Dribblings 12/4/2004 (Crosstown Rivalry Edition)

UNC-Greensboro 79, Southern Mississippi 78 (story) - At Iowa's Hawkeye Challenge, the C-USA's Golden Eagles were up by eight at the break against a second-division SoCon school... but blew the lead and let the Spartans spurt after a Larry Eustachy technical. UNCG's Ricky Hickman led all scorers with 29, and was fouled on a last-second trey attempt with the score knotted at 78. He missed the third foul shot intentionally to deny USM an inbound, and that was that. Eustachy's Iowa State "reunion" with former player Adam Haluska (who transfered across the state to Iowa) has been called off.

Beloved former New Mexico coach Bob King has been upgraded to serious condition. What looks like a tough upcoming season for the Lobos in the Mountain West could soon become a very sad one too.

The San Francisco Chronicle reminds football-crazy Cal fans that there's a basketball game tonight, too. Given the Golden Bear hoopsters' recent struggles (including a loss at home to an atrociously-attired UNLV squad the other night) and a Rose Bowl berth on the line, a cross-country guarantee gimmee against Fairleigh Dickinson is going to be a very tough sell.

Keep an eye on the Kansas-Pacific game today, which might end up being a very interesting one. The Tigers are returning almost all their scoring and look like the team to beat in the Big West again. They also played the Jayhawks basket-for-basket for thirty minutes in the NCAA second round, and would have silenced any "Rock Chalk" chants if they had been able to withstand Kansas' two-minute burst.

Big weekend for local clashes. Aside from the aforementioned Philly Big Five tripleheader, there's also Pittsburgh's 73rd annual City Game between Pitt and Duquesne.

In the heartland, Tulsa and Oral Roberts have shared Aerospace City for years, but each has generally known its respective place in the college hoops world. The Golden Hurricane was always good for a NCAA early-round upset or two, and ORU... well, you can get a good, solid faith-based education there. But this year, things are the other way around.

In our nation's capital, the four-team BB&T Classic kicks off today, with local schools Maryland, George Washington and George Mason in attendance. Eric Prisbell of the Washington Post takes the opportunity to drop the age-old "what is a mid-major?" query on a bunch of coaches, and broaches the always-thorny Gonzaga question as well.

In many people's eyes, though, you are what your conference says you are, which means Gonzaga is generally perceived as a mid-major program.

"I think they are in a mid-major conference," said Coach Randy Bennett, whose Saint Mary's team competes with Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference. "They are a high-major caliber team. But they are not doing it like the big boys budget-wise. That's the good thing about college basketball; you don't have to be one to compete against the big boys."

Resources

Bally Club Signup/Activate
Bally Club Message Board
Basketball State
Women's Basketball State
TMM9 Summer Camp
Mid-Merchandise Shoppe
Mid-Major Radio
Contact TMM via The Form™

The Game

				Pts
			Hickory Picket Fences	27629

			The Hopping Cats	21526

			Ballyfest Destiny	18919

			Under a Blood Red Line	10379

			Jen Folds Five	6895

			Prestige Worldwide	1614