Collinsville home to good prep hoops
By By Austin Bishop / EMG Regional Sports Director
Jan. 19, 2003
Sorting through several sports items on a Sunday while wondering whatever happened to Red Farmer …
Just in case you were wondering, they are playing some good basketball up around Collinsville.
Both the West Lauderdale boys and girls have established themselves as the teams to beat in Division 5-3A play, thanks to a sweep of homestanding Choctaw Central on Friday night.
The girls have all of the tools to make a run at a state championship. They have size, speed, strength and experience.
They can score on the move, from a set offense, from the outside and from the inside. The Lady Knights play strong defense and they also do good work on the backboards.
It will be interesting to see just how far they can go.
I don't know if they are good enough to win it all, but I do know this: if you can beat a 19-1 Choctaw Central by 23 points at the Scalping Grounds, you are pretty doggone good.
While the West Lauderdale boys may not be as big as some teams they may face down the line, they are certainly as quick or quicker than most.
Over and over again they took the ball into the paint and to the rim against the Warriors as they overcame a 20-point deficit to win by one point on Friday.
Again, it's hard to say how far they can go, but the Knights will certainly give most foes a tough time.
Top 25 my foot
The Associated Press has a little item they run on the wire called How the Top 25 fared.
As I looked down the listing late Saturday evening there was one very big common denominator high rankings did not necessarily convert into victories.
Don't believe it, just check this out:
No. 1 Duke, lost to Maryland;
No. 6 Connecticut, lost to North Carolina;
No. 8 Illinois, lost to Indiana;
No. 9 Alabama, lost to Auburn;
No. 10 Notre Dame, lost to Kentucky;
No. 11 Missouri, lost to Oklahoma State;
No. 23 LSU, lost to Ole Miss;
No. 25 Syracuse, lost to Pittsburgh;
That kind of looks like a trend to me.
Now before you call and point out that Maryland, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma State and Pittsburgh were also ranked, let me point out that in four of those five cases, the higher ranked team lost to the lower ranked team.
The only exception was No. 3 Pittsburgh's 13-point win over Syracuse.
The biggest surprises?
Well, I would normally say Auburn's win over Alabama and Ole Miss' win over LSU would be the biggest stunners, but the way the Southeastern Conference is going this year, nothing surprises me.
I still say that Alabama and Mississippi State are two of the best teams in the SEC and between them they only have two league wins in seven tries, and one of Alabama's wins came over State.
You have to be impressed by the Rebels' win over LSU at the Pete Maravich Center in Baton Rouge. It's not easy to beat the Tigers, especially at their place.
One of the hardest teams to figure out in the SEC is Kentucky. The Wildcats, 13-3 overall, have struggled at times, but UK rolled past a very good Notre Dame team by 15 points on Saturday.
USM to play on Coast
The University of Southern Mississippi will be hosting Houston in a Conference USA match at the Coast Coliseum in Biloxi on Saturday at 2 p.m.
It will be the first time the Golden Eagles have played in Biloxi since Dec. 17,. 1994 when they played Mississippi State. USM has also faced Ole Miss and Alabama in the Coast Coliseum, as well as hosting the Metro Conference Tournament Twice (1990 and 1994).
