You Can't Punt November

With the attention focused on the fine debuts of most stud freshmen and the overall success of elite teams, some fine basketball is happening under the radar. And even though it is only November 9, some eventual bubble teams are compiling early season material, good or bad, for the selection committee as every game counts. Miami, unfortunately, is proving that they may not even make the bubble for the cbi tourney. St. Francis of Brooklyn was not very good last year and lost its top scorer. They still had enough to travel to Miami and beat the rebuilding Canes, who do not resemble the talented team from last year with so much lost to graduation, in overtime. For our purposes, preparing for March Madness, the only result is that we can ignore Miami unless their rebuilding efforts come through by conference play. The middle of the ACC did not fare well elsewhere either as Maryland lost by 1 to UConn and BC lost in ot to Providence. The Terps were led by Nick Faust's 17, while Dez Wells, Jake Layman and Michigan transfer Evan Smotrycz all scored 13. The Terps missed Alex Len but are deeper than last year and should have a decent shot for a tourney berth. BC also had no surprises with scoring as Oliver Hanlon scored 23 and Ryan Anderson added 21. For the winners of those two games, UConn and Providence, they now play in different conferences. The win by the Friars, who were led by Bryce Cotton's 28, was the only one in three for the conference in big games yesterday. Georgetown showcased UCLA transfer Josh Smith, who scored 25, but the team shot so poorly from the floor and charity stripe in the game played in South Korea that us scouts must see improvement or it will be the same old story for the Hoyas come March. The other key loss for the conference was expected as St. John's fell to Wisconsin in South Dakota. The Johnnies waited too long to put pressure on the hot shooting Badgers and could never fully recover from an 18-pt first half deficit. The key for the Badgers was the return of guard Josh Gasser, who led them with 19 points, from a knee injury. D'Angelo Harrison led St. John's with 27 points. UConn was the marquee win for the new AAC (with all due respect to SMU's win over TCU) and the team played well in building a 17-point lead over the Terps. Last year's squad then showed up and allowed Maryland back in the game. shabazz Napier scored 18 while Niels Giffey hot 5-6for 13 points in only 17 minutes.