PointGuard

POST SEASON TOURNAMENT RESULTS Selections: MD-Eastern Shore 4th seed, South Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 2nd seed, South Alcorn State, 12th seed, West NIT: Round 1: Arkansas-Pine Bluff (21-9)-97, Detroit Mercy-94 [OT] (Kwame Mickens-26 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk; Chris Betts-18 pts, 13 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk) Stony Brook-75, MD-Eastern Shore (20-9)-66 (Frank Davis-15 pts, 5 reb, 1 stl, 1 blk) Round 2: Arkansas-Pine Bluff (22-9)-78, Dayton-76 (Kwame Mickens-23 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 1 blk; Damian Carrington-19 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast) Round 3 (Quarterfinals): Arkansas-Pine Bluff (23-9)-103, Fresno State-79 (Kwame Mickens-17 pts, 11 reb, 11 ast, 1 stl, 3 blk; Chris Beggs-26 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk; Jaraan Daniels-17 pts, 9 reb, 1 stl) Round 4 (Semifinals): Arkansas-Pine Bluff (24-9)-95, Missouri-88 (Kwame Mickens-26 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast; Dan Jefferson-20 pts, 1 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl) Round 5 (Championship): Akron-84, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (24-10)-68 (Dan Jefferson-16 pts, 3 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) NCAA: Round 1: Duke-81, Alcorn State (24-7)-72 (Craig Brown-23 pts, 2 reb, 4 ast) Championships: CIT: Marquette CBI: Notre Dame NIT: Akron NCAA: Arizona

Feb. 20, 2030: #8 ranked Boston College (20-7, 11-5) vs #9 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (20-6, 9-6) at Edmund P. Joyce Center in South Bend, IN Father Edmond Southworth This is the 2nd of 3 straight road games. With only a single game against a strong Notre Dame team, it would be better if it were a home game. The Fighting Irish have been streaky this season though. Two long win streaks of 13 and 7 games and two 3-game losing streaks. The Fighting Irish are presently saddled with the last of these losing streaks. Notre Dame’s SG Jay Butler and SF Dwight Oliver are averaging 17.5 ppg and 12.5 ppg, respectively. Both shoot well from 3-point range. For us, Bobby Grannum is still dealing with a minor ankle injury and isn’t 100 per cent. I’m pleased to have been chosen to make the trip with our team. I enjoy getting together with the priests at Notre Dame, but hope that our team will beat theirs. I’m staying in South Bend for a few days after the game for some meetings, and then will be flying to Blacksburg, VA to be with the team for the last game of this road trip 4 days from now. Following that game I’ll fly back to Boston with the team. We arrived in South Bend on Saturday, so yesterday I was able to lead the team in a Sunday mass just for them. One of the team members had some personal issues that he wanted to discuss and he and I met this morning. He seemed relieved by the guidance I provided, but I will follow up with him when we return to campus. Obviously I can’t reveal the players name or any details about his problem. The Eagles got off to a good start, with strong defense they pulled out to a 13-5 lead after 6 minutes of play. 4 minutes later they were on top 24-7. With 6 minutes to go in the half, the Eagles had increased their lead to 35-14. Even though the 21 point lead held, I’m guessing Coach Aura will get on his team about their letting up defensively and giving up 13 points in the final 6 minutes. BC holds a comfortable 48-27 lead, though going into the 2nd half. Coach Evans told me we outshot Notre Dame 51% to 43%, out-rebounded them 19-10 and had a 12-5 turnover advantage. Glen Robinson was the top scorer with 12 points while Courtland Reese had 9 points and 7 rebounds. Notre Dame began cutting into the lead in the second half and with 10-1/4 minutes to go the score was 60-50. Coach Aura settled his team down and they rallied for a convincing 90-69 victory. Glen Robinson played well at 3 positions (SG, PG and SF) and scored 22 points and he and the rest of the bench tallied a total of 53 points. SG Corey Graham chipped in 18 points. C Courtland Reese scored 12, grabbed 11 boards, and blocked 4 shots. The Eagles held Jay Butler to just 2 points.

Thanks...was budy with CB22 beta testing. Duke's damned good this season. BC boys wanted to pin first ACC loss on the Blue Devils but got buried instead.

Team & Player Stats and Coach Comments Terry Morillo, Western Illinois Leathernecks Team Stats: Season Record: 15-15; Conference V Record: 9-7 (tie for 5th) Offense: 70.3 ppg (205th best); Defense: 70.8 ppg (156th best) Assists: 18.1 apg (90th best); Rebounds: 28.0 rpg (323rd best); FG%: 52.4% (2nd best) Player Stats (G/GS/MPG—PPG/RPG/APG): Guillermo Cabrera, SR (30/29/25.8—12.6/5.4/1.3) Daniel Blair, SR (30/29/25.3—5.1/3.5/2.2) Mohamed White, SR (30/30/23.8—4.9/2.8/2.9) Duany Vaughn, SR (26/23/22.6—6.7/1.4/2.7) Craig Grant, FR (30/30/21.9—12.4/4.2/1.2) Tom Daniel, SO (30/7/18.3—5.5/1.3/2.4) Jamar Curtis, JR (30/1/16.7—10.6/3.0/0.9) Edwin Dukes, SR (30/0/13.3—4.5/0.8/2.5) Brian Manheimer, JR (30/1/13.3—4.1/2.1/0.9) Jamaal Adams, SR (30/0/11.5—3.7/2.9/1.0) Coach Morillo: I was really happy with how our guys came on so strong the last 2 months of the season. We won 10 of our last 13 games. We started slowly but I think Duany Vaughn’s return in January from a very serious injury provided stability within our lineup even though is stats weren’t as strong as they were the past two years. Also Guillermo Cabrera was a huge part of that comeback. Coming from Argentina, his freshman year was just a learning experience, but he began showing real promise in his sophomore season. And then he showed not only talent but true heart as he became our team leader his last two seasons here at Western Illinois. Since I like to rely on veteran players, you have to know that freshman Craig Grant is a big-time player to start the entire season for me at the C position. He played great and showed tremendous potential for the future. With so many of our guys graduating, we’ll have a big job pulling things together this coming season. Ken Yamoto, UC-San Diego Tritons Team Stats: Season Record: 15-13; Conference V Record: 9-7 (tie for 5th) Offense: 72.9 ppg (134th best); Defense: 72.0 ppg (200th best) Assists: 16.9 apg (209th best); Rebounds: 31.2 rpg (148th best) Player Stats (G/GS/MPG—PPG/RPG/APG): Dave Rush, SR (28/28/29.3—10.4/5.0/1.6) Kevin White, FR (28/28/26.6—10.1/1.6/4.3) Gregg Green, JR (28/27/24.8—10.4/3.4/0.9) Shannon Van Hook, JR (21/21/24.5—9.9/6.8/2.0) Donte Madison, SR (28/25/23.7—9.4/3.3/2.0) Brian Kelley, SR (28/1/17.8—4.0/4.3/0.9) Joe Roland, JR (28/7/15.7—6.9/3.2/0.9) Chris Ratliff, JR (28/0/13.4—6.1/1.1/1.4) Brian Thomas, JR (28/3/13.4—2.9/1.1/2.7) Jack Robinson, SO (26/0/7.4—3.3/1.8/0.3) Coach Yamoto: We fell apart the final few weeks of the season. It’s hard to pinpoint the reason for that, but I think we were a better team than our final record would indicate. No excuses, we just need to do better. But next year we’ll have a lot of very experienced players returning, so we’re going to have a lot of depth and that bodes well for our future. We had very balanced scoring throughout our entire starting lineup and 3 of those starters are returning. Mike McMillan, MD-Eastern Shore Hawks Team Stats: Season Record: 20-8; Conference V Record: 13-3 (tie for 1st) Offense: 29.3 ppg (231st best); Defense: 64.3 ppg (14th best) Assists: 17.9 apg (102nd best); Rebounds: 29.6 rpg (239th best); FG%: 48.3% (47th best); 3P%: 37.7% (47th best) Player Stats (G/GS/MPG—PPG/RPG/APG): Frank Reed, JR (28/28/29.8—11.6/4.7/2.0) Matt Brown, SR (28/28/29.2—7.6/2.2/5.1) Frank Davis, JR (28/27/27.9—11.4/3.0/2.6) Dwayne Bullett, SO (28/28/26.4—9.6/4.6/1.3) Romolo Pantini, JR (28/28/25.9—11.1/7.0/2.0) Tony Rueter, SO (28/0/16.2—6.1/2.9/1.3) Joe Carson, JR (28/0/12.6—3.8/2.3/0.9) Edouard Gaultier, SO (28/1/10.8—4.7/1.3/1.3) Ewald Leitenberger, SO (28/0/10.3—1.9/0.6/1.0) Coach McMillan: This was quite a season! My guys just did such a great job. Finishing atop the Conference V standings was a thrill. Losing in the conference tournament, not so much. But the whole team is excited about participating in the NIT Tourney starting later this week. Losing that conference tourney game made them realize that at this point in the season we have to go out and win each and every game. Our defense this season has been extremely strong ad that can carry us a long way. While Romolo Pantini is typically a big part of our offense, we have 7 or 8 guys who can have breakout games at ny time. We have a lot of guys returning next season so the future looks bright. Dontell Spencer, Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions Team Stats: Season Record: 20-9; Conference U Record: 13-3 (2nd) Offense: 83.2 ppg (5th best); Defense: 73.8 ppg (252nd best) Assists: 21.0apg (5th best); Rebounds: 32.1 rpg (104th best); FG%: 48.2% (29th best); 3P%: 41.7% (3rd best) Player Stats (G/GS/MPG—PPG/RPG/APG): Kwame Mickens, JR (29/29/29.6—15.1/4.0/6.3) Dan Jefferson, FR (29/29/25.3—14.2/3.0/2.1) Damian Carrington, SR (29/25/24.8—10.0/1.5/2.6) Chris Betts, FR (29/29/24.3—11.9/5.4/1.9) Jaraan Daniels, SR (29/29/21.4—6.1/5.9/1.8) Dwayne Robinson, JR (29/4/16.3—7.8/1.4/2.3) Antonio Gailey, SO (29/0/15.3—4.5/4.3/1.0) Jacob Allen, SO (29/0/14.8—4.4/2.9/0.9) Jamar Brown, JR (28/0/13.0—4.5/2.4/1.0) Coach Spencer: We surprised a lot of people this year with how well we played, our potent offense, and by finishing in 2nd place in Conference U. We would have liked to get to the NCAA tournament again but hope to do some serious damage in the NIT and want to get to Madison Square Garden for the Final Four and Championship. Kwame Mickens just does it all for us. He’s such a great player. But our two freshmen, Chris Betts and Dan Jefferson, came on much stronger than we expected. Chris had been dynamite inside and Dan is just such a great shooter from outside. Ramon Montez, Alcorn State Braves Team Stats: Season Record: 24-6; Conference U Record: 14-2 (1st) Offense: 75.6 ppg (80th best); Defense: 68.4 ppg (85th best) Assists: 18.6 apg (53rd best); Rebounds: 31.0 rpg (159th best); FG%: 49.7% (16th best) Player Stats (G/GS/MPG—PPG/RPG/APG): Harold Hein, FR (30/28/29.5—6.0/3.9/2.8) Craig Brown, JR (30/30/27.5—12.6/2.9/2.3) Dana Turner, SR (30/30/27.3—7.3/2.0/4.2) Will Friel, JR (30/30/27.0—12.9/6.7/1.0) Gabriel Atwood, JR (30/29/23.3—11.7/6.5/1.5) Virgil Brown, JR (30/2/17.9—7.8/3.2/1.4) Bernie Graham, SO (30/1/15.7—9.3/3.3/1.1) Todd Young, SO (30/0/14.2—4.2/1.2/2.7) Steve Heard, SR (30/0/8.6The team —1.9/0.7/1.2) Coach Montez: We have a strong starting unit, but the nice thing is that Virgil Brown and Bernie Graham started a few games and are good enough that they could have started all season. Gabriel Atwood, Will Friel and Bernie Graham give us real strength inside with strong scoring, rebounding and defense. Our team was just so consistent this season, except for the 3 game losing streak in pre-conference play. We’re stoked to be going to the NCAA Tournament.

