Articles

AMERICAN TEAM

Name School Ht. Wt. Hometown

Aaron Brooks Oregon 6-0 160 Seattle, WA
Justin Doellman Xavier 6-9 210 Union, KY
Sean Denison Santa Clara 6-11 245 Nelson, British Columbia
Caleb Green Oral Roberts 6-8 255 Tulsa, OK
Jarrius Jackson Texas Tech 6-2 185 Monroe, LA
Trey Johnson Jackson State 6-5 218 Jackson, MS
Carl Landry Purdue 6-7 245 Milwaukee, WI
Dan Nwaelele Air Force 6-5 206 Bothell, WA
DJ Strawberry Maryland 6-5 201 Corona, CA
Kyle Visser Wake Forest 6-11 255 Grand Rapids, MI

- Good job by Bill Self clearing his bench in the Jayhawks easy 107-67 win over Niagara. 14 guys got in the game including little used Brennan Brechard (22 minutes in his career) who even got 4 minutes of PT. Nothing like the memory of getting a few minutes run in the Dance.

- Similar bench-clearing for Florida who ended up beating Jackson State by 43. This game was actually neck and neck for about 15 minutes. Jackson State led 26-25 with 6 minutes to go in the first half. It was 87-43 Florida the rest of the way..

I'm writing today's Dribble in the middle of what has already been a rather exciting day.

#1 Florida fell earlier to unranked Vanderbilt. A week or so back I wrote a Dribble about how the top 10 teams would fare the rest of the season. I predicted the Gators would fall at either LSU or Tennessee, but they'd easily get by the Dores. Well, I was completely wrong on that one. Vandy's two stars, Shan Foster and Derrick Byars, each brought their A games against last year's champions. The two combined for 48 points on 20 of 35 shooting. Vandy was 35th in the AP voting last week and should move up substantially after the big win.

VMI forward Reggie Williams and Winthrop senior Craig Bradshaw have been selected as the Big South Conference Choice Hotels Men’s Basketball Co-Player of the Week.

I guess I need to start with the obligatory congratulations to Bob Knight for breaking the all-time wins record. ESPN has beat this story to death so I really don't have anything interesting to add. My only hope is that they won't keep televising Texas Tech games. This is a slightly above average team that has proven this week that they'd be middle of the pack in the Mountain West Conference. New Mexico was a few missed open lay ups and one or two bad JR Giddens shots away from winning today. Still, 880 wins is 880 wins so the man deserves respect.. at least for a day or so until he obnoxiously goes off on his team or the media or the refs and he loses my respect again..

6-3 Winthrop gave it another good run against a ranked team.. falling in overtime to Wiscosnin. The Eagles pose an interesting problem for how we look at mid-major teams. For example, well-played, close losses at UNC, Maryland, and Wisconsin are impressive and have to count for something. But on the flip side, Winthrop's best win so far is at Mississippi State. We had Winthrop in our CHN Top 50 Ranking.. and I still believe they are a top 50 team.. but there gets to the point that they have to win a big game to warrant the ranking. If Purdue for example lost to those three teams and had only beaten Mississippi State and some nobodies, then it would seem perfectly normal not to put them in the Top 50. The difference though when comparing a Purdue and a Winthrop is that a Winthrop will never have the chance to play the likes of a UNC, Wisconsin, and Maryland on their home floor. Winthrop plays a 5th BCS team this year, Texas A&M, but also on the road. I'd say its an assumption that if a team goes on the road and takes a team to OT, that they would be the favored team at home. Unfortuntely, we may never know.

Favorite: Winthrop. Player of the Year: Jack Leasure. Conference Rank: 19th.

With a deep and experienced roster, Winthrop should once again cruise through the Big South.