The Boubacar 12/7/2007 (Boubacar Edition)

PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- It's taken a week, but I believe we have all the entries in our Pop Loser contest, most of which took as much time as media mail to arrive because of e-mail clog on this end. And of our 22 entries, I had to eliminate 15 of them. The point was not to point out an instance of reference dyslexia by one of your stupid (and/or drunk) buddies, or your mom, this was all about turning the mirror on your own pop culture failings. It was about raw, naked honesty, it was about thinking Cindy was the one who said, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!"

But we do have a winner. Congratulations to Rod in Asheville, a long-time friend and co-conspirator of the site (probably because it's one of the only places to get sporadic Big South news). He entered this tragic tale of Big Ten misapproriation and mistaken identity. But seriously, all he had to say was "Simmons."

Ironically, my blown reference was: 1) about basketball; and 2) to Bill Simmons!! He had invited readers to submit their favorite athlete/celebrity look-alike, and of course I thought of Kammron Taylor/Chris Rock. But in the e-mail, I wrote "Michael Flowers"!! Almost as soon as I hit "send", I realized my mistake... but by then, my feeble "um, hahaha, of course, I meant Kammron Taylor" e-mail probably seemed even lamer than the original mistake. To Bill Simmons. I'll never write him again (needless to say, I received no reply, either).

But we're glad you're writing us, Rod! Your squeak-Bally is on its way, please allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.

Dane Brumagin, Missouri-Kansas City. Last night in a Badlands Conference opener for Oakland and Missouri-Kansas City, there were 45 minutes played that featured the kind of scoring the NBA's been trying to re-gerrymander in their 48. Your old-school scoreline: Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons 114, Kansas City Kings 105 (OT).

It was a high-scoring win for last year's league runner-up Golden Grizzlies (4-4, 1-0 Summit), but the star was a tough big-guard in blue and yellow who's really emerged as a Summit star this season. The 6-4 Brumagin became the fourth player in Division I to crack the 40 point barrier, but the first to do it in under 30 minutes (28, to be exact). Before taking a seat, he shot 12-for-17, hit all nine of his free throws, then proceeded to take five fouls. He's the first 40-point scorer this year to face disqualification.

Before falling in overtime, UMKC (3-6, 0-1 Summit) came back from 23 points down in the second half and nearly came away with a big road victory to open the conference season. Put that in your Roo Vision.

Antoine Agudio, Hofstra. You probably didn't notice -- probably because Hofstra is losing a lot -- but the Crown Prince of Long Island is ruling the national scoring race at 27.6 ppg. The 6-3 senior has scored at least 30 three times in the Pride's five games, including a 36-point performance in a 73-71 drop at Fordham the other night. Worth noting that he's also Hoops Nation's leader in minutes played at 39.8, mostly thanks to the OT game Hofstra played in its CAA opener against UNC-Dub.

There's no truth to that story going around that Alex Rodriguez picked No. 13 back in 2004 because he heard Agudio would be wearing it, that's just one of those crazy Internet rumors that get out of hand so easily.

Now that that Beasley dude is running into brick walls against opposition that's ready for him, mid-major players occupy the top four slots in the national scoring race. There's Charron Fisher of Niagara with 26.3 (36 in a nice win over Rider last night), Stephen Curry from Davidson (which lost again out-of-conference last night, at Charlotte) has 26 flat, and Lester Hudson, the Tennessee-Martin newcomer who posted a fearsome quad-dub in a non-D1 game earlier this season.

Butler. We have a shakeup at the top of The State Of The Other 22 this morning (it does get updated every hour, we just post about it here on Tuesdays). After squeaking past Detroit in their Horizon League opener 53-46, the Bulldogs slipped to No. 3 behind new top kats Sam Houston State and No. 2 Xavier, which played lights out against Creighton the other night.

The computer didn't like the performance, and neither did Butler fans. Freshman butt-kicker Matt Howard continued his solid play with a 20-and-12 dub-two, but the moral of the story is that the Bulldogs can't afford to have bad shooting nights from both of its star guards and expect to win. A.J. Graves and Mike Green combined for 5-for-18 shooting and 17 points, seven of which were earned at the stripe. Ironically, that's the way Butler beat Ohio State: let the bigs have their way and shut down the shooters. Get well soon, Pete Campbell.

Boubacar. In all this Boubacar Madness here on The Mid-Majority, it's easy to forget that Boubacar is just a human being, flesh and bone and a cellular telephone. Yes, each of these daily posts is inspired by a real ballplayer, much in the way that this was inspired by a film. We're talking about none other than Boubacar Coly, starting center for the Morgan State Bears. Let's check in.

I was looking at my game notes from last year, which I keep in a Moleskine plain reporter, and I saw that in the one home Morgan game I attended last year, Boubacar had a 11-and-10 double-double against Coppin State. How did I miss that? I also noticed that he didn't have another double-double for three months. Flash-forward to this year, and he hasn't had a double-double since the Connecticut game that was the first Boubacar-worthy performance of all time. So when Whelliston and Boubacar are in the same building, virtually or for real, great things happen.

That's not to say he's struggled without me. He's shooting 54 percent from the floor for the 4-4 (1-0) Bears, and is averaging 9.3 rebounds per contest -- that's best among Mid-Eastern Conference players. Last Saturday, in a reprise of last year's MEAC season-opening city game with Coppin, Boubacar collected 14 boards and was, according to the NBA Efficiency Model, the most efficient player on the floor in the Bears' blowout 78-50 win. Things didn't go as well last night, as he found himself in early foul trouble against Maryland and finished with 9 and 8. If he'd played more than 20 minutes without fouling out, Boubacar could have been the difference. Next game is tomorrow against La Salle. Bouuuuuuuubacar!!

#boubacar onclick=simpletogglediv('boubacar')>Do you have a nomination for Monday's Boubacar?

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