Mississippi St

2008 BOB COUSY AWARD PRESENTED BY THE HARTFORD FINALISTS

DIVISION I
DJ Augustin Texas
Darren Collison UCLA
Devan Downey South Carolina
Jamont Gordon Mississippi State
Mike Green Butler
Dominic James Marquette
Ty Lawson North Carolina
Eric Maynor VCU
Tyrese Rice Boston College
Brian Roberts Dayton
Derrick Rose Memphis
Sean Singletary Virginia

DIVISION II

Mississippi State Bulldogs

There's been some talk on this site about "the bug"...the feeling that college basketball is just around the corner. Well, even though I love college hoops (if I didn't then why am I here?), I'd like to get this fact off of my chest:

College football, you are my crutch.

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State head men's basketball coach Rick Stansbury announced Monday that Bulldog basketball sophomores Reginald Delk, Richard Delk and Bernard Rimmer have decided to transfer following the spring semester.

"Reginald, Richard and Bernard are all good people from terrific families, and we wish them the very best of luck in their future endeavors," Stansbury said. "All three players are looking to play more minutes and want to play bigger roles than are currently available on this team."

Ohio State's won 12 in a row, but are they really getting better? I envisioned them not only being a grind-it-out, half-court team that beats you 65 to 55.. but also a team that if they were hot offensively would beat you 85 to 55. Oden's quietly putting up 16, 10, and almost 4 blocks per game.. but no one's been exceptional on offense. Luckily no team in the Big Ten can really score the ball this year, so it will be interesting to see how they fare against good teams that push the tempo in March.

Oklahoma State's tumble continues (5 of 6 losses).. getting rocked at home by Texas A&M last night. Its too early to say the Cowboys are done, because they have winnable games left (at Texas Tech, vs Kansas State, at Baylor, at Nebraska).. but they need to get a move on. If they win those 4 and end up 23-8 and 9-7 in the Big 12.. they'll be in the Dance.

Not much going on in college basketball until next Saturday thanks to finals. There were some games of note on Monday.. but mostly I can take today's Dribble to discuss whatever nonsense I please.

The Games. New Top 25 member Oregon improved to 8-0 by blowing out Bethune- Cookman by 28. The big margin gave little used freshman Joevan (a potential All-first name pick) Catron a chance to shine. Catron, who had scored 9 points all season, poured in 15 on 6 of 6 shooting.

New Mexico State's won 5 in a row after a bad 1-3 start. The Aggies were supposed to be an NCAA Tournament contender, but they've still yet to win a game on the road. Senior Elijah Ingram has been hampered with achilles issues all year and has been coming off the bench. The point guard only played 11 minutes in Monday's easy win over UAPB. Transfer Fred Peete, who was supposed to be a major scoring force, has only been mediocre. Peete averaged 13 per game two years ago with Kansas State, but is only averaging 10 so far on a weak 38% from the floor. To make things worse, the shooting guard is just 15 of 27 from the line.

Ben Hansbrough and Mike Mercer take weekly awards.