CLOSING IN ON 20 WINS

FSU Men's Basketball

A lot's happened since that magical night in Moscow, ID when Ja'Vance Coleman led the Bulldogs to a thrilling 72-70 overtime victory. Well, let's see, where should I start.....oh yeah. Ja'Vance was kicked off the team right after that. Undisclosed reasons. My best guess is that he's the one that's causing global warming. I don't have any proof or anything, just a hunch.

Then there was a home loss against Nevada, 81-69. The Wolfpack is just that good. It's tough to win on the road in the WAC, but Nevada's pretty close to a legit elite team.

Since then it's been three wins. The first came at home against New Mexico State, 75-69, and that's a pretty good win. Not as great as some around here would lead you to believe, because NMSU is on the outside looking in unless they win the conference tournament. But they are the next best thing in the WAC after Nevada, so it speaks well of the Bulldogs to be able to pull that one off.

Next stop was a supposed bracket-buster against Sam Houston State and nothing in the 78-60 FSU victory is worth noting. Not even Eddie Miller's 28 points. The opponent was more along the lines of the pre-conference schedule.

And tonight, the Bulldogs pulled out a 64-63 win at Louisiana Tech. Obviously there was no Paul Milsap in the La Tech lineup and the....uh....crowd was smaller than most family reunions. But this crazy collection of basketball players from Fresno pulled off a last-second win on the road. Dominic McGuire had six second-half blocks to pass up Melvin Ely as the school's single-season leader in that category.

Fresno State sports a deceptive 19-8 record and doesn't have a ghost of a chance to get into the NCAA tourney. But we all get to dance naked in the streets when that NIT invite comes in, all the while acting like it still has the prominence it did back in the middle of the last century.

STAND BY FOR THE SECOND COMING

Men's Basketball

I don't want to frighten anybody, but it is my duty to report that.......not only did Fresno State win a WAC road game tonight in Idaho, but.......oh lord.......Ja'Vance Coleman nailed down the win by lighting up the nets in overtime.

The score was something like 72-70 and Fresno State won. Coleman repeatedly threw a round object at a cylindrical object nailed to a big square and the ball kept going in. Most of the time it was from the free-throw line but one of them was actually a three-pointer.

Oh, don't worry about his shooting percentage rising above 20% Ja'Vance still went 1/7 from the field. But he was to go-to guy in overtime and he delivered.

Great Cesar's Ghost! Van Halen has reunited with David Lee Roth. The Police have gotten back together to play at the Grammys this year. And Fresno State has won a game behind the scoring of Ja'Vance Coleman.

Here's footage of me immediately after the game finished. I'm still not completely back to normal. Enjoy.

STILL O-FOR-THE ROAD IN WAC PLAY......BUT EVEN WORSE AT HOME

Men's Basketball

After that glorious revenge game against San Jose St., the Hoop 'Dogs traveled to Boise, ID where they proved once again that winning on the road in conference will happen sometime after Guns N Roses releases Chinese Democracy. The final score was 65-61, Broncos, and the team played without the suspended Ja'Vance Coleman. It's hard to imagine how missing practices was seen as more egregious than Coleman's abysmal shooting this season, but if I had known that that was all it would take to leave his empty pea-shooter behind, I would have kidnapped Ja'Vance several weeks ago. Alas, FSU still lost on the road, but how many injuries were prevented with none of Coleman's bricks falling out of the Boise sky?

Next came a home game against Louisiana Tech, again without Coleman. Quinton Hosley scored 19 points and Eddie Miller nailed five of his 10 three-point attempts en route to a 17-point performance as the 'Dogs won 70-64. That improved FSU's record to 15-6 overall while evening their WAC record at 4-4.

What happened next can hardly be described accurately with just words and pictures. In a nutshell, the Fresno State basketball team watched tapes of the football team's game against Utah St. last fall and basically followed suit. In a game that set the Hoops program back at least 25 years, Fresno State manged just 12 first-half points, then went on to finish with a 22% shooting performance and a 54-42 loss to Hawaii. At home. It was a meeting of the Bricklayer's Local 0.22. McGuire - 4/12, Hosley - 3/11, Coleman (re energized after serving his suspension)- 1/7, Hernandez - 1/4.

And the newly elected head of the Bricklayer's Union: Eddie Miller. Two for 15 from the field. 0-10 from three-point range.

Remember when Tark was here and dumbshits who thought they were going to catch some of his poisonous pixie dust would say ignorant things like "shooters just keep shooting"? They supposedly will eventually shoot themselves out of it. Just like magic! Because shooters aren't ballhogs, they're BLESSED ballhogs. They have a gift. The gift of not having a conscience while lofting the ball from geographic areas that still haven't been mapped while totally ignoring their teammates. In the Tark system, that's a virtue. Terence Roberson could go 0-40 in the first half and Jack Fertig and John Anabo and Bill Woodward and all those hopeless Tark Enablers would say that same old sorry-ass line.

Well, against Hawaii, the shooters definitely needed to shoot. Themselves.

I can't do any better than this:

Matt James' Column

I'm not a huge Matt James fan but if you haven't read this already, you need to. It's a dose of truth serum for anybody who's still thinking NCAA's.


Next up: at Idaho tonight. Back with an update when it's over.