The score reminded me of Mississippi Valley State for some reason.

Post from: EveryJoe

Holy Moly

You have to watch your favorite college basketball team on the tube with Mike Tyson and Tony Kornheiser as the commentators. The mute and volume buttons are broken.

Alright, I’ve prepared you. Enjoy the debut of the Room of Stink.

Winthrop

(1-9, no DI wins yet) Though Winthrop’s schedule hasn’t been cupcake infested, the talent on this team is vastly inferior to the talent of Winthrop teams of years past, further pointing to the realization that this team has one more victory than Mississippi Valley State.

The Detroit Mercy Titans aren’t shedding any tears yet.

Illinois State’s non-conference schedule

(>300 strength of schedule) The Redbirds are a perfect 11-0 but only 2 of those 11 teams feature a winning record.

What good is an answer if you don’t know how you got it?

Georgia

(7-4…) This is a 7-4 team of massive failure. Georgia has lost to the Ramblers and Islanders and nearly were nipped in the ass by the Terriers just last weekend. Household names called and said Georgia’s victims all have a long way to go to reach Anteater status.

Even handwashing a mean dish once in a while still doesn’t prevent lingering dish water from becoming foul.

UAB’s Jeremy Mayfield

(6′10 junior) This intriguing prospect has the delight of being featured here not for his weak on court performance, but for his lack of diligence in the classroom, whatever that means. 3 out of the last 4 semesters Mayfield has not met the academic standards required by the NCAA. For the second semester in a row he will be ineligible.

I’m sure that Mayfield feels just like the person on their commute home from work who gets ticketed for speeding two separate times by the same officer.

Dishonorable Mention

***The Utah Utes for losing to Southwest Baptist. Oh, and also losing to a 2-8 Idaho St. team.

***This.

***NOT this:

***The unknown baller. He’s about 5′8, maybe 160 lbs, third in the country in scoring, and swipes over 3 rocks per game. It’s unfortunate that Chicago State is an independent and has virtually no shot to make the tournament. David Holston might be the next Earl Boykins, but I don’t think people even know.

Post from: EveryJoe

Room of Stink

The blame rests at the margins of exams.

But it’s over, so all is good.

In an attempt to catch up, I have found these links to share. It’s a bit Big Ten heavy.

But it’s about time the Big Ten got some love.

*The Hooker theory, brought to you by Off The Tracks.

It would behoove you to read this fine post from a Purdue fan with clearly too much time on his hands, because, like everything in life, there will be a quiz later.

*Before the season even started, I even said that the Northwestern Wildcats would be a NIT team at the very worst. So far they are looking pretty good. But you won’t find much positivity here. Somewhat understandable however, considering Northwestern has never made the NCAA tournament.

*Best player playing for a historically black college? Elizabeth City State’s Anthony Hilliard.

*Derrick Brown, star Xavier forward who I compared to Trenton Hassell some time ago, was hurt for the very first time when he injured his ankle earlier this season. Head Coach Sean Miller says Derrick is healthier than ever,

“He’s healthier now than he ever has been; I’d almost declare the injury a non-issue at this point.

We’ve all seen him in that light and I think he’s capable of it.”

*In case you didn’t hear about it, Michigan beat yet another “top 5″ ranked team this season. The victim this time was Duke.

City Hoops: Everything Detroit Basketball, in celebration of the Michigan victory, looked back a bit on some memories and pics of Michigan guard Manny Harris’ days at Detroit Redford high school.

*Kentucky walk-on Landon Slone did against Mississippi Valley State what so many players have no difficulty in doing. He made them look silly.

“Slone’s tenacity didn’t lead to an immediate team-wide spark, but he acquitted himself quite well against the Delta Devils. The 6-foot-3 guard had an inauspicious start when a baseline jumper he took less than 30 seconds after entering the game slammed off the side of the backboard and into Perry Stevenson’s hands, resulting in a dunk.

The afternoon got much better from there. With Mississippi Valley State settled into a 2-3 zone to neutralize Patrick Patterson in the middle, Slone was able to do what he does best – bury two 3-pointers by finding the gaps in that defense.”

*Minnesota’s athletic department moved Minnesota’s Big Ten basketball opener against Michigan State to 11am, all in favor of the Minnesota football team who plays in Arizona (bowl game) at 5pm that same day. From The Barn is far from pleased.

“Those flying to Arizona obviously won’t be at The Barn on the 31st. With the now deceased 5:00 pm start, the rest of the season ticket holders, the majority of whom work, still would be able to go to the basketball game. Sneaking out an hour or two early on a quasi-holiday is not that big of a deal and the people who had planned to attend the game either made accommodations to their schedule if playing hooky was not an option. Now many of them won’t be able to go to the game.”

