The Daily Paragraph 1/4/2007 (Return Of Tha Krazy Edition)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Just a reminder: make sure you get in on the action as The Mid-Majority expands its feature list in 2007 in return for warm, soft cash. We're halfway to unlocking mobile boxscores, a quarter of the way towards the team mileage maps, and we've also a chunk into the Tournament Genie! Act now, or act disinterested!

And this is the final day to vote in the Basketpoll that will send me to either Lipscomb or Belmont on Jan. 9 when I visit Nashville. I'm beginning to suspect that Bisons fans are very organized.

(UPDATE 1:01 PM: The vast Bisons conspiracy goes much deeper than previously thought!)

Conference Shootaround!

Colonial: Even before George Mason went to the Final Four, they owned William & Mary; the Patriots had won eight straight against the Tribe dating back to 2002, and are 13-2 in the Green and Gold-off since the turn of the century. But last night, CWM nipped GMU in the hallowed Patriot Center, 67-63, dropping Mason Nation to 6-6 and 0-2 in the league. Yikes. Meanwhile, Drexel won its eighth straight in an afternoon 61-55'er at Georgia State. And then there was Hofstra, who needed double-ohtee to beat North Carolina-Wilmington but won by 11. I love those games where one team just gets gassed in overtime.

So Drexel, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth (winners of its own dub-OT game vs. Towson last night) and Hofstra are all 2-0, and those four just happen to be the four CAA representatives in the RPI's top 100.

Other interesting nuggets: heavy favorite Marist was knocked off 77-69 at Loyola (Md.) the other day, and Siena is alone at the top with a 3-0 mark... In the MEAC, Delaware State opened the league slate with a 59-53 win over South Carolina State... Samford is the only OVC undefeated left at 4-0, after beating Tennessee Tech, the presumptive challenger to the Bulldogs -- 68-65 was the score there. Western Kentucky (4-1 SBC) came from nine back to beat Troy at home, 82-78 (OT), in Sun Belt action (I was there!). Still, though, ex-Southlanders Louisiana-Monroe share the league's best record at 3-0 with New Orleans... and after a 75-74 thriller at East Tennessee State on Tuesday, aforementioned Basketpoll laggard Belmont is 3-0 atop the Atlantic Sun.

K-Dub's Krazy Fact of the Day

It's obvious from the viewer mail that the KFotD is what people miss the most from my highly-edited ESPN "blog" from last year. So it's back. Keep in mind that, like last season, the Krazy Fact is neither truly krazy or even really daily. If you're fine with that, let's let the tradition live. Together.

We all love to watch a great shooting performance (like, say, Alex Opacic of Furman and his 8-of-8 to help knock off Chattanooga). But even more intriguing is the really bad shooting performance, where some guy goes out there cold and just gets colder trying to heat up. At some point, you wonder why the coach has him out on the floor at all. It's like the 20-loss pitcher in baseball... how do keep getting chances after the 14th or 15th one?

Unfortunately, a couple of the worst shooting nights in 2006-07 have happened in the Valley. Clocking in at 0-for-11 each are Keith Richardson of the Illinois State Redbirds in a http://bbstate.com/games/63666>69-41 loss against Evansville on Dec. 9, and Jason Holsinger of those Purple Aces caught the same type of iron fever against Missouri http://bbstate.com/games/61415>six days later. At least Richardson got a pair of points at the line and Holsinger got one freebie; poor http://players.basketballstate.com/53736>Allan Sheppard of the NEC's Saint Francis (NY) had a goose egg to show for his 0-for-11 against Syracuse http://bbstate.com/games/65745>way back on Nov. 10.

But we can look to the power conferences for the absolute worst shooting performance so far of the 23,441 logged this season. Aaron Bruce of Baylor went 0-for-12 against UMPFN back on Nov. 15.

And in closing, it's been a tough week in mid-major coach news. Jimmy Collins of Illinois-Chicago, who took a leave of absence due to exhaustion the other week, was admitted to a Chicago hospital last night with an abdominal aortic aneurysm, and will undergo a procedure today to help repair his heart. And Saint Francis (PA) head coach Bobby Jones remains in the hospital after stroke-like symptoms occurred during and after a game against American on Tuesday. Collins is 59 and Jones is 44, showing that it doesn't matter what your age is, this is a difficult and stressful job that can and will take a physical and mental toll.

If I know anything about coaches, it's that it's a tight-knit fraternity and that both men are being thought of and prayed for a whole lot right now by their peers. As fans of their work, let's do the same.

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