Feb. 15, 2030: #9 Boston College Eagles (20-6, 11-4) vs #2 ranked Duke Blue Devils (25-1, 14-0) at Cameron Indoor Stadium at Durham, NC Coach Fred Aura Duke got by us by a 69-63 score when we played them on our court 3 weeks ago. While that’s closer than any ACC team has got to the Blue Devils, they’re prohibitive favorites tonight on their court. Even though there is little likelihood we can catch up with them in the standings this season, I’d sure like to gain an upset to let them know we won’t roll over to them if we meet again in the ACC tourney. Duke has been so dominant primarily due to the best defense in the nation (55.2 ppg and 9.0 spg and 6.4 bpg) and the offense that freshman SG Trent Coleman has delivered (24.0 ppg). We “held” him to 22 and he had to score 10 of those at the foul line. But he scored 38 in Duke’s game earlier this week against Miami. We’ll try again to keep him in check, but play him too tight and he just draws fouls and scores againt you that way. Inside Duke has ever-dominant C Brian Taylor (11.7 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 1.8 bpg). We’ll try to get the ball inside to Courtland Reese and hopefully get Taylor into early foul trouble. PG Bobby Grannum tweaked his ankle in our practice two days ago…while he’ll play, I suspect we’ll have to limit his playing time. It took us 2-1/2 minutes to get on the board and Duke had 6 points by then. We were getting the ball inside but Taylor was making it tough for Copeland Reese to get clear shots or blocking shots. 7 minutes into the game, Bobby Grannum was totally ineffective and we had hit just 1 of 8 shots, had 3 shots blocked, had 5 turnovers including 4 steals and trailed 15-2 with Brian Taylor having already scored 9 points. Time to change our strategy which hadn’t working at all. We finally got Taylor into foul trouble, but it took us 16 minutes to do so and by then we trailed 31-17. We were in deep trouble after the first half…behind 44-20. We hit just 31% of our shots, were out-rebounded 16-14, made 10 turnovers, and had scored 6 less points at the foul line. Brian Taylor had 11 points and Trent Coleman scored 10 in the first half for Duke. The best we could do in the 2nd half was to reduce the lead to 19 points. But it was all downhill from there. Duke simply destroyed our offense and we got crushed 76-41. We could only convert 29% of our FGA’s and 18% of our 3PA’s. We had 19 turnovers and Duke blocked 6 shots and stole the ball 10 times. The Blue Devils held a 39-26 rebounding advantage. All-in-all a simply horrible game. We left the court with our tails between our legs. C Courtland Reese was our only player to score more than 8 points…he had 13 points. The only positive thing tonight was that North Carolina got beat by Florida State, and we therefore were able to hold onto a ½ game lead over the Tar Heels for 2nd place in the ACC. We just have to put our game of tonight behind us and move on to try to win the final 4 games of the regular season and enter the ACC tourney with momentum.

Conference V Tournament Results: Day 1: #12 seed NC Central-65, #5 seed UC-San Diego (15-13)-53 (Gregg Green-10 pts, 2 ast, 1 stl) #6 seed Western Illinois (14-14)-67, #11 seed Houston Baptist-53 (Guillermo Cabrera-21 pts, 7 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk) #7 seed Longwood-81, #10 seed SIU-Edwardsville-56 #8 seed Mississippi Valley-77, #9 seed Eastern Illinois-63 Day 2 (Quarterfinals): #8 seed Mississippi Valley-69, #1 seed MD-Eastern Shore-64 (Frank Davis-21 pts, 6 reb) #2 seed Kennesaw State-66, #7 seed Longwood-52 #6 seed Western Illinois (15-14)-77, #3 seed Presbyterian-54 (Craig Grant-20 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl; Jamar Curtis-18 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk) #4 seed North Alabama-84, #12 seed NC Central-69 Day 3 (Semifinals): #4 seed North Alabama-70, #8 seed Mississippi Valley-64 #2 seed Kennesaw State-61, #6 seed Western Illinois (15-15)-53 (Guillermo Cabrera-14 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk. Craig Grant-12 pts, 9 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl) Day 4 (Championship): #4 seed North Alabama-66, #2 seed Kennesaw State-65

February 13, 2030: #23 ranked North Carolina State Wolfpack vs #9 Boston College Eagles (19-6, 10-4) at Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, MA 3rd Assistant Coach Jeremy Anderson (scouting) We beat the Wolfpack by 9 points on their court earlier this season. We’re stronger at PG and C and maybe have a slight advantage otherwise. NC State runs a fairly fast pace offense with a lot of offensive freedom. When they use sets they prefer running a high post offense but also mix in the Princeton and 5-out offenses. Defensively they’re primarily m-2-m and if when in a zone, it’s a 2-3 zone. They don’t press much. Thus far they’ve not been too successful on the road this season, but they’re a team that is dangerous at any time and did beat #8 ranked Notre Dame on the road several weeks ago. Their primary scorer is senior SG Michael Cox who hits a high percentage of his shots and is averaging 13 ppg so we’ll try to contain him. 2nd Assistant Coach Chris Evans Our banged up players are back to 100%. NC State looked loose in the warmups. I hope we’re ready to execute from the get-go. Damn! They hit a 3 off the tip-off. At the first media time-out they had hit 4 of 7 from beyond the arc and led 16-6. Coach Aura focused on defense during the time out. We held them scoreless the next 3 minutes but our offense wasn’t particularly effective and we only closed the difference to 5 points. But the Wolfpack just was generally outplaying us. We could get no closer and with 8 minutes to go we trailed 27-19. Coach Aura was shuffling players in to try to stimulate some excitement and get a lineup on the court that would click. We got within 2 points a couple times, but then either we’d miss a series of shots, have a big turnover, or let NC State get some clear shots and we’d fall behind again. When the half ended we were in a 41-34 hole and NC State did that without getting to the foul line at all. We were out-rebounded and outshot by the Wolfpack. Our only players who really looked good were Darius Hein and Winston Minahan. Coach Aura tried turning up the intensity meter during halftime. We played another uninspired 6 minutes at the beginning of the 2nd half, dropping behind by as much as 10 points. Led by Corey Graham, we then put together a strong run that gave us a 53-51 lead with 11 minutes to go. NC State didn’t fold though. They recaptured a 2 point lead with 6 minutes remaining. But we came back. With 4 minutes left, Corey Graham hit a baseline jumper and completed the 3 point play by sinking the foul shot to give us a 72-66 lead. The Wolfpack began hitting shots but so did we and the point differential bounced around between 2 and 8 points. Graham continued to connect and his 15 footer with a minute remaining put us up 80-75. The Wolfpack sank a pair of free throws to close to within 3 with 47 seconds to go. Courtland Reese tipped in a shot and our lead rose back to 5 with 34 seconds on the clock. They missed a 3 and then fouled Graham who coolly sunk both shots. There wasn’t enough time for them to recover and we won a hard-fought 84-77 battle. A strong offensive second half offset our otherwise dispirited play. We needed the win since our next game is at Duke and the Blue Demons still remain undefeated in ACC play. SG Corey Graham had a phenomenal 2nd half finishing with 30 points to go along with 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block. PG Bobby Grannum had a double-double with 10 points and 12 assists. C Courtland Reese scored 10 points. Danny Toliver: “If it hadn’t been for Corey playing so well, we’d have lost this game. We just couldn’t get into a good rhythm as a team, so Corey just took it on himself to carry us to a victory. He got some good support from Bobby’s double-double. I’m always impressed by a guy who can do that with one of the double digits being assists.”

