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Dribblings 11/24/2004 (Feast Week Edition)
November 24, 2004 11:59 am ET by Kyle Whelliston
It's time once again for the Great Alaska Shootout (not to be confused with the Top Of The World Classic). I'm sure it's difficult to be at least 4,000 miles far away from home on Thanksgiving, but I hope the players don't get too bored between games and do stupid things, like, say, getting lost in the woods while snowmobiling.

An excellent night for teams that aspire to play .500 ball in the Sun Belt Conference. The North Texas Mean Green beat the CAA's UNC-Wilmington 76-69, and Western Kentucky's Hilltoppers went into Georgia's house and beat old coach Dennis Felton, 71-61.

In other mid-major-related upsets, Gardner-Webb of the Atlantic Sun Conference destroyed C-USA club East Carolina by an impressive 90-60 count. And Missouri Valley Conference darling Creighton beat the crap out of star-crossed Missouri, whose arena will no longer be known as the Paige Sports Arena. Looks like Elena wins this round, tune in next time for the big swimming-pool catfight scene. (corr - Ed.)

We're all about returning linky love here, so a special Mid-Majority welcome to fans of the excellent Patriot League Blog. For the rest of you, this is an excellently-written and constantly-updated look into John Feinstein's favorite conference, and if there was a way to force-feed a link into your browser bookmarks, I'd do it. And yes, Lafayette did indeed lose last night to that team with the peacock mascot, St. Peter's. Pretty badly, too.

Basketball fans don't generally get into the nuts and bolts of our game as much as our "sabremetrician" baseball counterparts, but there are some who are well-qualified to drop some science. Ken Pomeroy is working on a hypothesis regarding free throws vis a vis winning percentage. "Getting to the line or preventing your opponent from getting there is roughly equal to or maybe slightly more important than shooting well from the line when you get there. But a large free throw differential between you and your opponent is clearly more important than just your own free throw percentage."

The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that "the appetite for national broadcasting of university sports in Canada appears to be at a historical low." I've been in sports bars up north and know that Canadians love their touchscreen NFL betting, so it's only a matter of time before they realize that those McGill vs. Queens basketball games are plenty more interesting if there are a few loonies on the line.

Remember Ball State? A mid-major school that made a couple or Tournament runs and were always good for a few early-season upsets? Now, it turns out they're left with their memories and a touch of Gonzaga envy.

Someone please give Matt Doherty a coaching job, or at least kindly remind him that the exclamation-point-filled-column niche is already filled.

No Dribblings tomorrow on account of the holiday. Since there's no real hoop action to speak of tomorrow (other than the Shootout), The Official Wife Of The Mid-Majority and I will be trying to figure out how to cook a Tofurky. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!