Is it just me, or is the national media awfully awful by continually saying: “the Big Ten/ACC Challenge really means nothing, but we’re going to spend the next 15 minutes breaking it down anyway.”

If it means nothing, what does that say about your commentary of nothing?

***

Tonight brings another pair of games, and a repeat performance of last night’s sweep jumps the conference over the break even mark in noncon action. And while the record isn’t glossy, the wins are. We’ll revisit this chart and detail it perhaps tomorrow.

Side Note: everybody sees Chuck Jenkins’s 38 smackers and says “wow.” But did you see how he got there? 12-17 FG (5-7 threes) and 9-9 FT, when everybody knows you are going to shoot? Hidden behind that is another 18 points from Nat Lester and Corny Vines with two field goal attempts and four assists. Goodness.

Nor’easter hosts Providence, and the Big East team is the one looking for revenge. I like typing that, much like I like typing William & Mary is the #9 team in the land, according to CBSSports.com‘s RPI ranking.

The Huskies have been scrabbling together their season so far–two good wins over Utah State and Wright State, and a hardscrabble loss to Boston University. The Siena game was good, bad, and ugly all rolled into one.

Anyway, in an effort to fire up Janning and the Boys, I think Nor’easter loses this one in front of native son and all around talented national writer Jeff Goodman. Really I’m just too lazy to look up anything about Providence, since they are above the Red Line.

In the other game, Delaware is at Delaware State. The Hens will roll. It will be most interesting to see who hits the floor for the Fightin Montays. Fonzie Dawson, as the story goes, earned a DNP-CD against Virginia Tech the other night for being, uh, lazy during practice.  Freshman forward Josh Brinkley tallied 12 points against Tech, which doubled his scoring total for the season.

We can’t say Ross is throwing in the towel and giving his freshmen playing time, but we can say he has no qualms sitting you down if you don’t give effort. Nobody can stop you from giving maximum effort. But Ross can stop you from giving any.

NOTES I DIDN’T FIND

(Thanks to the conference office for these nuggets I found interesting)

• Odd but true: Drexel is a team chock full of bricklayers, right? The Dragons were 0-for-11 on threes against Penn, ending a streak of 520 straight games with a trey.
• Good for Darren White of JMU, winner of this week’s Luke Hancock Award: Mason’s freshman forward turned in another strong performance with 14 points and four boards against Tulane. Hancock ranks second on the team in scoring (10.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.7 rpg) and leads the squad in assists (3.3 apg). Useless note: Hancock grew up a couple neighborhoods over from my home and went to a high school that didn’t exist when I lived there. Oh, and Vegas has this kid prohibitive favorite for FOY.
• Georgia State’s Oooos Krubally and Trey Hampton rank first and second in the CAA in offensive rebounds. The Panthers lead the league in steals (8.3 spg).
• Hofstra’s Greg Washington averaged 15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks last week while shooting 72.2% (13-18) from the floor. He netted a career-best 18 points versus Charlotte.
• After scoring nine points in back-to-back games, Chuck Jenkins hit for 25 against Charlotte and 38 last night. Talkin’ time is over. Jenkins is now 21st on the Pride’s career scoring list (1,173 pts) and is nearly 100 points ahead of the pace set by all-time scoring leader Antoine Agudio.
• Going into last night’s Fairfield game, Hofstra held opponents to 52.3 ppg in its three wins, but gave up 85.7 ppg in its three losses.
• Dub biggie John Fields took co-POW honors averaging 18.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in two wins, including his second double-double (22 pts/12 reb) versus VMI. Fields, who made 17-of-20 from the floor, leads the CAA in FG percentage (65%) and rebounding (8.8 rpg).
• Shooting is easy. Get the shots you want, then make the shots you take. The Seahawks shot 58.6% from the floor last week, including 14-of-28 (50%) from 3-point range.
• Nor’easter frosh Alwayne Bigby made his first collegiate start at BU and responded with 16 points and seven boards. He added three steals versus WSU. He’s one of those guys that just looks like he belongs on the floor. All four of NU’s games this season have been decided by six points or less.
• Towson led Dayton 64-46 with 9:36 to play before the Flyers rallied. Josh Thornton was 6-6 from three in the first half and is now Towson’s career treys leader with 161.
• W&M’s victory at Wake was its first over an ACC foe since 1984 and snapped the Deacs’ 50-game November win streak at Joel Coliseum. The Tribe leads the CAA in 3-pointers per game (10.8) and 3-point FG% (41.4%)