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CINCINNATI, Ohio – Drew Lavender scored 28 points and dished a career-high 10 assists as No. 21 Xavier snapped a three-game losing streak against Creighton with a 79-66 win at a sold-out Cintas Center over the Bluejays.

Xavier improved to 7-1, while Creighton fell from the ranks of the unbeaten and is 5-1 heading into a Sunday home game against fellow Atlantic-10 school Saint Joseph’s.

Last year, I started doing monthly power rankings divided by the BCS, High-Major, and Mid-Major monikers.  I’m continuing that trend once again, starting with the “High-Majors”, which I define to include the A10, CAA, CUSA, MVC, MWC, and WAC.  I’m not suggesting that the A10 might not be better than the Big Ten this year, or that a league like the Horizon isn’t better than the WAC (which is real bad right now), or anything like that.. I use these grouping simply for ease and consistency.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Behind a balanced team effort, The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team won a thrilling 107-100 up and down game over Syracuse on Wednesday evening. Falling behind by as many as 12 early in the second half, UMass rode the backs of Ricky Harris, Gary Forbes, and Dante Milligan to the upset victory. Harris finished with a career-high 25 points while Milligan tied a career-high with 17, and Forbes scored 23. The Minutemen improve to 5-1, while the Orange drop to 4-2.

PITTSBURGH – Duquesne University head men’s basketball coach Ron Everhart has announced the signing of combo guard Johnny Higgins (Baltimore, Md./Randallstown/Notre Dame (Mass.) Prep) to a National Letter of Intent.

The 6-1, 185-pound Higgins is the first fall signee for the 2008-09 recruiting class.

Three Stars of The Day

 

Continuing a new daily feature on Collegehoops.net, the Three Stars of the day.  We handpick the best performances of the day, whether it be stat lines that make you drool, or clutch performances.  Either way, its our way of showing the love:

 

OXFORD, Ohio – “Whoa…..Christmas time,” was what Miami coach Charlie Coles said when he saw his player Michael Bramos get fouled from three feet beyond the three point line.

Dayton

Fordham

Rhode Island

St. Joseph's

Saint Louis

Xavier

Other (Duquesne, GW, Temple, etc)

One thing is clear from this list.. the talent level in the A-10 is far superior to any other non-BCS league. So much so that I expanded the ranking from the Top 10 to Top 20 just because there were so many guys to consider. 15 to 20 in the A-10 would arguably be top 5 or 6 in the CAA or MVC right now.

1. Brian Roberts, G, Dayton - Flyers best player is the league's most efficient scorer
2. Ahmad Nivins, F, Saint Joseph's - One of the A-10's only powerful inside forces
3. Bryant Dunston, F, Fordham - Numbers dipped last year, but Rams win total continued to rise

Xavier Musketeers

 

Overall Rank: #25