Court Report
The broken record keeps playing as I tout Larry Hughes as the next Michael Jordan. This superstar leads Conference USA in scoring at 27 points per game. If you are into monster numbers, this should be interesting: Hughes scored 32 points at Louisville, breaking the single season scoring mark held by Louisville Cardinal Nate Johnson. He decided to up that mark in the next game against Marquette when he scored 40 of the Billikens 71 points.
Hughes also broke the freshman scoring record with his 40 point explosion, becoming only the third Billiken to ever pour in 40 or more.
With this Conference USA Player of the Week award, Hughes tallied his third such honor. It only took four times for the award to be renamed in football season, so get your engraving knife ready.
Because of Hughes' dominance, St. Louis is 5-2 in C-USA play and 13-6 overall.
Snapped Streaks...
Blame El Nino, call for Armageddon or credit the Pope on his visit to North America, but some weird stuff is going on.
I woke up from a dream where an AFC team won the Super Bowl; Denver won a basketball game, snapping a 23-game losing streak; and the Cougars stopped their compulsive losing binge at 9 straight. Next you'll tell me Al Gore is the president.
The Houston Nuggets, I mean Cougars, finally won a game! UH exorcised the Demons of DePaul 65-59, limiting their turnovers to 17, the lowest of 1998. Coach Alvin Brooks did a great job of changing up the offense, creating more open looks for Cougar star Galen Robinson. G-Rob tallied 22 points, 12 boards and three swats.
The 17 turnovers and 15 assists were both marked improvements that were not surpassed during the 10 game hibernation prior to this win. The Cougars have a new one-game winning streak that, praise God, will last until a match-up at UAB, Jan. 31 (unless the Cougars lose to the Bulls). The last conference road game the Cougars won was, well, never. Until then, games against the weak sisters of the poor include South Florida and Tulane.
Speaking of Tulane, the Green Wave has been giving away wins more often than Bill Clinton has met with his interns.
Tulane has lost eight of its last 10 games, with victories against NC-A&T and UH. Tulane, along with South Florida and Tulane, are battling for the National Division cellar.
Getting High...
Several new highs were set this week in C-USA play. St. Louis dropped 13 bombs from three-land in its battle against UAB.
The three-point record for accuracy was also set this week when Memphis made eight of 12 three-doggers against Georgetown. That accuracy kept it close, but they still grabbed an "L" in the 69-73 loss to the Hoyas.
Finally, South Florida stole the mark for steals with 21 take-aways from Tulane. The thievery helped South Florida post its second C-USA victory 82-63.
Statistically speaking...
What is UNC Charlotte thinking, going 6-0 during Conference play? This is the 49ers best start ever.