A pair of LA TECH features

Backcourter DeAndre Brown is the subject of a nice feature today in the Shreveport Times.

We should have been aware of this earlier but former LA Tech Coach Keith Richard is helming Louisiana Monroe, the Aggie opponent tonight in Ruston.

GT tops Utah State 68-51

Tai Wesley's early foul out and Pooh Williams as the team points leader do not spell victory for Utah State against Georgetown. It was 33-29 at the half. Shawn Harrison has an early game report here.

PTW was wrong (hey, what else is new?) as our prediction that the Hoyas wouldn't reach it's 51% season shooting percentage today was proven incorrect. GT shot 51.1%.

Callin' for an Aggie upset

Rob Dauster/Ballin' Is A Habit is calling for Utah State to take down Georgetown today -- head here.

Saturday's early WAC report

Idaho romps past North Dakota 63-42 and Vandal athletics provides the game report. Monmouth is the opponent tonight.

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It's not just the USU perimeter players against those of GT (no, the Aggies aren't playing Pontiac) but whichever group performs best will likely lead their team to victory in D.C. Tony Jones is here, Shawn Harrison here and Kraig Williams here. The Hoyas are shooting 51% from the floor -- here's typing Georgetown doesn't reach that percentage today.

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In another marquee game, Hawaii is in Provo to face BYU as Gib Arnold faces his former community college coach in Dave Rose. Brian McInnis has a pre-game feature while Dayton Morinaga is here. It's usually the Jimmys and the Joes coaches have to prepare for but Hawaii faces a Jimmer (Fredette) in this case.

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Coach David Carter says it's the tigers versus the kittens as UNLV comes to Reno tonight (we imagine that won't be what he tells his players) as the in-state rivalry heats up once again.

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New Mexico State hosts New Mexico tonight and Jason Groves leads us into that contest with a Troy Gillenwater feature.

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San Jose State is at UC Irvine (we love the nickname Anteaters but wouldn't the John Birchers have been just as good?), Colorado State is hosting Fresno State and Louisiana Tech welcomes Louisiana Monroe into the Thomas Assembly Center.

Positive and negative Items about the season so far

USU 

What's up with Tyler Newbold's across-the-board shooting stats: 20& overall, .067 (1-15) from three-point range and 61% at the foul line? One area where he has remained steady is his 18/4 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Nevada 

Did anyone forsee center Dario Hunt being the leading Wolf Pack scorer at 12.5? On the other hand, Deonte Burton owns a 25/14 assist-to-turnover ratio ration as a frosh on a team not shooting all that well.

Idaho

Kyle Barone has to score in double figures for this team to succeed, not 6.4 ppg.  Remarkably, every one of Jeff Ledbetter's 30 baskets are three-pointers (he has taken but two non long-distance shots) and is shooting 53% on treys.

Louisiana Tech 

Coach Kerry Rupp wants the offense to run through Olu Ashaolu but his assist-to-turnover ratio is 17/27. On the flip side, DeAndre Brown has stepped it up and is scoring 17.4 ppg.while shooting well (39%) on 46 three-point attempts.

New Mexico State

Not to be simplistic but shooting percentage, shooting percentage, shooting percentage. Troy Gillenwater is at .45%7 to last season's .527% while Hamidu Rahman checks in at .462% to last season's .554%. Positively, Hernst  LaRoche is shooting .433% (.583 from 3).

Boise State  

We don't recall any predictions (including our own) having senior Daequon Montreal at 4.2 ppg. on .323% shooting. Alternatively, Robert Arnold is checking in at 15.8 ppg. on .589% overall shooting, .522% from three.

Hawaii  

Zane Johnson was not expected to be shooting .347% overall (17-49) but the squad is at a marksmen-like .503% overall and .418% from long distance with freshman Bo Barnes, seen earlier as a redshirt candidate, at 19-37 and .514% in three-pointers.

San Jose State  .397% team shooting and just over 11 assists a game are lower numbers than expected while Justin Graham's wrist is finally healthy again (12-17 on treys, .706%).

Fresno State  

Yikes! Greg Smith at 8.8 ppg., nobody else in double figures scoring and 19% three-point shooting as a team -- this from the longtime gunslinger Bulldog squad? Also, more was expected from Jonathan Wills. Congrats to frosh backcourter Tyler Johnson who is at 45% overall shooting.

Pack The Taco

It's probably not worth noting but we just loved the headline here -- from the Arbiter on Boise State's home game against Long Beach State.

