Primarily a collection of news links about all 11 Horizon League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.
The league’s website unveiled video boxscores Monday and for hoop heads the new feature is a revelation. With a few clicks, every statistic of every second of every game is now available to fans. Beginning this season, every block by Joel Anthony, every three-pointer or missed shot by Michael Beasley and every steal or turnover by Norris Cole will be cataloged at NBA.com/Stats.
Dwyane Wade had a productive game, going 9 of 13 from the field for 21 points. He also had 12 assists and six rebounds. Guard Norris Cole, filling in for Mario Chalmers in the starting lineup, was 1 of 6 from the field. Chalmers missed the game with a strained muscle in his leg.
Last night, Tulsa (1-4) picked up its first win of the season, as the Golden Hurricane stunned Indiana State (3-2), 63-62. Danny Manning's squad will meet TCU (3-2) in Friday's first semifinal, though host Alaska-Anchorage (5-2) gave the Horned Frogs a mighty scare in a contest that ended up a 73-70 TCU win. Tonight, the bottom half's semifinal matchup will be determined.
Pepperdine Waves (4-1) vs. Green Bay Phoenix (2-1), 9:30 p.m. ET (CBS SN)
Denver Pioneers (0-2) vs. Harvard Crimson (4-1), approx. 12 a.m. ET (CBS SN)
Three of the four teams in action this evening in Anchorage are projected to be at or near the top of their respective leagues this season. The lone exception, Pepperdine, is off to a surprisingly strong start, but Green Bay is a slight step up in competition, certainly better than the San Jose State team the Waves fell to. Denver has yet to win a game, but there's no shame in losing to either California or Stanford. Harvard suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of Colorado on Sunday, as the Crimson stopped in Boulder on their way to the Last Frontier.
Even with Wade back after missing two games due to ongoing knee issues, the first quarter featured the rare full second unit for Heat, with Andersen, Beasley, Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen and Norris Cole together late in the period, even without foul trouble for any of the Big Three.
Not only did the Heat outscore the Magic 30-22 in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 101-99 victory, but point guard Norris Cole played the entire period, helping limit Magic point guard Jameer Nelson to two points and one assist over the 12 minutes.
"It's my job, on this team, defender," Cole said. "And that's one of the skill sets that I bring to the table. So it's great to be in there when it really matters."
Cole said he views himself as more than a specialist against similar quick guards.
"I'm always ready," he said. "I always look at it like that whenever we go against anybody, quick or not, I feel like I can defend." . . .
1) Alec Peters (Valparaiso): The Crusaders fell 100-92 at Evansville but Peters’ performance should be noted, as he scored 30 points one day after returning from his hometown of Washington, Ill., which was hit hard by a tornado on Sunday. D.J. Balentine led Evansville with 32 points, four rebounds and three assists.
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NOTABLES:
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Dave Sobolewski scored 25 points to lead Northwestern to an easy win at UIC, 93-58.
Evansville scored 55 points in the first half and had to hold on for a 100-92 win over Valparaiso as the Crusaders went for 62 in the second half. D.J. Balentine scored 32 points and Duane Gibson had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Purple Aces in the win. Ryan Sawvell scored 14 points and had six rebounds in 16 minutes of action off the bench. Alec Peters (Side note: hope everything was OK with Alec's family and friends in Washington, Ill.; The NWI Times has a nice story scored 30 points in the loss, and went 7-for-11 from 3-point range.
Norris Cole was 3 of 3 from three-point range and Ray Allen and Shane Battier had two three-pointers each.
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Cole drained a three-pointer with 7:09 left in the fourth quarter to give the Heat a 102-76 lead. Miami led 90-71 entering the final period. The Heat has scored at least 100 points in 11 of the team’s first 12 games.
Said Jones, pragmatic as always: “You just pick your poison. That’s every team. This league is full of guys who can make shots. I’m just blessed to be on a team with guys that are willing to make the extra pass because many, many teams you’ll find that team’s best players are reluctant to get off the ball. LeBron, D-Wade, Mario [Chalmers], Norris [Cole], they get off the ball really well.”
Just as Michael Beasley, Rashard Lewis, Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Ray Allen and Chris Andersen have done already this season, it again was a case of someone beyond the realm of the Big Three providing a big threat.
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Once again, it was Heat by committee, with Chalmers, Andersen, Beasley and Cole also having their moments, as the Heat continued the pattern of fattening their record against the rest of the Southeast Division.
The fortunes of Duke Mondy and Dante Williams have taken quite a turn in the past week. During their trip to play at Cal last week the two players were accused of rape charges that were quickly dropped, but were suspended indefinitely from the team for their actions although they had already been cleared of the rape charges. Yesterday, Oakland announced that the two players were back on the team after a two-game suspension. We won’t get into the moral issues of the suspension and what they did since this is not really the place to discuss that, but we will note our amusement at the school’s internal review of the incident. What investigation could the school, which has no power out in California (the school is based in Michigan), have conducted in such a short period of time? We have no problem with them letting the two play again, but the idea of a legitimate internal review seems ridiculous.
UIC, a team expected to finish in the middle of the Horizon League, has also underperformed relative to their already mediocre expectations. The Flames started the preseason ranked 262nd in the country, according to KenPom, but has since fallen to 302nd. Their defense has been less than stellar (giving up 106.4 points per 100 possessions) and their weaknesses played right into the Wildcats’ hands: poor perimeter defense and a stark lack of rim protection. For the season, UIC has allowed teams to shoot 46.7 percent from deep (342nd in the country). The Flames didn’t fare any better on Wednesday when they allowed the Wildcats to make 55 percent of their three-point shots. UIC has also allowed its opponents a free pass when they’ve been beaten off the dribble by only blocking 3.2 percent of all possible shots. Once Northwestern cleared space in the lane by sinking some threes, they were able to get to the rim easily. So as it turns out, UIC was a perfect match for the Wildcats to get the team’s confidence going.
