Feast Week Tournament Recap

Syracuse's Eric Devendork confirmed his "thug" reputation by kneeing an opposing player in a very sensitive spot during a scramble in the Coaches -vs- Cancer. That almost started a fist-fight between the two teams.

Gonzaga's injuries: Erroll Knight is down, and now Heytvelt is out for the season. But despite all that and despite a slugish season opener against Idaho, the Zags has shown a lot of onions. After Maui, it is fair to say Pendergraft is starting to resemble a "PJ Tucker Lite" and with Heytvelt out, he will get even more minutes. What happened to that 7-footer from New Zealand that was redshirting last year? Speaking of big men, JP Batista is a very solid college post player. People are focusing on Morrison and the "little kid" at the point, and are not praising JP Batista enough!

South Carolina is a fun run and gun team Odom-style. The freshman trio of Marquette means business. And Novak is not the only Marquette big man hitting the 3s! (As Jimmy Dykes put it) Ryan Amoroso may look like a player who is about to commit a foul but he can hit the 3s baby! USC just glued itself to the #10 spot in the Pac 10.

The super-sophomores at Florida are delivering as a team. Funny how good a team becomes when it loses two shoot-first shoot-second plays (Matt Walsh and A. Roberson).

UCLA showed promise with Shipp and Aboya being injured but the Lavin 7-footers continue to under-perform. Darren Collisson looks like a good get for Ben Howland.

UConn's all-stars can win without Marcus Williams. That will get Calhoun even more leverage when dealing with Marcus Williams. And please tell me why isn't UConn the #1 team in the polls? They beat three solid teams in Maui, while Duke needed help from the zebras to beat Drexel and Memphis.

Speaking of Memphis, the Mercurial Tigers are in a much better shape this year. The Laurenburg Tigers (oops Memphis Tigers) have a solid rotation of athletic, energetic, talented and seemingly coachable, interchangeable parts. This looks like an Elite 8 team, if not a Final 4 team.

It may have looked like Arizona was struggling in Maui but it was the good kind of struggling. The defense was there. The defense was solid. It was the offense that struggled and that is easier to fix with the talent level at Lute Olsen's disposal. And his best offensive player is coming back December 17 (Jawan Mc Clellan). Cool-hand Luke was exposed as a drama-queen when he was throwing fits at the end of the UConn game. And while on the topic of Arizona, is it time to call off the Shakur Experiment? It is Year Three already, with Nic Wise coming in 2006 and Bayless in 2007.

I could have told Skip Prosser that Gray is not a point guard. I could have spared him and his star player the embarassment of double figure turnovers. But Skip is to blame. He did not recruit a replacement for Dawson. He lost two point guards last year but how many did he bring to Wake Forest this year?

Izzo loves overtimes it seems. But don't feel bad for Michigan State. They did alright after their cramping loss @ Hawaii.

Game of the Year so far: Gonzaga - Michigan State with three overtimes at the Maui Invitational

Drexel is good, really good. At least so far.

The Guardians classic joined the Feast Week rotation this week on ESPN. Three games on ESPN/s and one on the U. West Virginia was robbed of a victory when the zebras favored the big name team (Texas). Kentucky has three 7-footers but Tubby doesn't play them. Iowa is solid and drama-free at the moment.

Not to be outdone, CSTV had its feast week tournament at South Padre Island featuring Illinois and Fox College Sports shyly showcased the Paradise Jam in the Virgin islands featuring a solid final between Old Dominion and Wisconsin.