11/14: Daily Dribble

College basketball likes to ease itself into the season.. kind of like a shy guy trying to ask out an attractive girl. But when Duke plays on national tv, its an unoffocial point in this writer's mind that the season has finally begun. Enough with the previews, the predictions, and the prognostications.. on to the Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, you get the point Quaterbacking.. BC losing to Vermont made some headlines last night.. perhaps this is a sign that the loss of Craig Smith will mean more than most anaylsts originally thought. Vermont can play some ball though. This is a team that improved by the day last year, and has a core that could be due for a couple of NCAA Tournament bids over the next handful of years. Also in the ACC, Duke struggled early but pulled away for an easy win over Georgia Southern. Despite the 24 point margin of victory, it was hard to be that overly impressed with the Blue Devils. Josh McRoberts is no longer a big man prospect, and he's not even a power forward either.. the 6-10 former post player has basically become a wing player. Even better (or worse depending on how you think of it), McRoberts seems to have taken a liking to bringing the ball up the court. I'm no Coach K, but seeing big Josh move the ball up the court made me cringe every time.

Nice win for Butler last night versus Notre Dame. For the Bulldogs, AJ Graves exploded for 28 points and hit 8 threes. Butler now plays Indiana (who beat Lafayette last night) in the 2nd round of the NIT Season Tip-Off. Decent win for Big Sky co-favorite NAU who got a win over power conference squad Arizona State last night. The Big Sky's fellow co-favorite Montana didn't fare quite so well, dropping a game to Utah Valley State. This is the 2nd win for UVSU to start the season, beating another Big Sky team, Montana St earlier in the weak. The Wolverines aren't the only Independent team off to a good start.. Savannah State already has a win over Jacksonville.. and perhaps the most shocking win of all was New Jersey Institute of Technology getting a win over Manhattan to start the season. Manhattan was decimated in the off-season by coaching changes and transfers, but this is still a tough way to start the season. It will take Barry Rohrssen time though.. four freshman played over 22 minutes in the loss.