Conference U Tournament Results: Day 1: #12 seed Delaware State-63, #5 seed Nicholls State-44 #6 seed North Dakota-83, #11 seed Dartmouth-67 #7 seed Morgan State-88, #10 seed SE Missouri State-76 #8 seed Tennessee Martin-67, #9 seed Howard-58 Day 2 (Quarterfinals): #1 seed Alcorn State (22-6)-71, #8 seed Tennessee Martin-64 (Harold Hein-12 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk; Will Friel-13 pts, 10 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk) #2 seed Arkansas-Pine Bluff (20-8)-93, #7 seed Morgan State-79 (Kwame Mickens-17 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk) #6 seed North Dakota-70, #3 seed Seattle-59 #4 seed Central Arkansas-88, #12 seed Delaware State-63 Day 3 (Semifinals): #1 seed Alcorn State (23-6)-71, #4 seed Central Arkansas-62 (Gabriel Atwood-12 pts, 8 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk; Dana Turner-17 pts, 2 reb, 6 ast) #6 seed North Dakota-86, #2 seed Arkansas-Pine Bluff-83 (Chris Betts-18 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl; Kwame Mickens-16 pts, 6 reb, 7 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) Day 4 (Championship): #1 seed Alcorn State (24-6)-81, #6 seed North Dakota-62 (Bernie Graham-27 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk)

Results of March 2035 Games: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions coached by Dontell Spencer, Conf U Arkansas-Pine Bluff (18-8, 12-3)-85, Dartmouth-69 (Dan Jefferson-21 pts) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (19-8, 13-3)-83, South Carolina State-71 (Kwame Mickens-19 pts, 6 reb, 10 ast; Dan Jefferson-20 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk) Alcorn State Braves coached by Ramon Montez, Conf U Central Arkansas-95, Alcorn State (20-6, 13-2)-78 (Will Friel-27 pts, 11 reb) Alcorn State (21-6, 14-2)-87, Nicholls State-66 (Will Friel-20 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl; Gabriel Atwood-18 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast) Western Illinois Leathernecks coached by Terry Morillo, Conf V Western Illinois (13-14, 9-7)-70, NC-Central-52 (Craig Grant-26 pts, 6 reb) MD-Eastern Shore Hawks coached by Mike McMillan, Conf V MD-Eastern Shore (20-7, 13-3)-71, UC-San Diego-64 (Frank Reed-16 pts, 2 reb, 2 ast, 3 blk) UC-San Diego Tritons coached by Ken Yamoto, Conf V MD-Eastern Shore-71, UC-San Diego (15-12, 9-7)-64 (Dave Rush-18 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk) INJURY: Byron Kelley sprained his finger and while it’s likely he won’t be sidelined, his play may suffer until the injury is fully healed in about 1 week-an-a-half. SUMMARIZATION OF THE FIVE TEAM’S CONFERENCE PLAY: Overall this was a very good year for the five coaches and their teams. In Conference U, Alcorn State finished in 1st place and Arkansas-Pine Bluff finished in 2nd place, so both teams will be promoted to Conference T next season. MD-Eastern Shore finished in a 3-way tie for 1st place in Conference V. UC-San Diego and Western Illinois finished tied for 5th place. Therefore MD-Eastern Shore has qualified for advancement to Conference U next year, while the only way either UC-San Diego or Western Illinois can be advanced is for one of them to win the Conference V tournament.

February 10, 2030: Wake Forest Demon Deacons (8-14, 2-11) vs #9 Boston College Eagles (18-6, 9-4) at Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, MA SG Adrian Moss I’m pretty bummed. I like playing, not sitting on the bench. I figured I’d get some good minutes this season. That’s certainly not been the case. It’s no wonder my shooting’s been off this year. You gotta play to get in the rhythm. Clemson has trouble scoring, mainly because they’re a poor rebounding team so they get fewer shots that their opponents. We should cruise through this game. I hope that means more play time for me. Five minutes into the game and we’re up 16-5…put me in coach! Hey it worked. A minute later and he’s sending me in with up on top 18-10. I got my man to put up a 3PA…got my hand in his face and he missed. Couldn’t get off any shots…each time I got the ball they were all over me and I couldn’t get a clear shot. I wish Coach Fed has as much respect for my offensive prowess. We were ahead 28-14 when I was subbed out. Glen Robinson is having another hot night, hitting shots from all over the court. We go up by 21 with just over 4 minutes to go in the half. I got back into the game with just over a minute to play in the half. When the half ends we lead 47-26…crushing the Demon Deacons just like I figured we would. Robinson scored 15 points. Bobby Grannum picks up his 3rd foul with 16-1/2 minutes remaining and us ahead 53-28. Coach Fed moves Corey Graham over to the point and puts me in at SG. During the media timeout, Coach Fed gives me a pat on the back for good defense. A minute later I get inside and grab a rebound away from a taller Wake Forest player. Then anticipating the play I step in to cut off my guy and the pass intended for him sails out of bounds. On the next possession, I force my man to move his pivot foot for another turnover. I then pull down another rebound, but my pass is off target and it skittles out of bounds. When I leave the court we’re ahead 57-30. With a little under 4 minutes remaining and us ahead 69-35, I’m back in. I still haven’t got a shot this game, so hoping to get free. The Demon Deacons get the ball into my man down close on the baseline and I make him miss the shot, but the ref calls me for tapping his arm. I finally get off an 18 footer, but it doesn’t go down. But on our next possession, I find Keith Kolder who hits the shot and I get the assist. I get another assist on our next possession. I grab another rebound just before the game ends. We stomp Wake Forest 79-42. Another good defensive game for us…the Demon Deacons hit just 26% of their shots and had 17 turnovers. We owned the boards, 40-23. Leading our scoring was SF/SG Glen Robinson with 19 points. C Tim Cotton scored 13. C Courtland Reese had 11 and PF Danny Toliver added 10. I didn’t score, having only got off one shot, but had 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block. I got to play 16 minutes which is far more than I’ve been getting normally.

Feb. 8, 2030: Clemson Tigers (13-10, 5-7) vs #9 Boston College Eagles (17-6, 8-4) at Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, MA Phil Connelly, event security We had a monster storm…Clemson just flew in before the weather got really snotty. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a game tonight. While maybe the worst of it’s over, it’s still cold, windy and snowy outside. That’s cut down the fan attendance in a big way. While some people got to the game, it definitely feels empty here inside Conte Forum. But it should make my job easy and make it possible for me to watch more of the game. Both teams are not shooting well. But Clemson’s been careless with their passes and the Eagles are picking off a bunch of them. After 8 minutes of play, BC is ahead 14-6. Courtland Reese is getting to the basket and chewing up the Tigers’ zone defense. He’s already got 11 points and the Eagles lead 31-16 with 5 minutes left in the half. At the half, Boston College holds a 38-20 lead. Clemson hit just 21% of the shots and just 2 of 16 from outside the arc. Corey Graham had a horrible first half, but he’s found his shooting eye in the 2nd half. BC’s leading 54-30 with just over 13 minutes to play. That meant lots of playing time for the Eagles’ bench. BC gets an easy win by a final score of 74-53. Clemson hit just 30% of their shots, but the Eagles could only knock down 38% of theirs. But BC dominated the boards 54-37. The Eagles are now in a 3-way tie for 2nd place, but Duke is running away in the race for the conference title. C Courtland Reese—13 points/8 rebounds; SG Corey Graham—13 points; PG Bobby Grannum-12 points/5 rebounds/6 assists; PF Danny Toliver—11 points/12 rebounds/2 steals/4 blocks; SF/SG Glen Robinson—9 points by hitting 3 of 4 three-pointers.

