25 points, 20 boards, and 9 swats in Saturday’s win over Seton Hall. Though Connecticut could be in trouble further down the road (actually as soon as Monday vs. Pitt) with Jerome Dyson out for the season. A.J. Price and Craig Austrie (Dyson’s replacement) were a combined 4-20 from the field. If UConn is to stay on top, Thabeet, along with Jeff Adrien (14 points and 15 boards on Saturday), are going to need to be sensational in every way imaginable. Losing Dyson is bigger than pundits seem to be leading on.

6′10 sophomore Blake Griffin

In 31 minutes against Texas Tech on Saturday scored 40 (16-23 fg), grabbed 23 boards, and basically had a whole segment of Sportscenter all to himself. Is it just me or is he the next Amar’e Stoudemire?

6′4 junior Jodie Meeks

Against Arkansas on Saturday poured in 45 (17-24 fg), hauled in 7 boards, and swiped 3, all without the services of Patrick Patterson (sprained ankle). Averaging over 25 ppg while being the number one target on opponent’s scouting reports. Made a disgustingly difficult shot to beat Florida on Tuesday. Do you believe the hype?

6′5 junior Joseph Harris

In a 3 point win over VMI on Saturday, the Coastal Carolina forward notched 33, grabbed 22 boards, and chipped in with 6 feeds. The win propelled the Chanticleers to 5-9 in the Big South while dropping VMI to 2nd place at 11-3.

Post from: EveryJoe

Players to keep away from small children and animals

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

Rounding out the top five was Michael Beasley, Lester Hudson (Tennessee-Martin) and Stephen Curry.

DI scoring leaders- DI vs. DI only

With so many returning quality top (*power) conference players (Conference USA included) scattered throughout the top 30 or so of last season’s scoring list, the chances that one of them could end up leading the country in scoring this year is quite reasonable.

Top candidates for the scoring title

Luke Harangody (21.0) Notre Dame
Tyler Hansbrough (23.1) UNC
Stefon Jackson (23.6 ) UTEP
Robert Vaden (21.6) UAB
Tyrese Rice (21.0) Boston College

Other candidates…

Chase Budinger (Arizona), James Harden (ASU), Marcus Thornton (LSU), Jack McClinton (Miami Fl)

So I’m going to stick up for the big boys and predict a returning power conference player will win the scoring title. It will not necessarily be a player mentioned above, but it probably will be, because finding many others who have a realistic shot at it is tedious and unforgiving business.

Strong teams with depth never will have a guy who could score 26 plus ppg, unless of course your name is Tyler Hansbrough.

I wouldn’t put anything past that dude.

So it will be easiest for a decent team, a fringe NCAA team rather, to boast a player who can put up those kind of points.

But like most years, Joe Blow from Eastern Manitoba will take the title.

*ACC, Big Ten, Big East ,Big 12, SEC, Pac 10, Conference USA-

Sorry Stephen Curry, more facilitating than usual is in your future. Probably a top ten finish though. If Jason Richards was still playing, the title would be yours.

Post from: EveryJoe

Prediction six: Buckets