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College Basketball NewsFlash

By John Talty

jtalty2003@yahoo.com

December 6th

College Basketball NewsFlash

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, CHN will be brining you the latest news and commentary from the world of college basketball.  Each NewsFlash will feature three important news stories, and sharp commentary on the relevancy of the story.  Check out old articles in the NewsFlash Archive.

Story: Another one bites the dust to George Washington

For the 2^nd night in a row, George Washington upset a Top 15 team. First it was Michigan State and then they defeated Maryland to win the BB&T Classic. The leading scorer in this game was George Washington senior guard T.J. Thompson, who put up 27 points. GW has an extremely balanced offense though and that showed with 5 players scoring in double figures.

My Take: With these 2 huge wins over ranked teams, George Washington now has to be the favorite to win the Atlantic 10. This team looked pretty decent coming into the year, but no one would ever have predicted George Washington to be 5-1 and two of those wins being over Michigan State and Maryland. Maryland did win the battle of the boards 39-35, but just couldn’t drain the shots when they needed them. Another crucial thing that led to a Maryland loss was that they only shot 50% from the line, while George Washington shot 70.8%.

Story: Arizona barely escapes past Mississippi St.

Both teams had high aspirations coming into this season and coming into this game both had 2 losses making it a must win for both to stay in the Top 25. On most days Mississippi St could win this game, but star forward Lawrence Roberts was just not himself. He had only 7 points and 7 rebounds, and with the big man struggling it really makes it hard for the Bulldogs to win. The leading scorers in the game were Winsome Frazier for Mississippi St with 18 and Channing Frye for Arizona with 18.

My Take: Both teams have really been struggling and both teams have not impressed me much. Although at least Mississippi St. has an excuse with Lawrence Roberts still trying to get back to his game after a broken nose. Arizona has no such excuses and even though they won this game, they still were neither sharp nor impressive. Channing Frye for instance could be a dominant player, but he does not get the ball often enough and that’s why they struggle.

Story: North Carolina handles Kentucky easily

Many were not sure what to expect from this game and some even predicted a Kentucky win, but North Carolina’s experience was much too much for Kentucky’s youth. North Carolina looked sharp and finally started playing like I thought they would. Rashad McCants just took over the game and scored 28 points and 4 rebounds. The leading scorer for the Wildcats was junior guard Kelenna Azubuike with 24.

My Take: I think Kentucky has the potential to be a very good team, but with youth comes mistakes. Kentucky will still probably end up winning the SEC, but there most likely will be some bumps along the way. North Carolina on the other hand is playing good now, but they will need to play even better if they want to win the ACC. The key factor for North Carolina is how Sean May plays and in this game he was great. May had 14 points and 19 rebounds. If North Carolina can just step it up a little bit, they'll have a good chance at cutting down the nets in April.