A Brady Heslip update

Backcourter Brady Heslip has Utah State and Boise State as college possibilities last off-season before deciding to head to Baylor. Prior to that, he left prep school in mid-season and spent a semester at Boston College. Then, the BC coach was let go and the new hire didn't wish to keep Heslip around.

In late October, the NCAA determined Heslip wasn't eligible to play this season for the Bears. He had filed an appeal based on his brief time in Chestnut Hill and because the new BC coach basically told him to move on.

What WAC basketball news was provided on Friday

Here's your chance to meet Vander Joaquim, who has a fascinating backstory.

Brian McInnis has dug into the Anthony Salter situation and it appears a new address is in the junior's future.

Brian reports and we get to decide on that last-second, game-winning Cal Poly shot.

Jeff Portnoy talks about the game.

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Nick Jezierny offers up six reasons for Boise State's undefeated status.

This is a shocker

Chris Murray has unearthed costs, profits and losses for Nevada athletics and some of the numbers are eye-opening.

Not to give away all that much:

* Nevada mens basketball carries the athletic department bigtime

* Wolf Pack womens basketball loses $1,000,000 annually (in the past three years)

PTW surmises that most, if not all, of the other WAC mens basketball programs are not earning anywhere near the Mark Fox/David Carter total. Are the other WAC womens teams also losing a million bucks a season, or even close to that?

Two more Thursday items

Sam Wasson @ Bleed Crimson offers up his weekly interview with New Mexico State Coach Marvin Menzies.

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Tony Jones @ Aggieville provides a lengthy pre-game look at Georgetown, Utah State's Saturday matchup in D.C.

Thursday's WAC news and notes

Did he or didn't he? (for you old-timers, this is an update from Clairol's does she or doesn't she?)

Whether or not Joe O'Brien released the ball before the buzzer will be forever debated but the outcome -- Hawaii losing 54-53 to Cal Poly -- is in the books. The Bows out-shot the Mustangs 51% to 33% but 27 turnovers nullified that advantage. Joshua D. Scroggin is here with a game report and Dayton Morinaga provides his take. Here's Cal Poly athletics with a writeup.

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Utah State agains scored no style points but still took down Denver on the road. The Deseret News posted this, Shawn Harrison is here as well as Tony Jones checking in.

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LA TECH athletics has a game writeup plus photos on the Bulldogs win over Southern Methodist.

Tony Jones confirms one verbal and has news on another offer

Tony Jones has a post up at Aggieville on the Corey Calvert verbal to USU and the name of another player, a 2012-er, who has been offered by the Aggies.

As Meatloaf sang in the late 70s "two out of three ain't bad"

Utah State righted the good ship WAC tonight with a 61-53 victory over host Denver. How many would have guessed that if clued into Tai Wesley totaling seven points and five boards? Walk-on guard E.J. Farris played 14 minutes and Nate Bendall took to the court for seven.

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In Ruston, Louisiana Tech kept its mojo going with a 69-64 win over SMU. Backcourter DeAndre Brown led the way with 19 points.

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Hawaii hit the mainland for the first time this season and led Cal Poly 53-52 with 22 seconds remaining. The final: CP 54, UH 53. Too early for further details.

Wednesday and the WAC

Two more games on the road tonight and one at home: Hawaii v. Cal Poly, Utah State v. Denver and SMU visiting LA TECH.

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Sam Wasson/Bleed Crimson game reports the Aggie loss to visiting UTEP. He also provides photos from the game.

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Tony Jones serves up a Stew Morrill/USU basketball feature including a photo of a smiling Stew. Get over there right now.

Kraig Williams offers an Aggie report and covers USU's next pair of opponents utilizing a similar offensive style.

Shawn Harrison also covers the next Aggie matchups.

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Boyz II Men is the theme of Hawaii's first road trip of the season -- Brian McInnis fills us in.

Dayton Morinaga also details the departure from the island for UH hoops.

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Louisiana Tech athletics previews the Bulldog matchup with SMU tonight.

Not a good night for the WAC

0-4 tonight for the WAC -- not a showing that gains respect.

Jason Groves leads off with his Aggie - UTEP game report. Jason offers another article here -- no Hamidu Rahman available for this game. His trifecta is a blog entry after the game.

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The Fresno Bee reports on the Bulldogs loss to Utah in Salt Lake City. From the Ute perspective, Lya Wodraska offers her game report.

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Chris Murray provides an early writeup on Nevada's road loss to South Dakota State.

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 Dan McCarney at the San Antonio Express - News fills us in on San Jose State's loss to host and future WAC member UT San Antonio.

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Dayton Morinaga has posted quite a number of photos of Hawaii's win over Arkansas Pine Bluff.