Watch Out For These Low-Majors

Everyone knows about Gonzaga, Xavier and BYU as "Non-BCS" powers in basketball but here are some teams that have surprised me early in this season.

Mercer- Wins on the road against Auburn and Alabama are impressive, they nearly beat Georgia Tech in OT, as they let a big lead slip away in regulation. Junior James Florence is the leading scorer for the bears, as the look to shift the power in the A-Sun. I pretty sure Mercer still remembers that Belmont gave Duke a run for its money.

Portland- Beating Washington on opening night, and holding Quincy Pondexter to 0 points, has been the highlight of the season for the Pilots, lead by Junior Nik Raivio (the younger sibling of Derek) they also have a win over Nevada. The Future looks bright for Portland (4-1) as almost all their players are underclassmen.

Niagara- While everyone picked Siena to win the MAAC this year, it has been Niagara (5-1) who has been off to the fast start. Tyrone Lewis and Rob Garrison make a very good back court for the Purple Eagles, who's lone loss came against Villanova.

A Day After The Worst 3-Point Shooting Display In History, The Flyers Upset #15 Marquette

On Friday Dayton needed over time to beat Auburn. The Flyers won despite shooting 0-24 from three. So that being said, the Flyers would stand no chance against a highly ranked team like Marquette, right? Wrong. Dayton jumped on the Golden Eagles early and did not let up. The Flyers shot 53% from the field, outscored Marquette's bench 47-5 and got a career high 21 from Junior Rob Lowery. Chris Wright scored 13 and had some electrifying dunks as well as 13 boards. The game was played at the Sears Centre, so this just goes to show if a mid-major gets a chance at one of the big boys on a neutral court this is what can happen.

UNC Captures Maui With Relative Ease

UNC swept through the Maui field, facing no obstacles along the way as they dispatched of Chaminade 115-70 and Oregon 98-69 and finally #8 Notre Dame 102-87. The Tar Heelslooked like an offensive machine in Maui and improved to 6-0. In the championship game against Notre Dame Hansbourgh look more like his old self after recovering from an injury, he score 34 points to lead the Tar Heels. A much improved Deon Thompson scored 19 and led the Heels with 13 boards. UNC had a 23 point lead midway through the second half, but Kyle McAlarney (39 points) hit a bunch of threes to keep Notre Dame some what competitive in the game. In the end UNC's depth and quickness was too much for Notre Dame and with Luke Harangody having flu like symptoms the whole day, the Irish had no one that could really contain Hansbrough in the low post.

Curry Held Scoreless For First Time In His Career

Coming into last nights game against Loyola (Md.) Stephen Curry was leading the nation in scoring at 35 a game. So how did he only get three shots off and score no points against Loyola? It was all because  of a bizarre coaching move by Loyola's Jimmy Patsos. The Grey Hounds double teamed Curry for the entire game, even when he did not have the ball. This made it very hard for Curry to get the ball and it allowed Davidson play 4-3 for most of the game. Curry not scoring was not a problem as Davidson got six threes from Brian Barr and rolled 78-48.

Player Of The Year: It's A Three Man Race

It's still very early in the season, but Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin and Tyler Hansbrough have already established themselves as the player of the year favorites. Griffin is leading the nation in rebounding and he is averaging 26 points a game. Curry is leading the nation in scoring (35.0 ppg) and when he played Griffin's Sooners head to head he put up a career high 44. Hansbrough has been sidelined because of injury early, he played in his first game a couple of nights ago against UCSB and he scored 13 points. Hansbrough is the reigning POY and he still has a chance to repeat.

here is what each has done through the first couple of games...


13 ppg
7 rpg
2 apg
1 bpg

35 ppg
7.8 apg
2.8 rpg
45.1% Threes
3.6 steals a game








26 ppg
19.8 rpg
2.8 apg
74.5% FG
                            

Griffin Looks To Be Run Away Favorite For Rebounding Title

Blake Griffin is a monster. His overall stats (26 points and 19.8 boards) are daunting but his physical presence is even more imposing.  He has grabbed 18 rebounds in every game this season and he is 5+ rebounds ahead of the next closest person in terms of rebounds per-game. At the beginning of the season I was a bit skeptical when in came to all this #1 pick talk surrounding Griffin, but he has made me a believer. I will be shocked if he does not take the rebounding crown.

Duke Wins 2K Sports Classic

Michigan came up short in its second straight upset bid falling to Duke 71-56. Michigan's 1-3-1 zone limited Duke's offensive production but could not stop the Blue Devil attack as the Dukies used skip passes to the corners for open treys and capitalized on transition opportunities as well as a size advantage to get the victory over the Wolverines. Kyle Singler had 15 and Nolan Smith had 15 to lead Duke. The two teams will meet again, which is very uncommon among non-conference opponents, when Duke travels to Ann Arbor on Dec. 6.

And You Think Texas Tech's Football Team Can Score!?

Were to start.....Well on Thursday Texas Tech score 167 points against East Central (Oklahoma). The Red Raiders broke the previous school scoring mark of 128 points (set in double overtime vs. Texas in 1994) with a little less than 8 minutes to play. 8 players set career highs for scoring and 10 were in double figures for Texas Tech. 90 second half points and 113 shots attempted by Texas Tech helped the Red Raiders cruise....

"Wow, that was fun, wasn't it?" East Central coach Terry Shannon

Dante Jackson's Shoots 1-9, But The 1 Counted!

Xavier and Virginia Tech fought out a hard one in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip Off today. The game was close the whole way and after Kenny Frease made two free throws with 2:25 to go to tie the score at 52, neither team would score n regulation and the game would go into overtime. With less than two seconds to play Jeff Allen (22 points) made a tip-in to give the Hokies a 62-60 lead. Xavier quickly inbounded the ball to Dante Jackson, who had not made a shot all day. He took a couple of steps and let in fly, the ball banked off the glass and in propelling the Musketeers into the championship game against Memphis.

Zeller to Miss Season...

UNC freshman Tyler Zeller will likely miss the rest of the season after under going surgery to repair his fractured left wrist which he suffered in the game against Kentucky. Zeller scored 18 in the Tar Heels opener against Penn, but just two against Kentucky. With Zeller out of the line up this leaves the Heels with some serious holes due to injury now that Zeller, Ginyard, and Hansbrough will all miss time.