From the National Hurricane Center:

DEAN HAS CONTINUED TO STRENGTHEN THIS MORNING…WITH OCCASIONAL GLIMPSES OF AN EYE IN INFRARED SATELLITE IMAGERY AND CLOUD TOPS COLDER THAN -70C NEAR THE CENTER. SATELLITE INTENSITY ESTIMATES ARE 65 KT FROM TAFB AND SAB…SO DEAN IS UPGRADED TO THE FIRST HURRICANE OF THE 2007 HURRICANE SEASON.

According to the latest forecast, Dean is looking like he likes the more Southern route, taking him right over Mexico and away from the Gulf. Of course, this is bad for Mexico, but good that he won’t reach the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

11 AM ET UPDATE:

Dean is gaining strength quickly, and is almost a Category 2 already. From the NHC advisory:

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 90 MPH…150 KM/HR…WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. DEAN IS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON
SCALE. STRONGER WINDS…ESPECIALLY IN GUSTS…ARE LIKELY OVER
ELEVATED TERRAIN. ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE
NEXT 24 HOURS. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT WILL
INVESTIGATE DEAN THIS AFTERNOON.

Dean will be a Cat 2 hurricane when it reaches wind speeds of 96 mph. I presume when the next advisory comes out that will be a Cat 2.

The NY Times ran an interesting article about USC basketball recruit and the number one player in the country, O.J. Mayo and how he ended up with Tim Floyd. There are a lot of people who don’t like this kid at all.

Among the problems he’s had in high school, he was suspended three games for coming in contact with a referee during a game after he was given a 2nd technical foul:

After referee Mike Lazo called two technical fouls on Mayo on Jan. 26, Mayo came into contact with him, causing the referee to fall to the floor as he approached the scorer’s table, according to Lazo.

Now comes this crazy YouTube clip of OJ throwing a pass off the back board and then dunking it. Then he takes the ball and throws it into the stands…in the middle of the game. That was his last game as a high school player and will join USC for probably one season before going pro.

Can’t wait until Brendan starts blogging about him. :)

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: Just a little editorial comment from the webmaster here. :) I actually have blogged about Mayo before, specifically about referee-gate, and the bottom line is that the ref totally flopped in order to make Mayo look bad. It was pretty ridiculous. So that incident really should not be counted against Mayo in any way, shape or form. The showboating business, that’s a legitimate topic of discussion. Also, Mayo’s arrest for marijuana possession was troubling (and made it official that all three of my teams were affected by drug arrests this season, albeit indirectly in USC’s case), but the charges were later dropped, apparently because the weed wasn’t his. (Initially, all four people in the car were charged with possession, which sounds like a “book ‘em first, ask questions later” law-enforcement policy.)

Anyway, Tim Floyd has defended Mayo against his critics. I’ll just say this: we should be very careful to guard against forming harsh judgments about Mayo simply because there have a bunch of half-baked allegations of impropriety that ultimately came to nothing or not much (e.g., referee-gate, the dropped pot charges). There’s a natural tendency to form a negative impression of someone when you hear a lot of bad stuff about them, even if the details ultimately suggest that there isn’t much substance to each of the individual allegations that initially created the negative impression. The tendency is to think, “Well, there isn’t much to that allegation, but there have been so many allegations, so there must be something to at least some of them.” But this tendency is wrong and should be avoided. Allegations of impropriety should be judged on their individual merits, not lumped together and the details ignored. One possible reason we hear a lot of bad stuff about Mayo is because he’s a bad kid, but an equally plausible reason is because there’s a huge media spotlight on him, so everything he says and does is under a microscope that no other high-school recruit in the nation right now has to deal with. Maybe Mayo’s a bad kid, but we shouldn’t jump to that conclusion on the basis of nothing more than a hazy impression that a bunch of negative stuff has been said about him, so he obviously must be bad.

Oh yeah, and in whatever judgments we do form about Mayo, we should also be sure to remember that he’s just a high-school kid.

In a season where the Missouri Valley Conference beat up on each other, the bottom four teams (Illinois State, Indiana State, Evansville and Drake) all fired or forced out their head coaches. I’m going to look at each one after the jump and if they have a replacement, at them as well.
(more…)

Well, what an exciting four days of basketball under the Arch. I saw some awesome games, a blowout or two and the fact that Missouri Valley Conference basketball is VERY popular.

The MVC destroyed their own attendance record by 20,000 tickets with 85,000+ going to the games over four days, including sellouts on Saturday and Sunday. Southern Illinois had the most fans there, as they are just a two-hour drive from St. Louis. As usual, after Friday, they came out in full force and almost all of the single-game seats in the upper deck were wearing maroon.

