The college hoops season got underway last week. Highlights included the preseason No. three North Carolina Tar Heels falling in their first game of the season to the unranked, unheard-of Santa Clara Broncos, as well as the Preseason NIT and Great Alaska Shootout tourneys.
Preseason NIT: The final of the 16-team tournament was played on Friday night in Madison Square Garden. It pitted the No. one Wake Forest Demon Deacons against the No. 17 Arizona Wildcats.
Wake sure didn't look like the best team in the country in the first half. It went into the locker room down 37-29. But the Deacons came out with fire in their eyes in the second half, outscoring the Wildcats 34-23 and winning by a count of 63-60.
Guard Justin Gray came up big for Wake, netting 21 points and pulling down four boards. He was eventually named the tournament's most outstanding player. Jamaal Levy also played well for Wake, putting up eight points and 12 boards. Preseason All-American Chris Paul did next to nothing (four points on 2-11 shooting) for Wake as he was kept in check by Arizona guard Mustafa Shakur. 'Zona was led by forward Hassan Adams, who had 19 points to go along with eight boards.
Wake is now 5-0 while Arizona falls to 3-2.
Great Alaska Shootout: The only reason people will go to Alaska at this time of the year is to see this annual tournament. This season, some great teams faced off in Anchorage. The final took place Saturday night and included the nineteenth-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide and the twenty-third ranked Washington Huskies. This game was a nail biter the whole way.
Knowing that Husky guard Nate Robinson was a huge threat after he had killed the Oklahoma Sooners the previous night with 19 points, Alabama made it a priority to dog him all night long. Although Robinson was held to 16 points, his teammates stepped it up. Washington's Will Conroy put up 18 points and Bobby Jones and Tre Simmons chipped in 15 apiece. Alabama was led by forward Chuck Davis, who put down 23 points for the Tide.
With the Huskies clinging to a small lead the second entire half, Alabama had one last chance to tie it with two seconds remaining. Tide forward Kennedy Winston launched a half-court prayer that bounced off the backboard, giving the Huskies a 79-76 victory. Robinson earned the tourney's most outstanding player award.
Across the nation: The Syracuse Orangemen improved to 5-0 with a 78-56 stomping of the Siena Saints. Gerry McNamara poured in 29 points for the Orangemen. The Illinois Fighting Illini shut down the Gonzaga Bulldogs by a count of 89-72, putting the Bulldogs in their place. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Oklahoma State Cowboys, Michigan State Spartans and Duke Blue Devils all posted convincing victories, raising their respective records to the 3-0 mark. The top five in this week's poll are Wake Forest, the Kansas Jayhawks, Georgia Tech, Illinois and Syracuse.
Players of the week: Selecting the one or two best performances of each week will be tough, but it will be done. On Friday, Maryland Terrapins guard John Gilchrist poured in 16 points, ripped down 10 boards, dished seven dimes, and made five steals. It was quite the all-around performance in the No. 14 Terps' mashing of the No. 24 Memphis Tigers.
On Saturday, both Michigan State and Duke had all of their starters scoring in double figures as the ninth-ranked Spartans pounded the Nicholls State Colonels, 102-52 and the number ten Blue Devils walloped the UNC Greensboro Spartans, 98-44.
Until next week, watch as much college hoops as possible. Oh, that's right. We don't get ESPN on campus.
