Some early season upsets and more..

[tornado]

Kent State just knocked off West Virginia - and sure this is an upset but not as big as may initially appear..

-first this is a bit of a rebuilding year for WVU - they lost a lot, return only four players from last year, and were picked 7th in the Big East
The team is relatively young and has EIGHT new players

-they've already dealt with off-court issues and suspensions and also have several jucos and D-I transfers this year

-They lost their preseason exhibition game to D-II Northern Kentucky

-Then they struggled to barely get by Oral Roberts - a game that was within 1 point down the stretch

-Now they lose to Kent State and the Flashes actually controlled this game entirely over the final 10-15 minutes...the lead was never closer than 8 pts for the final 10 minutes.
They could be 0-3 with exhibitions included right now but they'll be ok by end of the season.



What a mess at Binghamton -- arrests, serious crimes, coaches fired, and now their only experienced senior gets arrested for a fourth time and finally gets dismissed!
Why does a kid have to be arrested for four serious issues, especially at a school plagued with multiple arrests and issues, before the coach sends the kid packing?
And the coach - Mark Macon - was actually hyped as an option for Bradley to hire by two different people here. What a disaster.




SIU "transfer" (asked out of LOI) Drew Barham - who started many of his games last year as a freshman, never played a minute in Memphis' exhibitions and today's game - and now he's apparently being told to redshirt as he is deep in the rotation --
Should have gone mid-major.



FIU's Dominique Ferguson - who was once a 5-STAR recruit that chose FIU anyway - averaged only 7 ppg last year and is hitting for just 2 ppg this season.
Maybe shoulda gone low-major??



One key UCLA player is suspended for "behavior issues" - pouting about playing time after surprising loss to Marymount

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-1115-ucla-basketball-20111115,0,1467032.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Drake will apparently keep Rayvonte Rice and Kurt Alexander on suspension as their real games get started -- kinda surprising.


One laffer from the SIU beat writer Todd Hefferman - who said a Q&A on their live Blog during the last game - a quesiotner asked...
" who the Salukis' toughest non-conference opponent was"
...Hefferman thought a moment and answered "Right now, it's Ohio Dominican."

AND - he also confirms about a lot of the SIU guys Early, Bocot, Taylor, Lindsey...that guys who get all their points in high school or juco by driving to the hoop - simply had better develop a jump shot at D-I or they struggle -

[Bravesfan]

Regarding West Viriginia, how were they picked seventh if they have so many issues? I ask that because finishing seventh in the Big East is actually still pretty good, and usually is good enough for an NCAA Tournament birth. So maybe this will turn out to be a good win for Kent State in the long run.

[tornado]

the team picked 8th, Villanova struggled last night to edge LaSalle in OT
Maybe the Big East is not so strong this year

[Da Coach]

Ben Howland is really on the hot seat now at UCLA- UCLA lost at home last night to the king of all directional schools, Middle Tennessee, and it wasn't even close-
Middle Tennessee State 86
UCLA 66

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201111150606

UCLA is now 0-2 after also losing last Friday at home by double digits to Loyola Marymount.



In other news, Jim Les won his first game at UC Davis- an 84-78 squashing of the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs-

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201111150088

[buschsquirrel2011]

It was a very good win for Kent State. Not as much of an upset because Kent State's roster is loaded with talent.

[tornado]

The UCLA message boards are ballistic and lit up with threads about firing Howland..
The funniest thread is titled "Howland is worse than Lavin"!!
they're even discussing potential replacements -- Brad Stevens is at the top of the list..

[jasonpeoria911]

Big win for 2-0 Long Beach State over #9 Pitt by 10 points tonight. LBS was in control most of the game. They still get another preliminary 4 ranked teams before January. If they pull off another upset, they'll likely be ranked. I think they won a game or 2 in the tourney last year if I remember right.

Jason