Quick Thoughts

• Why was Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron pleased with the idea of a 40+ yard field goal? Enough said. Bills are done if we didn’t know that after the New England game.
• Arizona-UAB game last night was HILARIOUS. Two seperate times, with less than one minute to play, an Arizona player fouled a UAB player thinking they were trailing, trying to stop the clock and send the Blazers to the line. UAB, behind head coach Mike Davis, yea that Mike Davis, won 72-71.
• In a college basketball showdown in the city of Buffalo, UB lead Canisius 60-41, but a 23-3 Golden Griffin run put Canisius ahead. Reserve John Boyer, who seems to play key minutes late in games, nailed a three with 30 seconds left to put UB ahead for good.
• St. Bonaventure men’s basketball is 2-0 for the first time since 2002-03. Washington State transfer Chris Matthews has been incredible hitting 10-of-18 three pointers.
• Central Michigan-Ball State tonight on ESPN2. Can’t wait. Dan Lefevour against Nate Davis. I actually like Central Michigan here.
• How good did North Carolina look last night?
• How about Stephen Curry with 44 last night. He sat out the last six minutes of the first half because he had three fouls. Might have gone over 50 if not. I need to see more from Archambault and Paulhus-Gosselin, though, if this team is going to be a real Top 25 team.
• Blake Griffin is a hands-down Top five pick in the NBA Draft next year.
• I like Graham Harrell and Texas Tech this weekend against Oklahoma despite what I’ve said before. With a win, Harrell could basically clinch the Heisman trophy, too.
• Washington-Washington State football this Saturday. Can’t wait for that either. Washington State may be the worst BCS-conference team of all-time. But, they have a win (1-10) unlike Washington (0-10). Wasu has been outscored 533-139 in 11 games this season!.. 66-3 against Cal, 69-0 against USC, 58-0 against Stanford, 66-13 against Arizona State to name a few.
• Please go watch the men’s basketball team take on St. John Fisher Tuesday, Nov. 25. With on-and-off help from the students, this has become one of the tougher places to play in D-III basketball. It’s the only home game of the first semester and one Brockport will need pretty bad looking at their other four games in the first semester.

D-III Men’s Bball

After one successful season as interim coach, Greg Dunne will take over as Head Coach of the men’s basketball team. This is a great hire for the program. Since Dunne has been here as an assistant, the team has went to five NCAA Tournaments, including the 2006-2007 ride that took Brockport into the Elite Eight.

As far as this year goes, Brockport loses its top two scorers, and four of their top six. The electric Sherod Harris and always dependable Brandon Williams are gone. Key reserves Aaron Poles and Dave Maldonado are gone as well.

Returning Starters:

5-11 Sr – Mychal Wilkes (11.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg)

5-10 Sr – Shawn Harris (3.2 ppg, 2.3 apg)

6-6 Jr – Cantrel Parish (8.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg)

Others Returning:

6-0 Jr – Jermaine Johnson (5.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg)

6-5 Sr – Eamon Kays (3.6 ppg, 1.6 rpg)

6-2 Sr – Joe Clarke (3.5 ppg, 1.9 rpg)

6-8 Sr – Bobby Brooks (2.0 ppg, 1.4 rpg)

6-1 Sr – Ian Mack (1.5 ppg, 1.7 apg)

Newcomers

5-11 Jr – Brandon Williams – Transfer from Finger Lakes CC

6-4 Jr – Joel Almeida – Transfer from Mohawk Valley CC

The “new” Brandon Williams will likely make the most impact, but look for Almeida to get an early shot to fill in for the “old” Brandon Williams.

Dunne admitted only Wilkes is a definate starter thus far. The rest of his players are battling for starting spots and minutes. My guess, which is somewhat obvious, would be Parish and Almeida up front with Wilkes, Johnson and Harris in the backcourt. Clarke, Mack, Br. Williams and freshman Gerald Williams should all have a serious chance of starting as well, though.

Dunne said he has “12-14 guys that can really play” and is looking for the next week and a half to show which guys are going to get PT.

Schedule:

They’ll open at Johns Hopkins (16-10 last year) for the Blue Jay Invitational. The Golden Eagles will open with Whitworth College (21-7, NCAA Sweet 16 LY) Friday. Johns Hopkins will play Moravian (11-14 LY).

Whitworth, out of Spokane, Wash., should be a good early test for Brockport. I would like their chances against either of the other two programs, so we’ll see what happens in the opener.

Brockport’s lone home game for the first semester will be against St. John Fisher Tuesday, Nov. 25. Back-to-back road games against Potsdam and Plattsburgh to open the SUNYAC schedule will end the first semester schedule. They’ll get back on the court Jan. 3-4 at DeSales University.

Their first six conference games are all on the road so it will be interesting to see if the Golden Eagles can get off to a good start. If they can, look out. They went 12-0 at home last year.

