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Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Barely over two weeks ago, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma both were on the brink of seeing promising seasons go far downhill, on the kind of negative role that has paralyzed the campaigns of teams like Minnesota and California this year. There are no such concerns anymore.
One can’t help but be sad for Virginia Commonwealth senior guard Briante Weber, the walking symbol of Havoc whose college career is over after he tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus Saturday in the Rams’ surprising 64-55 loss to city rival Richmond.
ESPN’s new practice of not sending announcers to cover a few of its games this year has already resulted in some embarrassing moments, and last night brought about the worst one yet.
Some college basketball thoughts from the first week of the new year:
In a long-running rivalry that has been lopsided of late, San Francisco and St. Mary’s provided a little bit of a stir at the finish of their game Monday night.
The SEC/Big 12 Challenge takes over, with one matchup getting a lot of attention, while tough times continue for the American Athletic Conference and a MAAC favorite. And we’ve got some rivalry games ahead.
Ah, it’s started already. We’re still a couple weeks away from final exams for most schools, a time when especially it seems like highly favored schools need to pay a little extra attention in games that they should win easily. But we saw several teams have more trouble than expected in games Tuesday night that all expected to be blowouts.
By its extremely lofty standards, this year’s Maui Invitational is rather light fare, though still one of the kings of the in-season tournaments. Maui is always a highlight of November and Thanksgiving week, dating back to its emergence in the late 1980s, and the tourney opened yesterday with quarterfinals. The best game of the four was the last one, as old WAC and Mountain West rivals San Diego State and BYU went at it good deep into the night for us on the mainland.
College basketball’s first big day of the season was really almost all we could’ve asked for. From early morning to into the night, the day offered a number of outstanding games that might already get some people thinking March. Exciting finishes, back-and-forth games, offense, defense, big schools, little schools, fantastic inbound plays-you name it, you could find it on Tuesday.
Unexpectedly, Stephen F. Austin had a banner year and made national headlines with its play, providing a number of highlights for the Southland Conference in 2013-14.
