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If you think that the Blue Devils I'm referring to in the title hail from Durham, NC...you're incorrect. These guys are the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils, and they hail from New Britain, aka "hard-hittin' New Britain". Howie Dickenman's bunch, picked by the coaches to finish fourth in the NEC, lead Sacred Heart by one game in the loss column heading into their game at Quinnipiac tonight. Junior guard Tristan Blackwood is the reigning NEC PLayer of the Week after lighting up St. Francis (NY) and Sacred Heart to the tune of 27.5 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists per game. Blackwood went 14-for-29 from behind the arc in the two games, and a win over the Bobcats would give CCSU even more distance between themselves and the rest of the NEC. And with the higher seeds in the the conference tournament getting home court advantage, any team hoping to get to the NCAA Tournament will have to go through New Britain to do so.

Morris Almond (Rice ) 27.4 ppg

Jaycee Caroll (Utah State) 20.8

Kevin Durant (Texas) 24.4

Trey Johnson (Jackson St) 29.3

Chris Lofton (Tennessee) 21.5

Bo McCalebb (New Orleans) 26.1

Gary Neal (Towson) 25.9

Loren Stokes (Hofstra) 21.3

Rodney Stuckey (EWU) 24.0

Alando Tucker (Wisconsin) 19.2

In yesterday's Dribble.. I ranked all 73 BCS teams.. from UCLA to Colorado. I got a nice response about that list.. so I decided to do a ranking of the top "mid-major" leagues, ie, the 2nd tier leagues. The 2nd tier compromises the 62 teams of the A10, CAA, CUSA, MVC, MWC, and WAC. This leaves out the Horizon and the WCC which are the next in line. The Horizon actually has a higher overall RPI than the CAA right now, but this is based almost solely on Butler's hot start. No other HL team is in the top 110, but the CAA has 4 teams in the top 90.

1. Air Force 6-1 19-2
2. Memphis 6-0 16-3

#4 UNC at #17 Arizona, VCU at Drexel, #8 Oregon at #18 Washington State, and #23 Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech.

Air Force (19-2)

Butler (17-2)

Memphis (16-3)

Nevada (17-2)

Southern Illinois (16-5)

VCU (17-3)

1 - Hofstra, 2 - Marist, 3 - Fordham, 4 - Sacred Heart, 5 - St. John's..

With a slate full of games from the Big Ten and Big East, you'd expect to only have to concentrate on scores Wednesday night. Well, that all went out the window when Boston College announced that center Sean Williams and forward Akida McLain were dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules. Further details should be released in the coming days, but going into Littlejohn Coliseum to face an angry group of Clemson Tigers shorthanded is not a good way to spend your Saturday. The dismissed pair have been in Coach Al Skinenr's doghouse in the past for behavioral reasons, having missed games the past two seasons as a result. Those transgressions were taken care of at the beginning of each season, however, and that's what makes this episode all the more surprising.