College basketball 2009-10 running thread No. 1

Jermaine Beal, who had 25 points last night, is one of the most underrated players in the SEC. He's one of the more consistent scorers in the conference, and he can fill it up when the 'Dores need him to. Combine him with Ogilvy and Taylor, and Vandy has three very solid scorers. This team has Sweet 16 talent.

 

VCU's Larry Sanders put up 17 and 14 in 19 minutes last night. It was against Towson, but damn. That's doin' work.

 

Last night was a good night for beatdowns in the CAA. VCU beats Towson 112-53 and BYHofstra beat UNC Wilmington 93-54, after which they celebrated the win by dropping men's basketball. And William and Mary's loss to JMU only reinforces my opinion that the bloom has fallen off their rose and that they're probably an NIT team at best (which would at least give them a second NIT participation banner to hang in Kaplan Arena).

 

BYHofstra. Nice. I prefer Softstra, but that works, too.

 

I'd say 18-20-7 is putting it all together. Unless you're talking about a 38-24-17 stat line, and I don't see that happening.

I sure do hope he's unable to play against Mason this year. For whatever reason. Dude will destroy Mason's inside guys.

 

Right now Sanders seems like a 10-year-old in his basketball development. He took the game up so late (right, Moddy?) that you just see him struggling in his head with what he should do and what he should not do.

Didn't he take a bunch of threes earlier this year? And everytime he dribbles in the open court, I just cringe.

But when he plants himself inside he can be a freeking force. He is still figuring out how to jump straight up when blocking a shot and not swatting with his arm, but man has he come a long way from his freshman year.

He has a great touch shooting the ball. Just a great touch. One day he will figure out "his" post move, and when he does, a pro team will be very happy. He already has gotten very good at taking an opening 3-4 feet from the basket and hammering it home. Plus, he has physical strength. He is not a stick who will be shoved around.

He will be a very good pro.

 

Look for an insanely small crowd at the Arkansas/Miss State game tonight in Fayetteville. The combination of the worst Arkansas hoops team in recent memory plus an ice storm could leave 15,000+ empty seats in Bud Walton Arena.

 

State led by 9 or 10 most all of the game, which was staged on the frozen the campus.
Arkansas began a rally with 7 mins left, behind what was an eventual career high 35 from Courtney Fortson.
Hogs won 65-59 or thereabouts.
Ole Miss, meanwhile, topped Auburn and took lead in SEC West by a half game over State.
East is stronger, overall, than West this season.

 

Beatdown was the last go-round for UNCW's Benny Moss: http://hawkshoops.blogs.starnewsonline.com/11392/uncw-fires-moss/