Dribblings 12/2/2004 (Gridlock Edition)

UC Davis 72, Sacramento State 63 (OT) (box) - Davis has to wait until 2007 to achieve full Division I status and join the Big West, but they're wasting no time. The 1998 D2 national champions beat the Big Sky's Hornets in the "Hornets' Nest" by a sizeable margin in overtime, despite never having had a lead in regulation.

Western Carolina 75, Liberty 63 (story) - Western lost the nation's second-leading scorer when Kevin Martin left early to warm Sacramento's bench, so the Catamounts will have to rely on muscle. They did just that against the defending Big South champs, overcoming 39% figures in both field goals and free throws with a 43-35 rebounding advantage.

Arkansas State 70, Mississippi 68 (story) - Ole Miss blew a seven-point lead by not scoring for the last three minutes, and the Indians beat the Rebels for the second straight year. The SBC now has a commanding 2-0 lead in the SEC-Sun Belt Challenge.

Columbia at Hofstra (ppd.) - He steps on the clutch and the toilet goes "flush." Uptown Manhattan and Hempstead are only 35 miles apart, but this game was postponed because the Lions' bus driver man got stuck in traffic. Lemmee guess, he tried going over the Throgs Neck Bridge. Oy, that's always a mess. Here's how I always got out to Long Island: Triboro Bridge to the Grand Central Parkway. Yeah, baby, that's the stuff. A few minutes out of your way and there's LaGuardia to contend with, but you avoid all that congestion around Great Neck Plaza.

Harry Statham has broken the record for collegiate coaching wins, after his McKendree College (Ill.) hoopsters beat Maryville 83-72 to give him his 880th victory in the NAIA. Dean Smith still leads all NCAA coaches, so it's a matter of context. That is to say, if you think Sadaharu Oh's 868 home runs is the real all-time record, you should probably recognize this one too.

A study of 26 college basketball players performed at Duke has shown that early MRI evaluations can detect risk for season-ending stress fractures. "When diagnostic work is conducted pre-season," said radiologist Nancy Major, M.D. "At-risk players are more likely to be identified, receive treatment and ultimately play the entire year instead of losing eight to 12 weeks on the bench." Science is awesome.

Please make sure you check out the fresh and funky new fall blog fashions sported by Big Ten Wonk and the always informative and opinionated Hoops Junkie. The Wonk is providing sterling wall-to-wall coverage of some ESPN-sponsored event I've forgotten the name of, and was even cited in a Greensboro News-Record story the other day. When the print pubs start using blogs as sources, this either means that bloggers are rocking the hallowed halls of journalism like a hurricane, or that MSM writers have sunk to new lows of ink-stained wretchedness. Glass half full, I say!

Winthrop coach Gregg Marshall feels like Ken Jennings right about now, but he'll discover major problems filling out future November schedules once this quote gets around. "Providence paid us $55,000, so we got $55,000 and a win. That's better than being on a game show."

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