Results of February 2035 Games: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions coached by Dontell Spencer, Conf U Arkansas-Pine Bluff (12-6, 6-1)-80, Seattle-66 (Dan Jefferson-16 pts, 6 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl; Dwayne Robinson-15 pts, 3 ast, 1 stl) Alcorn State-93, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (12-7, 6-2)-84 (Dwayne Robinson-21 pts, 1 reb, 2 ast) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (13-7, 7-2)-95, Tennessee-Martin-62 (Dan Jefferson-33 pts, 2 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk) Central Arkansas-107, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (13-8, 7-3)-98 (Dan Jefferson-20 pts; Kwame Mickens-13 pts, 5 reb, 11 ast) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (14-8, 8-3)-95, Nicholls State-71 (Kwame Mickens-21 pts, 3 reb, 8 ast, 5 stl, 2 blk; Chris Betts-20 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (15-8, 9-3)-92, Howard -69 (Kwame Mickens-22 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk; Damian Carrington-18 pts, 1 reb, 5 ast) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (16-8, 10-3)-77, SE Missouri State-66 (Damian Carrington-19 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast; Chris Betts-14 pts, 11 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 3 blk) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (17-8, 11-3)-97, Delaware State-70 (Dan Jefferson-29 pts, 1 reb, 2 ast) INJURY: Dwayne Robinson-strained calf (full recovery expected in 2 weeks) AWARD: Kwame Mickens-Conf U Player of the Week-Wk 14) COMMENT: Another very good month of play by Arkansas-Pine Bluff, winning 6 of 8 games. In their wins, they held opponents to 62-71 points, but their defense disappeared in their two losses. The Golden Lions are now alone in 2nd place in Conf U. Freshman SF Dan Jefferson continues to surprise, hitting 51% of his FGA’s and 46% of his 3PA’s and averaging 14.2 ppg which is 2nd on the team only to SG Kwame Mickens who is averaging 14.9 ppg. The Golden Lions are getting good production from another freshman, C Chris Betts who is averaging 11.8 ppg and 5.5 rpg. PG’s Damian Carrington and Dwayne Robinson have combined to average 17.1 ppg. Alcorn State Braves coached by Ramon Montez, Conf U Alcorn State (13-5, 6-1)-81, Central Connecticut-70 (Gabriel Atwood-17 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl) Alcorn State (14-5, 7-1)-93, Arkansas-Pine Bluff-84 (Gabriel Atwood-19 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast, 2 Stl, 1 blk; Craig Brown-18 pts) Alcorn State (15-5, 8-1)-71, Dartmouth-59 (Gabriel Atwood-19 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) Alcorn State (16-5, 9-1)-99, Delaware State-72 (Gabriel Atwood-29 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk; Craig Brown-23 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 4 stl) Alcorn State (17-5, 10-1)-77, South Carolina State-68 (Craig Brown-21 pts, 5 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk) Alcorn State (18-5, 11-1)-70, North Dakota-61 (Gabriel Atwood-16 pts, 14 reb, 1 ast, 3 blk) Alcorn State (19-5, 12-1)-82, Morgan State-77 (Will Friel-19 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk) Alcorn State (20-5, 13-1)-70, Tennessee Martin-66 (Gabriel Atwood-12 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 5 stl, 3 blk; Will Friel-13 pts, 11 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk) COMMENT: Alcorn State won all 8 of their games in February to capture sole possession of 1st place in the conference standings. C Gabriel Atwood led the team throughout the entire month. He averaged 16.8 ppg and 6.4 rpg in February. But it was defense that really carried the team this month with their opponents averaging less that 70 ppg. Western Illinois Leathernecks coached by Terry Morillo, Conf V Western Illinois (8-11, 4-4)-78, Eastern Illinois-69 (Guillermo Cabrera-20 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) North Alabama-93, Western Illinois (8-12, 4-5)-82 (Guillermo Cabrera-18 pts, 2 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk) Houston Baptist-79, Western Illinois (8-13, 4-6)-68 (Craig Grant-20 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl) Western Illinois (9-13, 5-6)-96, SIU Edwardsville-86 (Duany Vaughn-15 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl) Western Illinois (10-13, 6-6)-80, Alabama State-63 (Craig Grant-23 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast) Western Illinois (11-13, 7-6)-88, Florida A&M-65 (Guillermo Cabrera-21 pts, 10 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) MD-Eastern Shore-54, Western Illinois (11-14, 7-7)-51 (Guillermo Cabrera-12 pts, 5 reb, 1 blk) Western Illinois (12-14, 8-7)-73, UC-San Diego-62 (Jamar Curtis-19 pts, 8 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) AWARD: Craig Grant-Conf V Freshman Player of the Week-Wk 14) COMMENT: The Leathernecks continue to get stronger each succeeding month this season. They are now in a 2-way tie for 6th after winning 5 of 8 games this past month. PF Guillermo Cabrera continues to be the glue that keeps this team together. But the greatest offensive punch comes from the C position where Craig Grant is averaging 11.7 ppg and James Curtis has scored 10.6 ppg. MD-Eastern Shore Hawks coached by Mike McMillan, Conf V North Alabama- 74, MD-Eastern Shore (12-7, 5-3)-64 (Dwayne Bullett-14 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk) MD-Eastern Short (13-7, 6-3)-77, Houston Baptist-68 (Frank Davis-20 pts, 1 reb, 2 ast; Romolo Pantini-14 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 4 stl) MD-Eastern Shore (14-7, 7-3)-67, SIU Edwardsville-58 (Dwayne Bullett-14 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk; Romolo Pantini-10 pts, 10 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk) MD-Eastern Shore (15-7, 8-3)-85, Eastern Illinois-78 (Romolo Pantini-19 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 3 blk; Frank Davis-19 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast) MD-Eastern Shore (16-7, 9-3)-66, Kennesaw State-54 (Frank Davis-21 pts, 3 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk; Romolo Pantini-18 pts, 9 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk) MD-Eastern Shore (17-7, 10-3)-81, Longwood-66 (Frank Davis-19 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl) MD-Eastern Shore (18-7, 11-3)-54, Western Illinois-51 (Frank Reed-13 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl) MD-Eastern Shore (19-7, 12-3)-65, NC-Central-60 (Romolo Pantini-12 pts, 7 reb, 3 ast, 6 stl, 1 blk; Frank Davis-17 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast, 4 stl) COMMENT: MD-Eastern Shore has come on strong and now owns a 7-game win streak. That has put the Hawks in a 2-way tie for 2nd place in the Conf V standings. Different players have stepped up to have high point honors for the Hawks. But C Romolo Pantini has been the rock inside for MD-Eastern Shore. He’s averaging 11.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 2.0 spg, and 1.6 bpg this season. Then there’s the Two Franks…Davis and Reed…who have combined to average 22.5 ppg. UC-San Diego Tritons coached by Ken Yamoto, Conf V UC-San Diego (12-7, 6-2)-74, Houston Baptist-62 (Donte Madison-16 pts, 6 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk) UC-San Diego (13-7, 7-2)-89, SIU Edwardsville-62 (Dave Rush-17 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl; Byron Kelley-10 pts, 8 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl) UC-San Diego (14-7, 8-2)-82, Eastern Illinois-78 [OT] (Gregg Green-20 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk; Donte Madison-19 pts, 5 pts, 3 ast, 1 stl) North Alabama-91, UC-San Diego (14-8, 8-3)-83 (Shannon Van Hook-17 pts, 3 reb, 5 ast, 4 stl) Longwood-69, UC-San Diego (14-9, 8-4)-68 (Kevin White-12 pts, 1 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl; Chris Ratcliff-10 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl) Kennesaw State-81, UC-San Diego (14-10, 8-5)-67 (Shannon Van Hook-14 pts, 10 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk; Dave Rush-16 pts, 6 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl; Gregg Green-17 pts, 1 reb, 2 stl, 3 blk) UC-San Diego (15-10, 9-5)-78, NC-Central-67 (Byron Kelley-17 pts, 5 reb, 1 blk; Shannon Van Hook-10 pts, 10 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk) Western Illinois-73, UC-San Diego (15-11, 9-6)-62 (Kevin White-16 pts) COMMENT: After hanging near the top of the conference standings the first 5 weeks of conference play, the Tritons have slipped into a slump, losing 4 of their last 5 games. That has dropped UC-San Diego into 5th place. A big variety of players led the team each game this month, but all players were inconsistent.

