Nevada at San Diego
Jenny Craig Pavilion - San Diego, CA
10:00 PM EST

The Western Athletic and West Coast took completely different paths last season -- the WAC, a perennial multi-bid league despite its allocation of most of its resources to football, languished in the 20's of the RPI scale and squeezed out a champion after that Boise State-New Mexico State final. The WCC grew up fast, going from Gonzaga to gazonga! Three bids later, and even the most casual fans can name multiple teams.
The tourney champion, and the owner of the WCC's deepest NCAA run, is San Diego. The Toreros return just about everyone from the team that shocked UConn out of a No. 13 seed, including last year's second-leading scorer, senior guard Brandon Johnson. He scored 14 points in USD's tough season-opening 65-60 loss to UNLV, but it was his 3-for-14 line that was mildly concerning. Taking a hiatus is the top point-producer from 2007-08, all-WCC big man Gyno Pomare, who was suspended by head coach Bill Grier for a team-rules violation.
Suspensions are also a big part of the story for the Wolf Pack, which have three players in limbo -- Brandon Fields, London Giles and Ahyaro Phillips, who were cited with petty larceny back in October. But this game will be a great opportunity to see new Wolf Luke Babbitt in action. The 6-9 freshman dropped 20 points on Montana State in his college debut, and added 12 rebounds just to make it more memorable. Can the Wolf Pack make it back to the Dance in 2009? He'll be a big part of the reason why if they do.
Basketball State Preview/Box

PHILADELPHIA -- Drexel hosts Penn today at 10 a.m. as part of ESPN's Mega Mammoth Opening Day Explosion. This'll be the last morning game we attend, at least until the next NAIA tournament or summer AAU spectacubash. For that reason, we'll be short with this (MMBOW and G!O!T!N! will be forthcoming later). Just a reminder, though, that I will be anchoring ESPN.com's SportsNation college hoops chat block from 3 to 5 this afternoon, so please stop by.

First, though, a couple of things happened last night that we have to get to.

Loyola (Ill.) 74, Georgia 53 -- The Ramblers' season started off in bizarre fashion on Friday. Senior guard J.R. Blount established himself as the nation's leading scorer for a moment, scoring a gigantic 41 points on 12-for-22 shooting. However, Loyola dropped that opener by seven points... to Division II Rockhurst, also known as Kansas City's Jesuit University. But when the team moved on to the NIT Season Tip-Off pod in West Lafayette, Ind., the Ramblers came alive. Breaking open a 29-all tie at halftime, Loyola destroyed the SEC tourney champions. It was the school's first win over a team from that conference since a 1964 NCAA upset of Kentucky in a regional third place game, back when they did things like that.

Maryland-Baltimore County at Morgan State
Hill Field House - Baltimore, MD

7:00 PM EST
The Beltway area enjoyed a mid-major hoops renaissance last season. UMBC won the America East for the first time ever, American claimed the Patriot League title after years of being defined by its runner-up finishes, and then there were the Morgan State Bears of the MEAC, which ran the league all year but was devastated on its final possession in the title game, falling to Coppin State (also a Baltimore school, of course) by a 62-60 count.

Now it's a new year -- for the Retrievers, the Bears, and for everybody's favorite Mid-Majority weekday feature, the G!O!T!N!. These two squads do have history together, and are now engaged in a home-and-home back-and-forth series. Last season, UMBC made a Charm City statement by beating Morgan by eight at their place. It was one of those games that we would see a lot of for the rest of the season: four in double figures, and no need for multiple basketballs. Three of those four are gone, but Daryl Proctor is back to run the show. The 6-4 senior is coming off a 20-point performance in a glorified exhibition against Stevenson on Saturday.

Morgan State is dealing with some defections too. TMM guiding light Boubacar Coly left early, leaving the Bears in need of some rebounding and defensive-intensity replacement. They were outboarded and outshot in their first game, a tight three-point loss to LaSalle the other day, but holdover Marquise Kately had seven while scoring 13. Morgan had four in low double figures, yet only managed 33 percent shooting while keeping the ballgame close with good ball control (only 11 turnovers). Tonight will be a good opportunity to see how the MEAC regular season champs' offense takes shape.

Basketball State Preview/Box

PITTSBURGH -- When something like this happens, when 111-103 happens, when a little military school from western Virginia marches into venerable old Rupp Arena and runs the home team off its own floor, it's never about the victor. That's just the way these things work. The tale, as it's commonly being told, is about the failure of one, and not necessarily the accomplishment of the other.

It's another reason why David's shoes don't fit. In the overarching narrative that follows, most will try to explain the cracks in the armor, not the weapons that opened and exposed them. Consider last season -- when Gardner-Webb beat Kentucky, few bothered to follow the story of the winner that day farther, focusing instead on the vanquished. Can you remember how GW's season ended? (In a gym in Nashville in front of a few thousand people.)

But this right here, it's really about a school of rigorous discipline hidden deep in the Virginia hill country, coached by an ex-cop with a rebuilt heart who's not afraid to challenge the conventional basketball wisdom any time he can with a deep bag of tricks, and a team led by a pair of identical twins that always takes the first open shot. This should be about the winners, and all they accomplished to get to this point.

PEORIA, Ill. -- Remember back when you were a kid, it was a hot summer day out in your backyard... you had your 1980's NBA-style short-shorts on with no shirt, just hanging out in the grass your daddy just mowed fresh that morning. Not a care in the world. Then you got really thirsty, and you were too lazy to go in and grab a Coke from the fridge, and that's when you noticed that garden hose snaking around the corner, just a little bit of water dribbling out the end... you picked it up and just let that water splash on your tongue. So cool, so delicious.

But just then, your sister snuck over to the other end, took hold of that little flower-shaped metal wheel. Before you could do anything, before you could hear the creak and the groan of that spigot twist, WAPHOOOSH! That woke you up.

That's exactly what today, November 14, is like. It's a torrent of college basketball right in your face.

Frankly, we've had just about all we can take of previews, overviews, pre-mortems and outlooks (hopefully this A-Sun preview is the last one, and it's an opportunity to hear how I sound at 8 a.m. with no coffee). I personally have been writing speculative articles about the 2008-09 season since September. Enough already. After just a little taste of action this week with the Coaches vs. Cancer tourney, it's time to stuff the scoreboard, cycle the ESPN ticker, and melt down the Basketball State database. Again.