Basketball heads home
In case you haven't noticed, the preliminaries are over and it's time to get down to the meat of the 2006-07 black college basketball, i.e., conference games.
As usual, the lead up to conference play wasn't pretty with the ugliest outcome maybe happening last Thursday in Grambling's 101-27 loss to Texas A&M.
Ouch!!
But there were some bright spots as the homeboys hit the road. The Jackson State men went a respectable 6-7 with wins over Rutgers and Texas-El Paso. The Tigers also sport the nation's second-leading scorer in 6-5 guard Trey Johnson who's averaging 27.9 points per game. The Lady Tigers of JSU have gone the men one better with a 6-5 mark and wins over Southern Miss and UAB.
Also on the women's side, two-time defending MEAC champ Coppin State is 6-6 with no signal victories. But the Lady Eagles have played West Virginia (54-53), Xavier (49-45), Seton Hall (59-54), Miami (60-54) and James Madison (70-64) to single-digit decisions. Those teams are from the Big East, Atlantic 10 and ACC.
Now, that's progress.
Progress is also being made by the men (4-9) and women (6-6) of North Carolina A&T, the men of Howard (6-8) and the men (5-7) and women (5-7) of Florida A&M.
Did you know the Shaw women's 77-game CIAA winning streak was broken in the Lady Bear's second game of the season, by Fayetteville State (85-81)?
But some things never change. The men of Virginia Union are still at the top of the black college hoops food chain. Dave Robbins has reloaded and has the only undefeated team (5-0) as we enter January.
But the Panthers had better watch out. CIAA competition may be coming this year from talented teams at St. Augustine's, Elizabeth City and Virginia State. That should make for a very interesting CIAA Tournament in Charlotte.
I can't wait.
© 2007 Azeez Communications, Inc.