Results of January 2035 Games: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions coached by Dontell Spencer, Conf U Arkansas-Pine Bluff (6-5)-67, Arkansas-56 (Dan Jefferson-17 pts; Chris Betts-8 pts, 7, reb, 5 ast, 6 stl, 1 blk) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (7-5, 1-0)-90, Delaware State-68 (Chris Betts-18 pts, 9 reb, 2 stl) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (8-5, 2-0)-75, Dartmouth-56 (Kwame Mickens-17 pts, 8 reb, 6 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (9-5, 3-0)-87, South Carolina State-60 (Dan Jefferson-25 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (10-5, 4-0)-83, Morgan State-74 (Kwame Mickens-18 pts, 5 ast; Chris Betts-13 pts, 7 reb, 5 stl) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (11-5, 5-0)-86, North Dakota-74 (Kwame Mickens-21 pts, 3 reb, 8 ast, 1 stl, 2 blk; Chris Betts-16 pts, 8 reb, 5 stl, 2 blk North Florida-85, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (11-6, 5-1)-80 (Damian Carrington-16 pts, Dan Jefferson-16 pts) COMMENT: A great month for the Golden Lions starting with a win on the road over cross-state foe Arkansas. Then the team rank off 5 straight wins to open their Conf U season. Overall the team’s defense was strong. Again the team was led by Chris Betts and Kwame Mickens with the addition this month of Dan Jefferson’s scoring. The team is tied for 1st place in Conference U. Alcorn State Braves coached by Ramon Montez, Conf U Tennessee State-67, Alcorn State (7-4)-65 (Bernie Graham-17 pts, 2 reb, 4 ast, 4 stl) Alcorn State (8-4, 1-0)-87, Tennessee-Martin-70 (Will Friel-28 pts, 9 reb) Alcorn State (9-4, 2-0)-85, Central Arkansas-84 (Craig Brown-23 pts) Alcorn State (10-4, 3-0)-70, Nicholls State-65 (Will Friel-17 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk; Gabriel Atwood-15 pts, 8 reb) Alcorn State (11-4, 4-0)-67, Merrimack-62 (Will Friel-17 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast) Alcorn State (12-4, 5-0)-83, SE Missouri State-69 (Will Friel-16 pts, 12 reb, 2 blk) Howard-59, Alcorn State (12-5, 5-1)-43 (Dana Turner-12 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast, 3 stl) COMMENT: After losing their last 3 pre-conference games, the Braves came on strong once conference play began. PF Will Friel led the team, averaging 14.7 ppg and 7.6 rpg in January. Gabriel Atwood and Bernie Graham have combined to average 17.8 ppg and 9.8 rpg this season at the Center position. Alcorn State is tied with Arkansas-Pine Bluff for 1st place in Conference U. Western Illinois Leathernecks coached by Terry Morillo, Conf V Western Illinois (4-7)-87, Evansville-75 (Guillermo Cabrera-25 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl; Craig Grant-20 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast) MD-Eastern Shore-60, Western Illinois (4-8, 0-1)-48 (Guillermo Cabrera-15 pts, 3 reb) UC-San Diego-76, Western Illinois (4-9, 0-2)-63 (Jamar Curtis-24 pts, 8 reb, 2 stl, 2 blk) Western Illinois (5-9, 1-2)-65, NC-Central-47 (Duany Vaughn-19 pts, 2 ast) Presbyterian-91, Western Illinois (5-10, 1-3)-79 (Craig Grant-30 pts, 4 reb) Mississippi Valley-77, Western Illinois (5-11, 1-4)-68 (Craig Grant-18 pts, 6 reb; Guillermo Cabrera-15 pts, 9 reb) Western Illinois (6-11, 2-4)-72, Maine-70 (Guillermo Cabrera-20 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast) Western Illinois (7-11, 3-4)-85, Binghamton-78 (Guillermo Cabrera-12 pts, 5 reb) AWARD: Craig Grant-Conf V Freshman Player of the Week-Wk 11 COMMENT: After a slow start in conference play, the Leathernecks two wins at the end of the month got them to near the middle in the conference standings. It took SG Duany Vaughn’s 6 games after returning to the starting lineup following a year’s rehab of his torn Achilles tendon before he started being productive, but in then in his next 5 games he’s averaged 11 ppg and 4 apg. In January Guillermo Cabrera averaged 14.4 ppg and 6.1 rpg this month and Craig Grant averaged 14.8 ppg to lead the team. MD-Eastern Shore Hawks coached by Mike McMillan, Conf V MD-Eastern Shore (7-4)-83, Oral Roberts-55 (Matt Brown-17 pts, 4 ast) MD-Eastern Shore (8-4, 1-0)-60, Western Illinois-48 (Tony Rueter-17 pts, 5 reb, 3 stl, 2 blk­) MD-Eastern Shore (9-4, 2-0)-64, NC-Central-56 (Frank Reed-15 pts, 6 reb) MD-Eastern Shore (10-4, 3-0)-80, UC-San Diego-72 (Romolo Pantini-13 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl; Matt Brown-8 pts, 8 reb, 10 ast) Mississippi Valley-85, MD-Eastern Shore (10-5, 3-1)-66 (Romolo Pantini-18 pts, 5 reb) MD-Eastern Shore (11-5, 4-1)-73, Maine-49 (Romolo Pantini-14 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast, 3 blk) Binghamton-78, MD-Eastern Shore (11-6, 4-2)-60 (Frank Davis-13 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast) MD-Eastern Shore (12-6, 5-2)-73, Presbyterian-66 (Romolo Pantini-18 pts, 12 reb, 3 ast, 4 stl) COMMENT: When the Hawks played good defense, they won, but when the defense was weak they lost. But overall it was a very good month and got them into a 5-way tie for 2nd place in Conference V. Leading the team this month was C Romolo Pantini, who had a couple rough games, but still averaged 10.9 ppg and 6.6 rpg this month. UC-San Diego Tritons coached by Ken Yamoto, Conf V UC-San Diego (6-5)-74, Texas-San Antonio-54 (Donte Madison-14 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast; Dave Rush-15 pts, 10 reb) UC-San Diego (7-5, 1-0)-67, NC-Central-64 (Dave Rush-19 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl) UC-San Diego (8-5, 2-0)-76, Western Illinois-63 (Donte Madison-18 pts, 2 reb, 4 ast)-72 MD-Eastern Shore-80, UC-San Diego (8-6, 2-1)-72 (Gregg Green-17 pts, 3 reb) UC-San Diego (9-6, 3-1)-80, Maine-73 (Gregg Green, 17 pts, 7 reb; Shannon Van Hook-12 pts, 12 reb, 5 ast, 1 blk) UC-San Diego (10-6, 4-1)-73, Binghamton-64 (Shannon Van Hook-22 pts, 5 reb, 2 ast) Presbyterian-81, UC-San Diego (10-7, 4-2)-78 [OT] (Shannon Van Hook-20 pts, 11 reb) UC-San Diego (11-7, 5-2)-84, Mississippi Valley-62 (Dave Rush-15 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk) COMMENT: The Tritons played very well this month and are now in a 5-way tie for 2nd place in Conference V, despite a heart-breaking overtime loss on the road against Presbyterian. C Shannon Van Hook has come on strong following his return to the lineup after mending from a broken leg. This month he averaged 11.8 ppg and 6.1 rpg. SF Dave Rush also had a good month, averaging 10.8 ppg and 5.9 rpg. Following a very slow start this season, SG Donte Madison began producing, averaging 11.8 ppg in January.

Discussion Amongst the BC Coaching Staff (Fred Aura, Darrell Montgomery, Chris Evans, and Jeremy Anderson) Fred: Duke keeps rolling off victory after victory. They’ve now won 21 games in a row. Jeremy: And during that string they’ve won by double-digit point differentials every time…well that is with the exception of their win over us. Fred: Yes, but they still beat us and they beat us on our home court. That’s not good. What sets Duke apart from everyone else this season? Darrell, Chris and Jeremy in unison: DEFENSE! Fred: Absolutely. The Blue Devils defense this year is simply awesome. 25 games and only two opponents all season have scored 70 or more points against them. Darrell: Yeah, we pride ourselves on our defense. But while it’s good, we’re extremely inconsistent. Right now our players defensive skills are generally good, but we really just have 3 players who I’d rate at excellent defensively. That’s Glen Robinson, Bobby Grannum and James Pruitt…and Pruitt can only practice with us this season. Chris: Yeah, not all Duke players are really good defenders but I’d say that they have 5 players who are excellent defensively and that difference between them and us may explain why they as a team are great defensively and we’re just pretty good defensively. Fred: I’ve been thinking and I believe that the focus of our recruiting needs to change. While we look closely at recruits’ defensive skill, ultimately we look for the overall strongest players and therefore defense often takes a back seat to rebounding and scoring ability. I’m thinking win the e need to prioritize defense over rebounding and scoring in the future. Darrell: That could work as long as the defensive recruits we land also have good rebounding and scoring capabilities. I’m not too interested in having games with final scores of 31-28. Fred: Laughing. OK, OK, I’ll give it more thought before we get into recruiting next summer.

