian Bender had 33 points and keyed a gamebreaking 17-0 run. It's worth noting that JU's leading scorer in this game, Haminn Quaintance (11 points), only sports the letter "Q" on the back of his uniform. The spirit of the ABA lives on!
Big Sky: Montana State (10-7, 5-0 BSky) stays perfect, beating Northern Arizona at home 88-68. Portland State (12-6, 4-2 BSky) is slipping a bit, losing their last two - yesterday, they allowed Idaho State their first league win. The Bengals rode a 10-1 game-closing run to win 72-69.
Big South: Winthrop (13-5, 5-1 BSC) won its fifth straight after a league-opening loss at Coastal Carolina by avenging the decision 80-66 in the home-and-home's back end: they broke their first-place tie with Charleston Southern, who lost to Birmingham Southern. There's a pair of other 4-2 teams in second; the Eagles maintain a one-game lead in the conference over High Point and Liberty.
Big West: Pacific (14-2, 9-0 BWC) is streaking towards the one-seed, and won at California-Santa Barbara, 58-43. And how about provisional D1 California-Davis? They're playing nearly full-slates of Big West games leading up to their full membership in 2007 - with their 78-74 overtime win against Long Beach State, they're 3-3 against the conference. That would be good enough for a six-seed at this point.
Colonial: North Carolina-Wilmington (10-6, 5-2 CAA), the 2003 champions, were building a nice little record until they ran into league leaders Old Dominion (17-2, 7-0 CAA); 70-56 was the final tally there. Last year's Dancers, Virginia Commonwealth, are also two games back at 5-2 - the Rams won an overtime thriller at William & Mary thanks to the A-Team heroics of B.A. Walker. He hit the game-tying trey to force OT, as well as the two winning free throws.
Horizon: Wisconsin-Milwaukee continues to get freaky; they're 8-1 after their seventh straight win, a 61-48 beatdown of Detroit. But the Horizon League game of the day happened at the murky depths of the conference: Cleveland State won at Youngstown State 78-77 in a down-to-the-wire shootout that saw both teams shoot 54%. Freshman Steve Gansey - the pride of Westerville, Ohio - hit a three-pointer to win it.
Metro Atlantic: In a taut thriller of a rematch between league heavyweights Manhattan and Niagara, the Purple Eagles (11-6, 6-3 MAAC) gained a modicum of revenge for last week's loss (and for the last two years' worth of MAAC tourney heartbreakers, as well) by winning 75-73 in overtime. Point guard Alvin Cruz laid it up and in with less than a second remaining in the extra session, and the Jaspers' seven-game death grip on Niagara was pried open. Marist continues to lead the conference at 7-1, bopping Loyola (Md.) 71-53 as the snow swirled outside their McGann Center.
Mid-American: After dropping a pair, Bowling Green righted itself with a 70-69 home win over Toledo - after erasing a 17-point halftime deficit to win on small forward Germain Fitch's late layup, they're now a single game back of WMU in the MAC West. A trio of Eastern teams are organizing an upper-division parity party - Miami (Oh.), Kent State and Akron have all won five, including yesterday's victories over sub-.500 squads.
Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts (5-1, 13-4 Mid-Con) stayed a game behind idle Missouri-Kansas City by winning at Chicago State 79-76. The Golden Eagles' wonder twin powers, Caleb Green and Ken Tutt, scored 23 points each, and even the ORU faithful are conceding that they got some help from the zebras in this one.
Ohio Valley: Tennessee Tech has won all six of their Valley games, their latest being an 81-68 thrashing at lowly Eastern Illinois. Next up for the Golden Eagles is a team that ran the table in the OVC last year, Austin Peay. Murray State and Samford are a game behind at 5-1; both won yesterday.
Southern: Davidson doesn't have a flashy guard-powered offense like the SoCon teams of recent vintage - they have serious athletic skill at all positions, and they keep winning ballgames. They went into Greenville, SC yesterday and beat Furman, 68-61 - Junior forward Brendan Winters and Richmond transfer guard Jason Morton both scored 17, and they held leading Paladin Eric Webb to zero points. And that gold and blue blip on the radar is North Carolina-Greensboro, who's taken a couple years off but has raced out to a 5-1 record in the SoCon North. The Spartans beat The Citadel 78-68, and has matched last year's win total with 11.
