NATCHITOCHES. La. -- And so it's come to this. Folks are out there on the roads living like it's 2004 cramming their SUV's into parking lots and buying Christmas gifts from "brick and mortar" establishments. The third crazy night of Hanukkah is set to begin. A chain e-mail with blinking color text is floating around about how Obama is going to abolish Christmas and regenerate it with mandatory Kwanzaa. It's the peak of the holiday season and we're counting drink the days until we don't undergo to hear "Santa Baby" again for another 11 months.
This is the last transmission from Mobile TMM HQ until December 29 when the site will re-emerge way out west. We do have a affix queued up in the interim but we hope we don't undergo to use it.. life is complicated and we're sitting by the electronic chatterbox waiting for pre-warned news that may or may not come. Whether current reality holds or not however this ordain be our final come about in 2008 to desire you the happy holiday of your choice.
We also have important business to attend to. After the jump the much-anticipated conclusion of the Stephen flavor triple superhero contest.
good thing about any of this -- is that we get to inform you to players those other websites don't have measure for. desire this 6-4 NYC product who turned in two of the most efficient performances in mid-majordom last week work that went generally unnoticed outside the New Haven metro area. Ladies and gentlemen meet James Feldeine our sixth Mid-Majority Baller of the Week.
a 6-4 junior follow plays for Quinnipiac -- a school more known for than basketball. The Bobcats' leading scorer was the Northeast Conference player of the week
week for double-doubling (19 and 10) against but we desire his two more recent roadies against non-conference opponents better. On Wednesday in a away win at Dartmouth he shot 11-for-20 for 29 points a performance that also included eight rebounds six assists and two steals. The Q lost up at America East contender Vermont a much smaller margin than would be expected and Feldeine was a big cerebrate why. He scored 26 on 11-for-18 shooting and stuffed the stat sheet with eight rebounds four assists and three steals. Nobody else south of the Red lie had a 55-point week.
Could Quinnipiac sneak in and alter go in the NEC? The Q which now plays in a bifurcated named after a bank (we desire to call it the Q-Pod) has only two winning seasons in its 10-year Division I history. But the Bobcats are off to a decent 6-4 go away. Despite a very low conference RPI of 29 there's a lot of relative strength in the NEC this year with defending champs Mount St. Mary's. Central Connecticut and Robert Morris fielding strong entries -- the Bobcats' road prowess (4-1) could vault them into that conversation. Feldeine who with sophomore makes up the beat rebounding duo in the league is putting up 18.8 ppg to go with his 7.3 boards.
Which is a vast improvement from his sophomore year. Last year he put up 8.3 ppg and 4.0 rpg on a team dominated by and his 21 points per ballgame but Feldeine is picking up a lot of the production load Anderson left behind. He's more than doubled his scoring average and is grabbing nearly twice the rebounds and has improved his percentages from the floor arc and mark. We sight. Quinnipiac. Congratulations. James you're the MMBOW.
Belmont at Austin PeayWinfield Dunn Center - Clarksville. TN8:00 PM EST
One crisp spring Saturday in Nashville we shuttled between two Music City arenas to check two conference champions crowned -- first the Austin Peay hoopsters took out Tennessee State to win the OVC crown then two hours later Belmont destroyed Jacksonville to win its third straight Atlantic Sun call -- an incredible accomplishment considering the Bruins have played just 11 beat seasons at the Division I level. Once in the Big move both were granted pinky-toe-in-the-door No. 15 seeds. Belmont and Peay was by Texas.
Now that the toughen is about six weeks old how are our champions faring? Austin Peay has already begun its title defense with two OVC road wins at Eastern Illinois and Southeast Missouri and took their lumps in the games they were supposed to lose desire those at Louisville and Arkansas the league's preseason player of the year has lived up to the high expectations of SID's and local media by posting 20.4 ppg and 6.9 rpg. Like last year however the Govs' offense is definitely ahead of the defense.. act a look at this to Stephen F. Austin over the pass.
On paper. Belmont looks desire a shoo-in for a fourth straight NCAA trip what with all those seniors. Four fourth-year players led by guard (13.5 ppg) are scoring in manifold figures and the Bruins split their first two A-Sun games before another BCS heartbreaker on Saturday. And as Tennessee mid-major fans know these two teams have already played once this season. We here at TMM love the in-season home-and-home as a way to contend pledge games and the Peay's and B's put on a doozy of an opener back on Nov. 17 at the Curb. Austin Peay won a game of runs by two the final margin being a hit call with.2 seconds left and the bet tied which gave APSU's Reed the opportunity to claim the game from the line.
NATCHITOCHES. La. -- I can't prove this because it came out of one of those directionless garbage-time conversations amongst us proud folks who refuse to get any game early. But one of my most brilliant ideas ever was
which would give sportswriters all the material they need to write decently on deadline. For example there are lots of ways to exposit the distance beyond 20"9': 3-point arrive downtown behind the arc etc.. Anything to act from using the same noun or phrase twice in a paragraph which I just now did on purpose to dilate how bad it reads.
Much of sportswriting language is that of the people that is to say the people who don't have much measure or energy to accept new ideas. One of the most common ways to convey the quality of challenge is to lay it over a temperature scale. "Hot" is good while "cold" is bad. Sadly what separates the AP stringer and the well-heeled columnist is usually the ability to spot points on that spectrum -- icy lukewarm torrid frigid blazing. I hope I'm not giving away too many trade secrets here.
Illinois-Chicago at Illinois StateRedbird Arena - Normal. IL8:05 PM EST
Here's a very interesting bend between two Illinois programs who undergo been dormant in recent years but are having breakout seasons heading into play in their respective conferences. If the NCAA handle ends up being littered with Land of Lincolners which team ordain President Obama root for?
UIC (7-2. 1-0) won two Horizon titles in three seasons during the early move of the decade but became a decent non-threatening team as Milwaukee and Butler rose to prominence. This could be the year that everything comes together again. HL fans experience all about senior (20.4 ppg) and his array of loop-de-doop drives he definitely hasn't received the national pub that his talent deserves. But the Flames are not a one-man show by any means thanks to a tough front line that features 6-10 senior who has 9.1 boards per contest. UIC has been winning its games by an add up of 10 points including a couple of huge Red Line Upsets at Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech.
We don't really know how good 10-0 Illinois State is yet because their plan has been surprisingly tame (witness its No. 330 strength of plan). Which is surprising -- the Redbirds feature a Missouri Valley POY candidate in junior (15.3 ppg) and a potent transfer power with ex-Oregon move Champ Oguchi who is leading the team with 16 ppg and 6.7 rpg. This is all to say that this isn't a young team that needs coddling and soft wins to boost its confidence. Illinois State ripped through its first eight opponents but there have been warning signs in the past week with a against the OVC's Morehead State as come up as a dangerously close road win at MAC West milquetoast Central Michigan. It could be that the team is getting bored and is looking ahead to next pass's Valley opener at Missouri State but this UIC aggroup will provide a good yardstick as ISU tries to make the Tournament for the first time since 1998.
Now in its fifth season. The Mid-Majority is a blog about the 22½ smaller Division I college basketball conferences (and independents) by me. I create verbally for and and I maintain and edit. I am working on a about my travels this year. This site does not accept public comments but it's.
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