Results of December 2034 Games: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions coached by Dontell Spencer, Conf U Fresno State-76, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (2-4)-55 (Kwame Mickens-22 pts, 5 reb, 5 ast) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-4)-70, Missouri State-59 (Kwame Mickens-23 pts, 3 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (4-4)-92, American-72 (Chris Betts-27 pts, 7 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 1 blk; Kwame Mickens-20 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast, 2 blk) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (5-4)-100, High Point-86 (Chris Betts-32 pts, Kwame Mickens-25 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast, 2 blk) DePaul-84, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (5-5)-79 (Kwame Mickens-21 pts, 2 reb, 5 ast) AWARDS: Dan Jefferson (Conf U Freshman Player of the Week-Wk 4; Chris Betts (Conf U Freshman Player of the Week-Wks 5 and 6, Conf U Player of the Week-Wk 6) COMMENT: It was the Kwame Mickens and Chris Betts show this month for the Golden Lions. Mickens averaged 22.2 ppg during their 5 games and Betts had two huge games in which he scored a total of 59 points and averaged 16.2 ppg and 5.4 rpg in December. The team had a 3 game win-streak sandwiched between losses to two tough teams, Fresno State and DePaul. Alcorn State Braves coached by Ramon Montez, Conf U Alcorn State (5-1)-66, South Florida-63 (Gabriel Atwood-11 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl, 4 blk) Alcorn State (6-1)-79, Mississippi Valley-68 (Gabriel Atwood-13 pts, 10 reb, 4 ast, 2 blk; Will Friel-18 pts, 4 reb) Alcorn State (7-1)-92, Gardner-Webb-66 (Bernie Graham-32 pts, 8 reb, 4 ast, 3 blk) Rice-72, Alcorn State (7-2)-61 (Gabriel Atwood-11 pts, 4 reb) Sacred Heart-71, Alcorn State (7-3)-70 (Harold Hein-13 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast) AWARD: Bernie Graham (Conf U Player of the Week-Wk 5) COMMENT: Alcorn ran their win streak to 7 games before stumbling at the end of December. The Braves had to be warm-hearted by the play of C Gabriel Atwood and the 32 point/8 rebound performance by reserve sophomore C Bernie Graham. That reveals the interior depth that Alcorn State possesses. Western Illinois Leathernecks coached by Terry Morillo, Conf V Howard-66, Western Illinois (2-4)-63 (Tom Daniel-19 pts, 4 reb) #15 Baylor-80, Western Illinois (2-5)-54 (Tom Daniel-17 pts) #17 Michigan-85, Western Illinois (2-6)-54 (Guillermo Cabrera-13 pts) Western Illinois (3-6)-71, Omaha-70 (Guillermo Cabrera-15 pts, 6 reb) SE Louisiana-91, Western Illinois (3-7)-62 (Guillermo Cabrera-16 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast, 2 blk; Craig Grant-17 pts, 2 reb, 3 stl) COMMENT: Western Illinois continue to struggle, although two of their losses this month were to top 25 teams. After a series of weak games, PF Guillermo Cabrera seemed to recapture in the Leathernecks’ last 3 games the scoring power he exhibited last season and is now, once again, the leading scorer and rebounder on the team. MD-Eastern Shore Hawks coached by Mike McMillan, Conf V MD-Eastern Shore (3-3)-68, Massachusetts-64 (Dwayne Bullett-17 pts, 4 stl; Romolo Pantini-10 pts, 11 reb, 2 stl, 2 blk) Southern Methodist-71, MD-Eastern Shore (3-4)-64 (Romolo Pantini-18 pts, 13 reb) MD-Eastern Shore (4-4)-73, Elon-57 (Frank Reed-19 pts, 6 reb) MD-Eastern Shore (5-4)-63, South Carolina-56 (Frank Davis-18 pts) MD-Eastern Shore (6-4)-64, Western Kentucky-61 (Dwayne Bullett-14 pts, 6 reb, 2 stl; Frank Reed-16 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast) COMMENT: December was a good month for the Hawks. 3 of this months wins were over good teams Massachusetts, South Carolina and Western Kentucky). SF Frank Reed leads the team in scoring (15.1 ppg), while C Romolo Pantini is their top rebounder (8.0 rpg) this season. UC-San Diego Tritons coached by Ken Yamoto, Conf V UC-San Diego (3-3)-67, Jacksonville-63 (Chris Ratliff-16 pts, 2 stl) UC-San Diego (4-3)-90, Citadel-75 (Joe Roland-17 pts, 6 ast) Davidson-70, UC-San Diego (4-4)-56 (Joe Roland-11 pts, 4 reb) Rider-77, UC-San Diego (4-5)-73 (Gregg Green-14 pts, 7 reb, 2 stl; Kevin White-15 pts, 3 ast) UC-San Diego (5-5)-75, NC-Asheville-74 (Gregg Green-15 pts, 7 reb) COMMENT: The Tritons continued their up and down performances, sometimes winning games they were not supposed to and then losing games they should have won. UC-San Diego isn’t getting the production they need at SG where Donte Madison is only averaging 7.0 ppg, far beneath his 12.9 ppg last season. Although the team has 3 players averaging between 10.0 and 11.0 ppg, no player can yet be counted upon to score consistently from game to game.

Feb. 3, 2030: #7 ranked Boston College Eagles (17-5, 8-3) vs Pittsburgh Panthers (10-10, 3-8) at Petersen Events Center in Pittsburgh, PA 3rd Assistant Coach Jeremy Anderson I was scouting teams earlier this week but was able to catch up with our team here in Pittsburgh for the game against the Panthers. C Tim Cotton has been given a clean bill of health and will be playing tonight. SF/SG Glen Robinson is still experiencing a bit of pain in his foot, so we again hope to not have to play him. Our athletic trainers feel it’s just another day or two before he’s 100%, though. C Courtland Reese is likely to be out at least another week. Wayne Minahan’s outstanding play in our last game has earned him another start at C tonight, but Tim Cotton should also get extensive minutes so we’ll have more interior depth than we had in our last game. And that means that we can return to our regular defensive intensity for this game. Pitt’s strength is inside. PF Marquest Mohr is averaging 15.0 ppg and 8.6 rpg and C John Mahorn’s averages 10.9 ppg and 5.0 rpg. Mohr is a freshman but is very talented. The Panthers like to run their offense through him so he can put up a lot more shots. So the more we can keep his hands off the ball, the better. Mahorn puts a high percentage of his shots in the hoop, so we need to try to keep him from getting clear shots. Their PG’s also shoot well, but don’t take a lot of shots. They employ a lot of offensive freedom, but when they use sets its mainly shuffle with a little flex. They don’t put a lot of points on the board, though. Defensively they primarily use m-2-m with a little 1-3-1 zone thrown in. They don’t press much except in the latter stages of a close game. If our perimeter players have good games and we attach the boards, I think we have a good chance. With the refs putting us into early foul trouble, Pittsburgh gets off to a hot start taking a 18-7 lead 6-1/2 minutes into the game. By the time the 2nd media timeout comes around, the Panthers had torched the nets, hitting 9 of 11 shots and led 24-15. Midway through the half, the refs had saddled 3 of our starters with 2 fouls apiece and they were riding the bench. We finally got Pittsburgh to miss some shots and we crept up on them, trailing 32-30 with 8 minutes to go in the half. The refs were atrocious, calling fouls on nearly every possession. With 3 of our big men on the bench with foul trouble, we were getting dominated on the boards. With a minute left in the half, Corey Graham sunk a 3 to put us ahead by a point. Then he repeated it on our next possession. And we leave the court at the half on top 52-48. We hit 55% of our shots, Pitt hit 56% of theirs. The way the refs are calling fouls is making it impossible to play tight defense. We score the first 5 points of the 2nd half, but Pittsburgh fights back to retake the lead with 14 minutes to go. The lead then shifted back and forth until our play got sloppy allowing the Panthers to go on an 13-0 run and we fell behind 83-69 with 5-1/2 minutes remaining. We were unable to make a run to catch up and took a 92-79 beating. Pittsburgh’s C John Mahorn topped all scorers with 25 points. Five of our players scored in double figures (SG Corey Graham-18; C Winston Minahan-17; PF Danny Toliver-11, SF/SG Glen Robinson-11; and PG Bobby Grannum-10), but it wasn’t enough. We just got outplayed late in the game. We slid into a tie for 3rd place in the ACC.

Fred Aura We had a talented SF playing for us during the 2026-27 season who was a highly ranked (#59) recruit the year before. His name…Sam Dickens. As a freshman that season, he averaged 9.2 ppg and 5.9 rpg and played solid defense for us. I thought we’d be very strong at the SF position for the next 3 seasons. But I was wrong. Sam surprised us by transferring to githe University of Wisconsin. That earned him a year of ineligibility. In the 2028-29 season Sam was a sophomore eligibility-wise but the Badgers only started him in 3 games. He averaged 17.3 mpg and scored 5.2 ppg and grabbed 3.3 rpg but his defense was outstanding. Now this season, as a junior he is starting every game and averaging 7.0 ppg and 5.5 rpg. I spoke with him earlier this week. He’s happy in Madison, Wisconsin so I guess his path has been a positive one. The other player who transferred away from our program was Mike Braxton before this season. Mike is sitting out this season due to being ineligible. But looking at Virginia Tech’s roster and recruiting this year, I’d say Mike has a good chance to be a starter next year. Coach Nathaniel better start him or he’s likely to have an unhappy camper on his team.