*If I was a projected 3rd, 4th or 5th seeded team in this season’s NCAA tourney, I would be very afraid of getting stuck playing against the Keydets.

The “Shoot the ball before you turn it over” philosophy is working.

*And finally, a player I think has gone under the radar for too long.

Burnt Orange Nation provides the insight on A.J.

“Abrams is a mediocre-to-bad shooter off of the dribble but among the best catch-and-shoot kids I’ve ever seen. It’s seriously sick how quickly and in one smooth motion he can catch the ball, make the requisite pivot, and manage to release the ball perfectly squared to the basket. If you haven’t been to the gym in a while, have someone feed you passes and try to catch-pivot-release in one motion without fading off to the side. It’s incredibly difficult.”

Post from: EveryJoe

Hookers, Keydets, and a Peeved Gopher

Both divisions II and III deserve some love here. We plan to bring you rankings and whatever news is going on whenever I can’t find anything to write about Tyler Hansbrough (or any player named Tyler), North Carolina or UCLA, or when Ryan Pravato can’t find anything on Mississippi Valley State, the Big 10 (plus one) or the Summit League.

So for your infotainment, here’s the latest Division II rankings released today by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

All records are through games of Sunday, Nov. 30. The next poll will be released on Tuesday, Dec. 9.

Division III rankings and news to follow.

NABC/Division II Men’s Basketball Poll
(Tuesday, December 2, 2008 — Regular Season Poll #2)
The weekly poll is being conducted by eight members of the NABC Division II Congress, one representing each of the eight NCAA Division II regions.

Team Record This week
1. Findlay 2-0
2. South Carolina Aiken 3-0
3. Central Oklahoma 7-0
4. Augusta State 1-0
5. Southwest Baptist 5-0
6. Gannon 3-0
7. Grand Valley State 3-0
8. Minnesota State 7-1
9. Brigham Young-Hawaii 3-0
10. LIU-C.W. Post 2-0
11. North Alabama 4-1
12. Kentucky Wesleyan 6-0
13. Bentley 6-2
14. Catawba 5-0
15. Pittsburgh-Johnstown 5-0
16. Winona State 4-2
17. Florida Southern 6-3
18. Drury 4-1
19. Central Washington 2-1
20. Northern Kentucky 4-2
21. Northwest Missouri State 3-1
22. Central Missouri 5-0
23. Arkansas-Monticello 5-0
24. Southwest Minnesota State 5-1
25. Saint Martin’s 8-2

Others receiving votes: Northern State (S.D.) 16, Johnson C. Smith (N.C.) 14, Edinboro (Pa.) 12, Elizabeth City State (N.C.) 12, Rollins (Fla.) 12, Southern Indiana 10, Merrimack (Mass.) 7, San Francisco State (Calif.) 7, Augustana (S.D.) 6, St. Edward’s (Texas) 6, Belmont Abbey (N.C.) 5, Cal State-Dominguez Hills 5, Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) 5, West Chester (Pa.) 5, Benedict (S.C.) 4, Western Washington 4, Fairmont State (W.Va.) 3, West Liberty State (W.Va.) 2, Ashland (Ohio) 1, Francis Marion (S.C.) 1, Missouri Southern 1.

Post from: EveryJoe

Latest Division II Poll

Let’s remind everybody that this is a college hoops site. We clear?

Alright, so Samford came back in the second half and put up 16 on the board. Grand total of 22 points in the bag for the Bulldogs.

The Friday brothers, certainly you’ve heard of them, had a rough go of it.

The good news… Samford assisted on 7 of 9 field goals.

Otherwise…

Savannah State gave Michigan quite a fight and, to my surprise when I encountered the live stream of this game late in the 2nd half, actually led by 20 at halftime. Michigan reversed the difference in the 2nd half, sending the game into overtime.

Check out the video for the skinny on this high intensity affair at Crisler Arena (don’t feel too sorry for freshmen Zack Novak, he hasn’t had a wide open dunk in like, ever…let him can some threes and he’ll recover).

STAT of the DAY

Liberty’s Seth Curry, younger brother of Stephen, played the entire 50 minutes of Liberty’s double overtime victory against William & Mary. Seth scored 13 of his game total 21 in the 2 overtime frames.

CLUTCH sure runs in the fam!!

Post from: EveryJoe

Mississippi Valley State: You have company

Remember this?

In other news, Virginia Military knocked down 14 three pointers and forced 25 turnovers in a 111-103 victory at Kentucky.

Reflection from the morning after.

Post from: EveryJoe

Mississippi Valley State eclipses 30 point mark