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SEASON 7

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 Dead

Butler and Us

Donning the Black and Gold

Challenge 10: Tourney Memories

The Madness of the Horizon League

The Rare Ivy League Conference Tournament

MAC Madness

Anything Can Happen in the MAAC

Challenge 9: Shock The Neighborhood

A Youthful Surprise

From Worst to First

Peers and Seers

Stardate 23-20101130: Le Rouge et le Noir
November 30, 2010 9:00 am ET by Kyle Whelliston
Double Yellow Line Upset! Both for its "do not pass" implications as well as its road imagery, I nominate Double Yellow Line Upset for the Chaminade-Michigan State style wins.
- Charles C.
Maybe the "Punch Line Upset," as that's what the vicitimized Red Line school will be for about 36 hours in the sportz-yelling world, until some professional sportsman unzips his pants somewhere in an untimely and inappropriate fashion. Of course, if you want to play on the red-and-black theme, it could just be known as "The Stendhal" in honor of the author of the 19th-century French novel, "Le Rouge et Le Noir." Because if there's a college basketball site that appreciates 19th-century French literature, it's probably this one.
- Pat L.
@TypoDC: @midmajority I rather liked the "SUPER black line upset" you used for Indy over Tenn earlier, personally.
- @TypoDC (via Twitter)
I always thought the last dubl-line upset was Chaminade over Virginia? I'm too lazy to do the research either way, but the name should be 'BROWN-LINE-UPSET', as in what streams from the AD's pants when asked politely by boosters to account for it.
- Paul H.
SCRANTON, Pa. -- Last week, as we do for any undefined gray areas in the TMM charters and codes, we asked you for your ideas on what we should call an upset by a team not in Division I over a team from the Big Seven conferences. These pass both the "black line" that separates the teams eligible for our National Championship from the lower divisions and non-NCAA collectives, as well as the financial "Red Line" that we speak of so often. There were many entries, both through The Form™ and via Twitter, and we have narrowed them down. However, the final decision is in your hands. Please choose wisely, please choose once, and the poll will close on December 2. Winning entry gets a free book (choice of four) with an inky scribble on the first page.


Personally, if I have any influence over this, I hope you vote for Pat's second entry. I have a feeling that this whole Mid-Majority thing is eventually going to end with my head on a table.

Red Line Upsets


It kind of feels weird not to have any. But with 31 games on the schedule, there weren't that many opportunities. In the big picture, the annual pattern goes like this: only a few at the beginning, then a whole bunch around Thanksgiving, then sputters and spatters for the rest of the calendar year, like a bathroom faucet after you haven't been home for a few months. In the end, the Other 25 will take about 15 percent of their games against the Big Seven. And that will have to do. In the meantime...

That Just Happened


In the world of Mid-South hyphenates, South Carolina-Upstate defeated North Carolina-Asheville in two overtimes. UNCA, you may remember, had an RLU on the season's first full night, slipping by Auburn in OT and making this guy really happy about sports. For reasons that say more about Auburn than them, the Bulldogs (2-4) haven't won a game against a D-I opponent since. J.P. Primm, the jumping guy and a 6-1 junior, made 12 of his 14 foul shots and finished with a career-high 26, but Upstate's Carter Cook hit two free throws with seven ticks left in the 50th minute to give the A-Sun team (1-6) a first win of the season.

In a cross-city game in Nashville, Belmont (A-Sun) took out Tennessee State (OVC) by 15 points on TSU's campus. One Beautiful Season readers (who know the the book makes an excellent holiday gift) may remember last year's game in this series from the chapter about the Battle of the Boulevard. Here in 2010-11, the Bruins are starting to look like real contenders to make that Battle NCAA-meaningful again. They're 4-1 and have won their games by an average of 18 points. It's been a full D-I schedule, and the victims have included Arkansas State (on the road) and Winthrop (which RLU'd Wake Forest). Rick Byrd's team also lost to Tennessee by nine, which considering the disparity in resources is a just nine.

VMI beat Central Pennsylvania College. The Knights are members of the USCAA, which is perhaps the most obscure college sports organization in America (also covered in the book!). VMI also happened to score 151 points, took a 40-12 early lead, shot 57 percent, and managed 1.34 points per possession. Only nine teams have cracked the 150 point barrier in regulation over the last 15 years, and there were 117 possessions in the game, so we thought it was worth bringing up.

And Cleveland State is 8-0 after defeating Robert Morris by five in yesterday's...

Game! Of! The! Night!


Texas-Arlington at North Texas
Super Pit - Denton, TX
8:00 EST
North Texas is one of those programs that doesn't get quite the credit it deserves. That the Mean Green have two NCAA appearances and four straight seasons of 20 wins or more, but it's as if you need to say that every time you mention UNT. Part of that is because they play in the spread-out Sun Belt, where information is naturally dissipated, and that the MG's were so god-awful in the Southland and Big West and in the first few years of their SBC come-up. (This was a 3-25 team a decade ago.) But Johnny Jones has done a super job in the Super Pit, even though the team doesn't really hit the #superhoop or defend it well. Doesn't matter: at 4-1 with an RLU over Texas Tech, it's a team built on size and speed and seniors. There are four double-figure scorers, paced by 6-foot-5 senior Tristan Thompson (19.8 ppg).

UTA is retooling. Boston College transfer Marquez Haynes, who tied for third in national scoring with 22.6 ppg last year, is gone. But the Mavericks are 5-1 to start the season, mostly because they scheduled their four maximum allowable non-Division I opponents and have now played them all. The only top flight competition: Oregon State (loss) and transitional Houston Baptist (win). So they'll enjoy that record for a moment before embarking on a six-game road swing that will take them to January. If Scott Cross' team does anything this season in the Southland, it will be because of 6-foot-5 swing LaMarcus Reed, who's doubled his production from his sophomore year from 8.1 ppg to 16.3, and has started grabbing a few rebounds too, against the weaker schedule.
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