Results of November 2034 Games: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions coached by Dontell Spencer, Conf U Creighton-91, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-1)-81 (Dan Jefferson-23 pts, 3 ast) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-1)-94, Albany-80 (Dan Jefferson-26 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast; Kwame Mickens-18 pts, 4 reb, 5 ast, 2 blk) Stanford-69, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-2)-66 (Dan Jefferson-21 pts) MD-Eastern Shore-84, Arkansas-Pine Bluff (1-3)-63 (Kwame Mickens-13 pts, 4 reb) Arkansas-Pine Bluff (2-3)-83, Presbyterian-58 (Chris Betts-14 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk; Jaraan Daniels-16 pts, 10 reb) AWARDS-Dan Jefferson (Conf U Player of the Week and Freshman of the Week-Wk 1) COMMENT: Two of the Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s losses were against very strong opponents…Creighton, the Golden Lions, first opponents is now ranked 18th in the Media Poll and a very close loss on the road to Pac-12’s Stanford. Freshman Dan Jefferson got off to a hot start, scoring 20 points in his first 3 games, but that led opponents in the next two games to defend him extremely tightly and throttle him, but he’s hit 54% of his FGA’s and 53% of his 3PA’s and is averaging 16 ppg, 4.4 rpg, and 2.6 apg thus far…not bad for a raw freshman. Alcorn State Braves coached by Ramon Montez, Conf U Drake-72, Alcorn State (0-1)-69 (Bernie Graham-18 pts, 4 reb) Alcorn State (1-1)-73, Iona-61 (Will Friel-17 pts, 7 reb) Alcorn State (2-1)-84, Northern Arizona-75 (Will Friel-17 pts, 8 reb; Harold Hein-17 pts; Craig Brown-17 pts) Alcorn State (3-1)-77, Santa Clara-66 (Craig Brown-33 pts, 3 reb) Alcorn State (4-1)-67, Florida Gulf Coast-56 (Craig Brown-17 pts, 4 reb) COMMENT: Nice start by the Braves. Following a narrow defeat in their first game, they’ve rolled off 4 straight wins. JC transfer SG Craig Brown has scored in double figures in 4 of his first 5 games for the Braves and is averaging 16.2 ppg. Junior PF Will Friel, who has started 64 of the Braves 64 games since he got to Alcorn State continues to be the steady and dominant man inside and is averaging 11.8 ppg and 6.2 rpg. Western Illinois Leathernecks coached by Terry Morillo, Conf V Harvard Crimson-80, Western Illinois (0-1)-68 (Guillermo Cabrera-19 pts, 4 reb) Louisiana-Monroe-77, Western Illinois (0-2)-64 (Craig Grant-13 pts, 5 reb) Western Illinois (1-2)-89, NJIT-60 (Craig Grant-14 pts, 5 reb, 2 blk; Tom Daniel-11 pts, 7 ast) Western Illinois (2-2)-71, Mercer-70 (Tom Daniel-27 pts, 3 ast) Jackson State-81, Western Illinois (2-3)-64 (Jamar Curtis-26 pts, 6 reb) INJURY-Duany Vaughn-torn Achilles tendon (out for 7 more weeks) COMMENT: It’s been a rocky start for the Leathernecks. Other than the game against NJIT, their offense has not really ignited. The team has been hitting a rather high percentage of their shots, but they’re getting beat on the boards and that has limited their offensive opportunities. Duany Vaughn has nearly completed his rehab after rupturing his Achilles tendon nearly a year ago and his return at SG in about a week may give the team a needed shot in the arm. MD-Eastern Shore Hawks coached by Mike McMillan, Conf V MD-Eastern Shore (1-0)-76, Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs-45 (Dwayne Bullet-22 pts, 5 reb; Frank Reed-18 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast) UNLV-87, MD-Eastern Shore (1-1)-63 (Romolo Pantini-13 pts, 8 reb, 2 blk) Houston-79, MD-Eastern Shore (1-2)-70 (Frank Davis-15 pts, 5 reb, 4 ast) MD-Eastern Shore (2-2)-84, Arkansas-Pine Bluff-63 (Frank Reed-25 pts, 9 reb, 2 blk) East Tennessee State-66, MD-Eastern Shore (2-3)-62 (Frank Reed-24 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast) COMMENT: Even though the Hawks have lost more than they’ve won, two of their losses were to strong teams (UNLV and Houston) and they really roughed up Arkansas-Pine Bluff. JC transfer SF Frank Reed has had strong offensive performances in 4 of his first 5 games for MD-Eastern Shore and is averaging 17.6 ppg and 4.6 rpg. C Romolo Pantini has been a steady force inside, averaging 11.2 pgg and 7.0 rpg. UC-San Diego Tritons coached by Ken Yamoto, Conf V UC-San Diego (1-0)-84, Dartmouth-79 (Shannon Van Hook-15 pts, 9 reb) UC-San Diego (2-0)-80, Saint Peters-62 (Kevin White-22 pts) Mount St. Mary’s-87, UC-San Diego (2-1)-76 (Joe Roland-15 pts, 7 reb) Virginia Tech-93, UC-San Diego (2-2)-67 (Dave Rush-15 pts, 7 reb, 2 stl) Lafayette-75, UC-San Diego (2-3)-49 (Joe Roland-8 pts, 7 reb) AWARD: Kevin White (Conf V Freshman of the Week-Wk 1) COMMENT: UC-San Diego started well but has had more difficulty as the level of competition has increased. The Tritons defense has been abysmal with their opponents averaging 79.2 ppg. C Joe Roland has stepped in to take over inside after Shannon Van Hook was injured and played well, but there yet has been a player to lead the team offensively on a consistent basis. INJURY: C Shannon Van Hook—broken leg (will miss another month of games)

Coaches Evaluation of their teams (Part 5 of 5): Here’s how the combined media prognostication picked the five teams to do within their respective conferences this season: Conf U—Alcorn State--1st, Arkansas-Pine Bluff--7th Conf V—MD-Eastern Shore--2nd, Western Illinois--4th, UC-San Diego--5th So let’s hear what each of the five coaches have to say about their teams: Ramon Montez, Alcorn State Braves, Conference U: I nearly fell over when I heard the media made our team the favorites in Conference U. While I’m happy they feel we’re that good, I don’t appreciate having a bullseye painted on our backs so that all 15 other teams in the conference will be intent on knocking us off the media’s pedestal. We’re going to be carried by our front line since we have high-scoring starters returning at C, PF, and SF. Gabriel Atwood, a 6-8 junior who averaged 13.2 ppg and 6.3 rpg is our C. At PF is 6-6 junior Will Friel who has started all 59 games we’ve played since he arrived and who scored 9.9 ppg and pulled down 4.4 rpg. 6-6 junior Virgil Brown is our SF. He’s been a starter the past 2 seasons and averaged 11.3 ppg while grabbing 3.5 rpg last year. We have another returning starter at PG in 6-0 sophomore Todd Young who averaged 7.0 ppg and 4.1 apg last season. While SG Dana Turner (6-1 senior) didn’t start last season, he 4.5 ppg and 2.6 apg in a reserve role. Our primary reserves are: Steve Heard (6-2 senior) at PG; JC transfer Craig Brown (6-2 junior) at SG; Harold Hein (6-8 freshman) at SF; 6-8 freshman Darrick Grace at PF; and at C it will be 6-9 sophomore Bernie Graham (7.5 ppg and 4.6 rpg last season). Our starting lineup is very solid. We’ll need to continue to develop and improve our reserves, though, if we are to achieve what’s expected of us.

Feb. 1, 2030: #11 ranked Florida State Seminoles (18-3, 7-3) vs #7 ranked Boston College Eagles (16-5, 7-3) at Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, MA 1st Assistant Coach Darrell Montgomery We’re starting Winston Minahan at C in place of injured Courtland Reese. While it’s possible to play Reese as well as injured SF/SG Glen Robinson and C Tim Cotton, we’d like to avoid it if possible. Darius Hein will shift to sub at PF. Keith Kolder will not only sub at SF but also at PF and Maynard Gardner will get more playing time at SF. Hopefully our interior players don’t get into foul trouble. We’ll play looser defensively than we usually do. Fortunately Florida State gets most of their scoring from their guards rather than from their interior players. We beat the Seminoles on their court by 24 points three weeks ago, but we were playing a lot better then than we have of late. We need to bust the Seminoles strong defense again. Others on our team will need to make up for the offense we usually get from Courtland Reese. We had a slow start, but Miami didn’t start all that hot either. So the lead was exchanged repeatedly throughout the early going. Coach Aura shifted players in and out, back and forth between C, PF and SF. The game was tied 20-20 at the 10 minute mark of the first half. We then had another of our patented cold shooting spells and fell behind by 5 but then hit a jumper and 3 that tied the game again. We came on strong in the final 5 minutes of the half to lead 47-42 at the intermission. PF/C Danny Toliver and SG Corey Graham led us offensively with 10 and 9 points, respectively. PG Bobby Grannum, whose first half play was limited due to foul trouble, picked up his 3rd foul within the first 2 minutes of the 2nd half. But Corey Graham hit some big shots to put us ahead 56-48 with 16 minutes to go. We expanded our lead to 13 with 12 minutes remaining. Our cobbled together lineup, with almost all our players playing out of position at points in the game, went ahead 80-64 with 7 minutes left. Our guys continued to put points on the board and we finished the game with a resounding 93-75 victory. We out-rebounded the Seminoles 36-30 and made just 11 turnovers compared to 18 by Florida State. We were able to play the entire game without putting any of our injured players into the game. All 10 of our other players scored led by: SG Corey Graham with 23 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals; C Winston Minahan with 17 points; and PF/C Danny Toliver who scored 16 and had 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and a block. After the game, Coach Aura said to me, “Well, we got through it without our 2 primary centers and our main swing man. I was really impressed by how the guys pulled together to play well wherever we inserted them and to make this work out. Tim Cotton and Glen Robinson were really pushing to get into the game, but I’m glad we were able to rest them and not aggravate their injuries.” Even though all 10 of our guys stepped it up for this game, trying this for our upcoming road game will be a real test. But it looks like Tim Cotton will be ready to play so that will help our interior depth. Glen Robinson is also a possibility, but we’ll have to evaluate that before the game. I don’t see Courtland Reese being ready to play in that game, though.

