DobbsRover2
Slap me 10
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- Aug 27, 2011
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Fans of highly successful schools like UConn always need to remember that their gaudy records are built upon the backs of less successful schools that in turn feed on even less successful schools and on and on until you get to the bottom level, which this year means floating down to New Orleans and a Privateers team that is 0-19, alone in its winlessness, and pretty likely to keep their unblemished record down to the bitter end. And their opponents get to breathe a sigh of relief as the go up against the Big Easy.
But there is also a group of schools just one rung above New Orleans who have managed to get their number one and get off the schneid earlier this year. The FDU, Air Force, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, and Texas Arlington squads can thank Columbia, North Dakota State, Philander Smith, and Texas A&M CC (that's Corpus Christi, not community college) respectively for helping them out. There is also a Massachusetts-Lowell team that was in a winless state until Jan 11 when it had the good fortune to run into its equally hapless America East conference mate UMBC to pick up their first win and then continued their juggernaut ways by crushing Mt. Ida (I'd a rather not go there).
But the interesting case here is Arkansas Pine-Bluff, which started off its season with a big 19 point win and should have shut things down right there before it went into a 16 game slide, though it kept within 33 points of Nebraska. But for some reason I had never heard of their first game opponent, Philander Smith, and I naturally wondered if their nickname was the Philanderers (actually it's the Panthers). Turns out it is an NAIA division school in Little Rock that is a black university with a focus on social justice studies. Among its alumni are former Globetrotter player and coach Geese Ausbie and Green Bay Packer old great Elijah Pitts. The Panthers WCBB team has played 3 Division 1 opponents this year to provide them the insurance against a winless season, but they are also good enough to post a 12-11 record overall so far on the year.
I'm not sure how many degrees of WCBB separation it takes to get from UConn to teams like Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Philander Smith, but as the saying goes, we're all in this together.
But there is also a group of schools just one rung above New Orleans who have managed to get their number one and get off the schneid earlier this year. The FDU, Air Force, Arkansas Pine-Bluff, and Texas Arlington squads can thank Columbia, North Dakota State, Philander Smith, and Texas A&M CC (that's Corpus Christi, not community college) respectively for helping them out. There is also a Massachusetts-Lowell team that was in a winless state until Jan 11 when it had the good fortune to run into its equally hapless America East conference mate UMBC to pick up their first win and then continued their juggernaut ways by crushing Mt. Ida (I'd a rather not go there).
But the interesting case here is Arkansas Pine-Bluff, which started off its season with a big 19 point win and should have shut things down right there before it went into a 16 game slide, though it kept within 33 points of Nebraska. But for some reason I had never heard of their first game opponent, Philander Smith, and I naturally wondered if their nickname was the Philanderers (actually it's the Panthers). Turns out it is an NAIA division school in Little Rock that is a black university with a focus on social justice studies. Among its alumni are former Globetrotter player and coach Geese Ausbie and Green Bay Packer old great Elijah Pitts. The Panthers WCBB team has played 3 Division 1 opponents this year to provide them the insurance against a winless season, but they are also good enough to post a 12-11 record overall so far on the year.
I'm not sure how many degrees of WCBB separation it takes to get from UConn to teams like Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Philander Smith, but as the saying goes, we're all in this together.
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