Southland: First-place Northwestern State (11-9, 5-1 SLC) took their first Southland loss of the year, falling at league champion Texas-San Antonio 86-78. UTSA shot 64% in the second half, and moves into a second-place tie at 4-1 with Southeastern Louisiana. Both teams are a half-game back of the leadin' Demons.
Southwestern Athletic: In the conference with the acronym most likely to show up on the TV screen when Batman punches a bad guy, there was an exciting tussle at the top of the table. SWAC second-place Alabama State improved to 4-2, taking down Southern at home 52-51. The ASU Hornets came back from eight down to tie it at 49, and senior forward Kevin Spicer tipped it in for the win.
Sun Belt: A battle of division leaders saw the wild West's Denver beat the mild East's Arkansas-Little Rock by a 68-58 margin. The Pioneers were down low so much that the paint peeled - big Yemi Nicholson had 20 points, and slashing four-slotter Antonio Porch rang up 23 points and 10 boards. Elsewhere: Lou Henson, legendary coach of New Mexico State, retired yesterday due to his failing health. His distracted Aggies have stumbled to a 4-13 record this year.
Western Athletic: Texas-El Paso (14-3, 6-1 WAC) had a little more trouble with 4-11 San Jose State than expected; their string of close games continued with a 69-65 win at their Don Haskins Center. Guard Jason Williams (how many of them are there, anyway?) had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Miners.
The MEAC tournament may be moving from Richmond to Raleigh, as it seems the Research Triangle really, really wants it. If this happens, I will hold the green and yellow rubber floor of the Arthur Ashe Center in my heart forever.
A blizzard hit the Northeast last night. In its wake were three mid-major game postponements in New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland, a cancelled 100 Games Project road trip into the Nutmeg State, and lots of TV shenanigans. ESPN was guaranteed a packed house for some boring power-conference matchup, but College Sports TV pulled the plug on its coverage of today's Army- Navy game. Like the late and lamented Mister Dangerfield liked to say, no respect.
Corky Blake of the Express Times examines Lafayette's struggles to compete in the newly scholarship-rich Patriot League, an issue we touched on back at Game 31. Interesting sidebar on this story: John Feinstein, the patron saint of the PL, is working on a children's book. The story is about two teenagers who go to the Final Four and plot to fix the championship game, and there will be subtle digs at NCAA policies therein. Sidebar to the sidebar: Feinstein has put out so many books recently, I'm beginning to wonder if he wants his own wing at Borders. John, if you're reading this, I provide ghostwriting services. Call me.
Resources
Bally Club Signup/ActivateBally Club Message Board
Basketball State
Women's Basketball State
TMM9 Summer Camp
Mid-Merchandise Shoppe
Mid-Major Radio
Contact TMM via The Form™
The Game
| Pts | |||||
 | | Hickory Picket Fences | 27629 | ||
| |||||
| | The Hopping Cats | 21526 | ||
| |||||
| | Ballyfest Destiny | 18919 | ||
| |||||
| | Under a Blood Red Line | 10379 | ||
| |||||
| | Jen Folds Five | 6895 | ||
| |||||
| | Prestige Worldwide | 1614 | ||
| |||||
Red Line Upsets
2012-13 Upsets 158/933 (16.9%)
2011-12 Upsets 153/988 (15.5%)
2010-11 Upsets 164/954 (17.2%)
Black Line Upsets (and the Stendhal)
Social Media
TMM Meta
800 Games Project (Season 8)100 Games Project (Season 1)
The Epilogues
Chats
Kyle's Travel Maps (Seasons 1-7)
Cartoons (Season 2-6)
Glossary (Season 7)
Historical Design Gallery
Colophon
© 2004-13 The Mid-Majority Basketball Concern Ltd. and ComputerPants Robotics. Your host and commissioner is Kyle Whelliston.
All rights reserved. All times Eastern. Made in Chicago, Illinois, USA.