The championship game was entertaining as Creighton in the 2nd half came out and smacked SIU right in the mouth, going on a 10-0 run to start the half. SIU finally calmed down and got back to within one or so, but Creighton went on another little run and won the game 67-61 to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. They were probably in anyway, but got the auto bid.

The loss for SIU will hurt their seed. Many wondered if they would have been a 2 seed had they won, but now I think they will drop to a 4 seed. Creighton improved to around a 7 or an 8 probably. Hopefully a 7, stay out of that 8/9 plays the 1 seed in the 2nd round, please.

Missouri State and Bradley now go into sweat-it-out mode and hope that the favorites win and the pretenders lose. The more teams that force the top teams to take bubble spots means they drop closer to out. Bradley is probably out anyway but Missouri State is right on the line. Two years of a burst bubble will make a lot of angry people in Springfield, Mo. They already expect an NCAA bid every year and despite 20-win seasons, they will start to put pressure on their coach, Barry Hinson.

Speaking of coaches, two Valley schools already have coaching openings as Indiana State’s Royce Waltman was fired and Evansville’s Steve Merefield resigned (though he was going to be fired anyway) and Illinois State’s Porter Moser has a lot of rumors swirling around him.

I’d like to thank Brendan for letting me do this, it was fun and next year I promise to remember my camera at least one day out of four. Hopefully all of you enjoyed following along with me from Arch Madness. Go Valley!

P.S. After the jump, a look at the final bracket, courtesy of The Mid-Majority.

(more…)

Creighton wins 67-61!

Fun game! Creighton leads SIU 32-28 at half.

What an awesome atmosphere for the first semifinal at the MVC tournament. The game was sold out at 22,000 strong and they announced that it was the largest crowd to ever watch a college basketball game at that arena. That includes Illinois/Missouri which plays there every year.

So in game one, top seed SIU held on to beat fourth seeded Bradley in a fantastic game. Bradley led for most of the game before SIU gained the lead late. SIU’s Matt Shaw had a rebound tip in with 3.2 seconds to give them the lead. Unlike the day before when BU hit a 3 pt shot at the horn to win, BU missed a three this time at the buzzer and SIU moves on to the final.

In game two, Creighton gained control early over Missouri State, before Missouri State crawled back into it at halftime. In the 2nd half, Creighton controlled and rolled to an easy win. Creighton’s Nate Funk had 33 points in the game. He’s an amazing player.

So today’s final is #1 vs #2. MO State is firmly on the bubble and may be looking at the NIT again. I think had they beat Creighton they would have been in, but we shall see. We don’t need for someone like Ohio St or Wisconsin or someone like that to lose in their tournaments. I want all the big conference top seeds to take the auto bids.

Creighton leads Missouri State 39 34

The red is Bradley fans. This place is sold out and is loud. Tied at 26 at half.

Wow, what a long day of hoops. Four games over 10 hours. And you can’t eat or drink anything because you have to take a loan out to do it!

In game one, top seed Southern Illinois took care of Drake 71-59 in game that was closer than that. SIU took a 12 point lead with about 12 minutes left and took out starters. That let Drake back into the game and they cut the lead to about 5 or so when SIU had to throw their starters back in to keep the lead. On a side note, SIU has the hottest dance line out of any of the Valley teams. Wow.

Read about the other three games after the jump.
(more…)

Shocker nation is excited as they lead Missouri State 34 32 at the half.

UPDATE BY BRENDAN: It’s tied at 60 with 4:09 left. Yikes! Missouri State needs this win! And the Valley probably needs them to get it, lest this be a two-bid year (unless Bradley or Wichita State wins the auto bid). GO BEARS!

You can listen live on ShockerRadio.com or KFNS The Fan out of St. Louis.

UPDATE 2: Bears win!!! Wichita State misses the three-pointer in the final seconds, and it’s a 67-64 Missouri State victory. The Bears should be dancing!

So, in a development bordering on the bizarre, the Missouri Valley Conference quarterfinals go according to seed! Heh. The semifinals will be #1 Southern Illinois vs. #4 Bradley and #2 Creighton vs. #3 Missouri State.

Here’s the radio call from KFNS. It starts with MO State having possession and a 2-point lead:

source file

And here’s the call from ShockerRadio:

A reporter interviews some Wichita State fans. Creighton leads Indiana State 32-20 at half.

My five dollar water. :) BU beats UNI 51-48 on a Will Franklin 3pt FG with two seconds left.

My friend Cindy is excited that Bradley leads 28-21 at half.

SIU wins 71-59 but the game was much closer than that. Bradley and Northern Iowa up next.