JJ Conroy, BeanTownSports Blog I hate to say “I told you so.” But I did. Boston College is tanking and plummeting to the earth even faster than I had anticipated. Not only have they lost their last 3 of 4, letting their opponents take it to the Eagles in the waning moments of those games. And now it’s rumored there is dissention on the team and that there are several players with injuries. Although Boston College has not yet confirmed this publicly, if so, this is occurring right when they go up against Florida State, a team they are now tied with for 2nd place, and then the Eagles go on the road to take on Pittsburgh two days later.

Coaches Evaluation of their teams (Part 4 of 5): Here’s how the combined media prognostication picked the five teams to do within their respective conferences this season: Conf U—Alcorn State--1st, Arkansas-Pine Bluff--7th Conf V—MD-Eastern Shore--2nd, Western Illinois--4th, UC-San Diego--5th So let’s hear what each of the five coaches have to say about their teams: Dontell Spencer, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Golden Lions, Conference U: Graduation played havoc with last season’s strong team. So now we have to quickly rebuild so we can try to do better than the 7th place finish the media is expecting of us this year. Here’s a brief rundown on our starters and reserves this season: PG—Dwayne Robinson (6-0 junior) starts…started last year and averaged 11.7 ppg. Subbing will be 6-1 junior JC transfer Darrin Randolph and 6-4 senior Damian Carrington. SG—starting will be Kwame Mickens (6-0 junior)…sat out last season after transferring from North Florida where he averaged 21.3 ppg…looking forward to seeing how he does for us. Antony Gunn (6-0 sophomore) who transferred from NJIT where he averaged 13.1 ppg will be a great backup. SF—Antonio Gailey (6-7 sophomore) will be our starter…transfer from William & Mary where he averaged 8.8 ppg and 5.8 rpg…great at clearing the boards. Primary backup will be 6-5 sophomore Henry White who transferred from Southern Illinois where he averaged 6.9 ppg. Other SF’s coming off the bench will be JC transfer Jamar Brown (6-6 junior) and 6-4 freshman Dan Jefferson. PF—Jaraan Daniels (6-10 senior) has earned a starting role…averaged 5.4 ppg and 4.6 rpg in reserve role last season. 6-8 sophomore walk-on Jacob Allen will come off the bench when Daniels is tired. C—Freshman Chris Betts (6-9) will start…looked good in practice…great work ethic so will learn fast. Daniels will also get time at C, but 6-8 sophomore walk-on Michael O’Brien may also get a little playing time. With the addition of Mickens, Gailey, Gunn, and Betts, I think we could surprise some people. But with so many new players, there’s a lot of learning to do and teamwork to develop. I’d like to have more interior depth, though.

Coaches Evaluation of their teams (Part 3 of 5): Here’s how the combined media prognostication picked the five teams to do within their respective conferences this season: Conf U—Alcorn State--1st, Arkansas-Pine Bluff--7th Conf V—MD-Eastern Shore--2nd, Western Illinois--4th, UC-San Diego--5th So let’s hear what each of the five coaches have to say about their teams: Ken Yamoto, UC-San Diego Tritons, Conference V: I hear the media has picked us to finish in 5th place in Conference V. While that would be a big step up from last season, we want to do better than that so we can get promoted. We have a pretty experienced team this season and I like the group of starters we are planning to put on the floor. At PG is Brian Thomas, a 6’6” junior who came off the bench last season and averaged 5.1 ppg. Brian was recruited as a SF, but did a good job at PG last season. With his height I’m hoping he can get off shots over smaller opponents. Defense isn’t his strong suit though. But we have 3 guys on our team who are classic PG’s. 6’5” freshman Kevin Wright is probably the strongest, and as he gains experience running our team, he looks to be our future. Sophomore Delonte Keams came to us this summer as a walk-on who shows promise. He’s just 5,’6” tall, so is a little height disadvantaged, but is an excellent passer and ball-handler. Then there’s 6’1” junior Chris Ratliff who started for us last season and did a creditable job, so I like our depth. Donte Madison, a 6’2” senior, returns to start for the 2nd year at SG. Last season he scored 12.9 ppg. He’s just an all-out rugged player. While 6’0” sophomore Chris Williams (3.1 ppg last season) and walk-on 6’0” junior Reggie Johnson are listed on our roster as the backup SG’s, I believe all the PG’s that I just listed could well be our primary backups at the 2 position. We have another returning starter at SF in 6’3” senior Dave Rush who averaged 10.9 ppg and 4.2 rpg last year. Dave’s another tough competitor and a team leader. 6’7” junior Gregg Green and 6’7” senior Mike Tulley will back up Dave. Both came off the bench last year as well. 6’7” senior Byron Kelley will start for us at PF. Byron started for 2 seasons and was a part-time starter last season, so he has a lot of valuable experience, particularly banging the boards. As backups we’ll use 6’9” sophomore Jack Robinson, who scored well from inside last season in a limited role off the bench, and 6’8” junior Charles Williams, whose had limited play time the past 2 seasons. At C will be 6’10” Shannon Van Hook. Shannon’s a strong interior player who has already started for the Tritons 2 years and averaged 8.2 ppg and 6.9 rpg last season. 7’1” junior Joe Roland did a solid job backing up Shannon last season when he averaged 6.4 ppg. Obviously our big men are more experienced than our guards, but I believe the team will be cohesive, and I like our chances this year.

Coach Aura Following our latest loss, walk-on PG Ramond Keep again ranted in the locker room that he should be playing rather than Bobby Grannum and that I and the other coaches weren’t playing him because we didn’t like him. I called him aside and let him know in no uncertain terms that his comments were totally out of line, and he needed to get his act together and apologize to the team. He replied, “Hell with that Coach. I don’t have to listen to this. Any other great ideas?” I said, “Yes, I certainly do. You’re off the team, effectively immediately. Turn in your gear when we return home.” If I could have just left him in Miami, I would have. So we will return with not only one less player, but now we have three players with injuries. C Tim Cotton is still nursing his twisted ankle that has kept out of the last 4 games. And now C Courtland Reese has a strained abdominal muscle sustained at the very end of the game against Miami and SF/SG Glen Robinson injured his foot late in the game as well. While all 3 MAY be able to play in our next couple games, if they do their playing time and effectiveness will likely be limited. It’s tough to have these injuries multiplying at a time when we’re in a slump, but we’ll just have to figure out how to overcome them.

Jan. 30, 2030; #7 Boston College Eagles (16-4, 7-2) vs Miami (FL) Hurricanes (14-7, 6-4) at Watsco Center in Coral Gables, FL Boston College Chronicle HURRICANES LEAVE EAGLES WINDED Kinsey Ramsey Following their disheartening loss to Duke last week, the Eagles got good news when they found out that their two recruits, Mike Williams and Ben Schau, received SAT scores well above the minimum requirements of this university. Last night, the Eagles took on the Miami Hurricanes, a team came into the game with an 11-0 home record this season. Balanced scoring throughout their lineup had been the primary reason for the Hurricane’s success. The Eagles pounded the ball inside throughout the entire first half, outscoring the Hurricanes in the paint 18-8. But Miami hit shots from shots from all over the court creating 9 lead changes and 3 ties during the first 20 minutes of play. At the break, BC held a slim 41-38 lead. C Courtland Reese scored 12 and his backup Winston Minahan added 6 in the first half. The two teams continued to battle in the 2nd half with neither team able to gain more than a 3 point advantage. The refs helped Miami stay close by tagging BC with fouls. Coach Aura loudly and aggressively contended the fouls, and he was assessed a technical midway through the half. When the Eagles shooting went cold, Miami opened a 5 point lead with 6-1/2 minutes to go. BC fought back to narrow the gap to a single point with 4 minutes remaining. But the Eagles were unable to hit shots down the stretch when they needed to while Miami did. The Hurricanes dropped BC 82-77, collaring the Eagles with their 3rd loss in their last 4 games. The Eagles are now tied with Florida State and Notre Dame for 2nd place in the ACC. They will host Florida State Wednesday. C Courtland Reese led Boston College’s scoring with 21 points and SG Corey Graham tossed in 17 points.