Slightly Houston 77, Murray State 74

[champs99and04]

And I don't bring it up because of the score. Houston was 12.5 point dogs. These are the type of victories that don't grab national headlines but go a long way towards improving the conference RPI. With limitless phone calls, the sky is the limit for Sampson and the Cougars.

Elsewhere:

SMU 54, Lamar 30 (second half)
East Carolina 99, UNC Welseyan 81
South Florida 65, Flagler 51
Temple 40, American 37 (sadly, this is the final score)
Cincinnati 52, St. Francis 37 (ditto)

 

[specialisthusky]

Yuk. 40 to 37?! Can't wait for our daytime new years game with temple. Should help continue my 5 year streak of not making it to new years.
.

 

[metsfan2323]

East Carolina had a Frosh put up 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 steals.

The league top to bottom will be much better this year IMO, there won't be a huge drop off after the first 5 like last year.

 

[boog204]

Sampson could build a monster there...

 

[metsfan2323]

Sampson could build a monster there...

Yup, the best coaching hire last year was Houston's hiring of Sampson. This guy was near the top of his profession before he got beat down over something that is no longer considered cheating. Checking Houston's box score they have no seniors. Nice start for them.

 

[Walker11]

Houston's starting PG, LJ Rose, a former top 100 kid broke his foot in the preseason and will be out until Christmas. Very nice win for them.

 

[metsfan2323]

Tulsa blowing the league's good start. They made the same hiring mistake UCONN did with Pasqualoni, never try to catch someone on the way down.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

The league top to bottom will be much better this year IMO, there won't be a huge drop off after the first 5 like last year.

Based on all of 1 game, the loss of last season's league champion, graduation and early NBA-draftee departure of UCONN's National Championship team's top players, and the addition of a few less respected teams, what supports the "... won't be a huge drop off after the first 5 like last year ..." perspective? Recruiting? Coaching? Surprise performances? Drop off in #s 1-4?

 

[Scot-e]

What?

 

[champs99and04]

Temple beat Louisiana Tech tonight, 82-75. Louisiana Tech was drawing a fair amount of votes in the AP poll.

Tulane is getting drummed by Wake Forest in the second half.

SMU-Gonzaga later tonight. That's a big one.

 

[Scot-e]

I may have to stay up and watch that one- why is it that I always just ignore Gonzaga's ranking?

 

[CallMeBruce]

La Tech is legit. They were probably the best team in C-USA last year.

 

[Rocktheworld]

I may have to stay up and watch that one- why is it that I always just ignore Gonzaga's ranking?

Because no matter the hype, they never make it past the Sweet Sixteen, if they even make it there.

Pangos went OFF last night against SMU but I don't think he should be expected to continue to shoot 5/8 from 3

 

[Yankees32123]

Yuk. 40 to 37?! Can't wait for our daytime new years game with temple. Should help continue my 5 year streak of not making it to new years.
.

Don't be too disappointed with that score. American is one of the best defensive teams in the country. They slow the game down so much with their Princeton offense and defensively held teams to like 50 ppg last season or something crazy like that. They won the Patriot League last year up against a pretty good BU team, and return almost all of their players. American and LA Tech are two very good wins for Temple.