Full Court Press: Temple Does It Again, Roy Collapse, Stony Brook Rolling, & More

Before we get into some college hoops I need to get something off my chest that has been bothering me for quite some time.

It has to do with the increasing frequency of sexual assault by student-athletes, ie, rape, occurring on college campuses across the nation.

It is troubling and quite frankly disgusting. Really now, what can be worse than a sexual assault against a female?

It is huge issue, and growing, with various reports of sexual assault occurring at the rate of 20-25% on our colleges across the country.

This is a college sports column, so I am directing my views at the student-athlete side of the issue, but it is a huge problem student body-wide fueled by a tsunami of alcohol, substance abuse and false sense of entitlement.

The recent cases involving two Baylor University football players, has once again brought this issue into the headlines.

Perhaps this time something will be done to address this alarming behavior on campus.

Everyone is most familiar with the highly-publicized Jameis Winston case at Florida State and how that was “settled” out of court.

We need to do better than settle, defer to local police authorities or sweep these things under the rug.
Colleges have time and again claimed zero culpability and liability because the incidents occur off campus and not under their jurisdiction.

Well, that’ just not an acceptable answer.

It is time for some action by the NCAA, college administrators, coaches and, most importantly, the team leaders to take stock and become accountable for the addressing this serious social issue.

I would start first with the team leaders/captains, as they are in the most intimate position to tell the powers-to-be what is actually causing the problems and how to problem solve.

It is time for the guys making the big bucks to put their foot down – college presidents, coaches and athletic directors – to lead AND take action!

Enough is enough…..

Temple does it again

How ‘bout Fran Dunphy’s Temple Owls! The Owls (15-8, 9-3 AAC) took down UCONN (17-7, 7-4 AAC) with a late game 21-4 run to surprise the Huskies, 68-53, last night at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.

The Owls senior guard, Quenton DeCosey was the star of the game as he poured in a game-high 23 points, including the final seven points of the game. The 6-foot 5-inch DeCosey was 7 of 15 from the field, including seven-of-seven from the foul line and added four boards.

The Owls currently are tied for first with SMU in the AAC.

Dunphy’s Owls have two signature wins over the Huskies, as well as wins over Cincinnati and SMU, which just might be enough to catch the attention of the NCAA selection committee.

They need a strong finish, plus a deep run in the AAC tournament to make their case.

It’s all over in the America East but….

Coach Steve Pikiel and the Stony Brook Seawolves (21-4, 12-0 America East) are running away from the rest of the America East field.

However, the fly in the ointment for Pikiel and his Seawolves has been getting past Albany (20-7, 9-3 America East) in the America East tournament.

The Seawolves have ripped off 17 wins in a row this season.

With Jameel Warney (Plainfield, N.J.), the two-time reigning America East Player of the Year, playing at a lottery pick level odds are Stony Brook and their rabid fans will go dancin’.

Pride beats the Tribe to stay alive

Coach Joe Mihalik’s Hofstra Pride (17-8, 9-4 CAA) kept their CAA title hopes alive last night with a thrilling 86-80 win over William & Mary (17-7, 9-4 CAA).

Rokas Gustays was the man of the hour for Hofstra as he led the way with 25 points. Gustays was red-hot from the field going 12 of 16 while grabbing 15 rebounds in the road win.

Of course the automatic NCAA tournament bid goes to the CAA tournament winner, but the regular season win over the Tribe gives the Pride a big boost of confidence and adds to the resume (Tribe with RPI of 35) heading into March.

Interesting, Hofstra has a 3-1 record against teams in the top 50 RPI.

UNC – Wilmington leads the league with a 10-2 mark. The Pride gets another crack at the league-leaders when they travel to UNCW on February 25.

Get well Roy

University of North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams collapsed during a time out in Tuesday night game against Boston College.

Williams has been battling vertigo over the years and suffered the incident when he made a sudden head turn while along the sidelines.

A final word

University of Minnesota’s Rachel Banham tied the NCAA single-game scoring record with 60 points in a 112-106 double-overtime victory. The senior shattered the Minnesota (44) and Big Ten (49) records to lead her team past the Northwestern Wildcats.

Banham is one of two Big Ten players, men’s or women’s, to score 60. Rick Mount of Purdue scored 61.

UConn’s Breanna Stewart has to be the best female basketball player on the planet (sorry Elena Delle Donne and Diana Taurasi). How ‘bout her 25 point, 10 board gem that led the Huskies to a 66-54 win over No. 2 South Carolina last Monday, February 8.

Can the Connecticut Sun make a maneuver to draft Stewart? Love to see Delle Donne and Stewart get after it one-on-one!

Things are getting pretty interesting in the battle for the top stop in the Ivy League women’s basketball standings. The Penn Quakers are currently in first place (16-3, 5-0 Ivy) followed closely by surprising Cornell (13-7, 5-1 Ivy) and Princeton (15-4, 4-1 Ivy). Cornell is on the road this evening at Princeton and then the Big Red will cross the Jersey line to face the Quakers on Saturday in The Palestra.

Stay tuned!

Happy Valentine’s Day …..
Keep shooting!

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