Outlook:

First five games should tell us a lot about how good this team can be. Don’t forget they have three starters back from the Elite Eight team two years ago. They have seven seniors, six with plenty of experience at this level. Another six juniors with Parish and Johnson playing significant minutes since their freshman year and the JC Transfers should help out immediately. So, despite losing four of their top six scorers, this team still has plenty of experience. Plattsburgh lost all five starters from last year’s team, so without question, this team has a legit shot at a SUNYAC title and a sixth NCAA Tournament appearence in 10 years.

Looking at the BCS, D-III Tournament

Glad to see our wonderful new Web site is up and running. Hope everyone will check out my blog, which will likely be the best spot to catch up on Brockport sports over the winter, so be sure to check it out.

Let’s dive right in to a few things about college football in the FBS.

Today, we’re going to take a close look at what teams are still in the race for a BCS Bowl bid, and who will likely be in that National title game. Let’s get a few things straight in case you don’t much about the BCS system.

There are five BCS Bowl games (Orange, Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and of course, the National championship.)

Six bids are automatic locks, they go to the conference champion of all six BCS Conferences (ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, Pac-10).

Which leaves four bids that can go to any conference, but no conference can have more than two teams in the five bowl games. Hence why Missouri was snubbed last year for Kansas, even though they beat Kansas. Missouri, if you recall, lost twice (both times to Oklahoma) and Kansas just once, to Missouri. The BCS rankings listed Kansas higher than Missouri, thus giving them the second spot.

ACC: Florida State (6-2, 3-2) looked like they were returning back to old form, but coughing up a fumble inside the Georgia Tech 10-yard-line in the last few minutes may have sealed their fate. That leaves Maryland (6-2, 3-1), yes that Maryland team that lost to Middle Tennesee State earlier in the year with a chance to win the division at home against Florida State in three weeks. My gut tells me the coastal division will come down to Miami (6-3, 3-2) at Georgia Tech (7-2, 4-2) in two weeks, regardless of what happens this week. I like the Yellow Jackets at home.

ACC Championship: Maryland vs. Georgia Tech. Sad to see the winner will grab a BCS bid, but I’ll go with Paul Johnson – the miracle worker- getting an ACC title in his first year with Georgia Tech.

Big Ten: Although you may think Penn State (9-0, 5-0) has this bid locked already without a conference championship game, think again. Michigan State (8-2, 5-1)  still controls their destiny even if Penn State wins out until the final game of the season. Although it’s a home game for Penn State, if Michigan State were to win, they would be heading to the Rose Bowl.

Big 10 champ: Penn State

Big East: South Florida (6-3, 1-3) and West Virginia (6-2, 3-0) have been major disappointments, but the Mountaineers – even with losses to Colorado and East Carolina – should win the conference. Look out, though, when they travel to Pitt in the end of November.

Big East champ: West Virginia

Big 12: The Big 12 South division is the best division in the history of college sports, let alone conference. Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have a combined three losses – all have come against each other. Unfortunately, this will keep happening, so I don’t like any getting into the title game, unless it is with one loss. Expect Tech to lose one, maybe two of their final three games. With Oklahoma and Texas with one conference loss each, Texas gets the division title.

Big 12 championship: Texas vs. Missouri. Texas should handle Missou.

SEC: Florida locked up the East title with last week’s trouncing of Georgia. Alabama appears to have the West completely in the bag. They can clinch it with a win against LSU this weekend. Even with a loss, they’re probably fine.

SEC Champ: Alabama vs. Florida. I actually like Florida here, plus this will completely ruin the BCS system yet again.

Pac-10: Something you need to know: if Oregon State (5-3, 4-1) wins out, they win the Pac-10, remember they already beat USC. The big game though, is this weekend with USC hosting Cal. Cal can make things extremely interesting, but I don’t see it.

Pac-10 champ: USC

Mid-Majors:

HUUUUGE game tonight between No. 8 Utah (9-0, 5-0) and No. 12 Texas Christian (9-1, 6-0) in the Mountain West. The Mountain West badly deserves a BCS bid, with Brigham Young (8-1, 4-1) just as deserving. Don’t forget, BYU’s only loss is to TCU, and TCU’s only loss is to Oklahoma. Outside of the Okalhoma loss, TCU is outscoring opponents 356-73.. seriously insane.

Mountain West winner: I really hope it’s Utah so they can steal a bid, but I expect TCU to win tonight, and thus win the conference.

Everything esle:

Tulsa’s only loss leaves only Boise State and Ball State as the only two capable teams to grab a bid. Ball State still has to travel to Central Michigan, so I don’t think they can do it, but expect the Boise State Broncos to run the table and likely grab a bid.

National championship: Penn State (Big 10) vs. (gulp) Florida (SEC)

Rose Bowl: Ohio State (at-large) vs. USC (Pac-10)

Orange Bowl: Georgia Tech (ACC) vs. Texas (Big 12)

Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma (at-large) vs. West Virginia (Big East)

Sugar Bowl: Alabama (at-large) vs. Boise State (at-large)

Weekly Blog coming soon

I’ll be updating this blog roughly once a week or when something is going on around the world of Brockport athletics.  Any comments are more than appreciated.  Thanks!

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