Basketball

Xavier - Virginia

61 points at the half for X.  Against an ACC team.  Wow.

Richmond - Virginia Tech

Seth Greenburg has returned.  Va Tech loses to A10 team.  They might just beat out the Demon Deacons and finish 12th in the ACC

St Joseph's - Drexel

Bad basketball in a great venue, The Palestra.  St Joes wins by 20.

Southern Illinois - St Louis

Ok, I beat this drum often.  St Louis fits in the Missouri Valley.  They should be in the Missouri Valley.  Put them and Butler (who is way too good of a program to be stuck in the shitty Horizon) in the conference.  I'm not a big advocate of 12 team conferences as I grew up with, and still love the round-robin nature of conference play, but this makes sense.  It drives me a little crazy that St Louis plays in the ATLANTIC 10, when they have naturally geographically correct rivalries throughout the Missouri Valley.  The Missouri Valley has great interest and support in the area and this would made it even stronger.  St Louis ended the first half on an 8-0 and ended the second half on a 10-0 on its way to a 5 point victory.  I am a lucky stunned about what to do make of Southern Illinois at this point.

Charlotte - Hofstra

The Pride!  Hofstra by 1 with 2 minutes left.  Charlotte misses the shot, Hofstra gets a rebound.  The rebounder grasps the ball and shakes his arms side to side to thwart the defenders,  The whistle is blown and what is the call?  Is it a foul.  Actually no.  I did NOT know this, but the official can call this an infraction instead of a foul.  Possession changes, but a personal foul is not assessed.  I don't remember ever seeing this call.  It doesn't matter as Goldwire of Charlotte misses an off-balance 3 pter anyhow.  Bobby Lutz!  Hey Bobby, there is a reason you are still coaching there.  Remember when the C-USA wasn't good enough for you?  Well now you are stuck in the A10.  Mind you, the 49ers are riding a 3 game win streak over Wake Forest, Davidson and Southern Illinois.  Hofstra has a 4 game losing streak.  Goldwire misses another 3pter at the minute mark.  Both teams shooting well from the free throw line.  3 point lead for Hofstra.  Charlotte working for final shot .. and Goldwire throws it out of bounds..  Hofstra wins this one 70-68.

Xavier - Arizona State

Drew Lavender.  First offensive possession = assist on great alley-oop.  First defensive possession = picked ASU's guards pocket clean.  Second offensive possession = assist.  Third offensive possession - rainbow 3!  Amazing how a 8-0 start can lead to a 33-28 deficit.

Temple - Drexel

A game of runs.  Temple stepped up the intensity on the D, caused some turnovers down the stretch.  Drexel has Eligar, but needs Coles to produce more.  Temple kept their turnovers to single digits, but was out-rebounded by more than 10.  Not a big crowd at the Palestra, nonetheless I need to see a Big Five game there soon. Temple 64 Drexel 51.

Xavier - Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Shootout.  I wish I had some Skyline chili right now.  I like Cincinnati.  I lved there one summer in a big group house in the ghetto section of town, directly across from Monroe's Avalon Club.  "Famous" for live gospel every Saturday and Sunday.  Anyhow I worked downtown at the First National bank of Cincinnati and you couldnt go a block without passing a Skyline.  A 5-way, extra crackers and a galss of tap water only cost $2.85.  I ate it just about every other day asa my lunch budget was 3 bucks.  Xavier cant seem to break this game open, but thanks to great X defense and UC missing at least 6 layups in the second half this one turns out to be a 64-59 X win.

Syracuse -Rhode Island

URI goes on a 12-3 run to tie the game at 72.  Jonny Flynn to the tin!  And 1.  Yep, he is good and will be fun to watch over the next few years (at least after that dickhead Devendorf exhausts his eligibility.) Sorry Gunny, I just cant put them in my Top 25.  The win at Virginia was nice, but up 1 over a midlevel A10 team at home?  This soon after the UMass debacle?  Jonny Flynn to the tin!  Nobody cant stop him once he gets a step.  URI has received good guard play and some nice offensive rebounds.  Tied at 81 with 3 minutes to play.  Another offensive rebound and stuff with authority for URI.  84-81 Rams.  Tied at 84 with 2 to go.  Roady up 88-87 with a minute to go after Mbang free throws, a Flynn miss, and a good URI drive.  SU takes a quick ill-advised shot, then URI instead of milking some clock drives into the lane and gets called for a charge.  Shot clock off, URI by 1. With 20 seconds left to to work with Devendorf drives the lane and throws up a highly contested shot of the playground variety.  Ha Ha.  I hate him and love it that he sucks and is a stupid, stupid ballplayer.  Any skills that he possesses are negated by his lack of basketball intelligence.  URI up 1 with the ball with 8 seconds to play.  Syracuse goes for the 3 to win, but instead loses its second game at home to an A10 team.

West Virginia - Duquesne

The Mountaineers defense looks even stingier under Huggins than it did under Beilein.