Welcome to Hoopville!
Greetings! We here at Hoopville are pleased to welcome you to our community, where you’ll find some of the best college basketball writing anywhere. Some of you have visited before, and some are new guests.
This feature is called “The Morning Dish”. The Dish was created to provide you, our readers, with the essential information to keep you up to speed on what happened yesterday and who’s playing tonight. This will empower you to hold your own, whether it be a water-cooler conversation at work or a discussion at your favorite hangout. Some of you may remember the Morning Dish from last season. We beta-tested this daily news digest last March, during Championship Week and the NCAA Tournament.
So, every morning, you’ll find the top story from last night right here, whether it be the upset, the news flash, or even the latest NCAA infractions (hopefully not). Below, we have (what else?) Side Dishes, which consist of other bulletins that you need to know.
Hoopville has grown considerably over the last year. We have 50 writers providing you the best coverage of your favorite conferences, and top-flight commentary from seasoned veteran columnists. Our Weekly Top 25 is new this season, and we are the only source for every Conference Preview – from America East to the WAC (most sources only preview the largest 10-12 conferences). And we have also started a collaboration with CollegeRPI.com, to provide our readers with detailed RPI statistics and analysis for our Top 25 poll.
We certainly hope you enjoy your stay here in Hoopville. Now for those Side Dishes . . .
Side Dishes
Equilateral Triangle?: Are all sides equal now? Duke and NC State may be wondering that very thing based on UNC’s surprise performance in the First Round of the Preseason NIT, where they downed Penn State by 30. The hot Heels were led by a trio of freshmen (Rashad McCants, Sean May and Raymond Felton) who tallied two-thirds of the Heels’ points. I think an apology is in order to Hoopville Senior writer Brian Strong, who was the only one to vote for UNC in our Preseason Top 25 poll, voting them 25th.
Hip Check: Duke’s Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who injured his hip last Thursday when he jumped up to yell at Casey Sanders (just kidding) was back at practice today. Coach K missed the second half of the Blue Devils’ exhibition game against EA Sports, and was given an MRI as a precaution. It’s not believed to be related to the hip replacement surgery Coach K had last spring.
Not Much of a Wake Up Call: Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins was back in the thick of things. Reportedly kicking a scorer’s table and receiving a technical foul for arguing a call, Huggins is on his way to total recovery from his massive heart attack a mere 50 days ago. And it was only an exhibition game against Athletes in Action (Cincy won handily 80-62). Save if for the Xavier or Marquette games, coach, or they’re going to start parking the ambulance inside the Shoemaker Center.
Preseason NIT: Well, 11th-ranked Xavier stomped 87-48 on an overmatched St. Peter’s team, who’s RPI should rise nonetheless. In other first-round action, Rutgers downed Columbia 60-36, and Eastern Illinois got past Boise State by 14. We mentioned the North Carolina – Penn State game above, and the only squeaker was Stanford edging Boston University 61-57, and this with Stanford losing two first-round draft picks this past summer.
Tonight’s Menu:
• The Preseason NIT continues with First-Round coverage coming from campus sites. The marquee matchup is Holy Cross visiting No. 2 Kansas in a rematch of last year’s NCAA first-round contest. Louisiana Tech visits No. 6 Florida, and NC-Greensboro hosts Wagner. Two of these three games are on national television – guess which ones?
• Host Colorado State tries to extend their early season dominance by winning the BCA Invitational against Cleveland State. It seems that the Rams have started their season a little early, as they’re already 2-0, having beaten up on IP-Ft. Wayne and Florida Atlantic. Of course this is the same squad that lost at Gardner-Webb last season, forcing an ESPN feature story on Dick Vitale and a shipment of cupcakes.
• And just to wrap this first Morning Dish into one of those aluminum foil swan doggie bags, transcending reason and invoking symmetry, IP-Ft. Wayne squares off against – you guessed it, Florida Atlantic. Actually it’s the BCA Invitational consolation game, but it sounds better if it was random. These two squads can go out and compare notes on the Fort Collins nightlife.
That’s it for this Tuesday. Enjoy!
