the Thanksgiving holiday weekend was very bright for white guys on the hardwood. there were a ton of mostly white teams who beat much more heralded teams filled wif afaletes.
possibly the biggest story was the run of
Butler University. the Bulldogs routinely start 4 white guys, and they made a run through the Preseason NIT Tournament, eventually beating my Gonzaga Bulldogs to win the championship. en route, Butler also knocked off Notre Dame, Indiana, and Tennessee. except for Notre Dame and the Zags, Butler faced nearly coal black competition with "super talented afaletes" all over the court. yet,
somehow they cut down the nets in Madison Square Garden.
led by point guard A.J. Graves, a 6-1 junior, the Bulldogs went from "just another win" on the schedule, to a dominant non-BCS league hoops team to watch.
Graves pointing to his teammates as he holds the Tourney MVP trophy
nearly all-white
Missouri State upset #7 Wisconsin at Wisconsin's house, led by the nation's best free throw shooter, and generally under-rated guard, Blake Ahearn. Ahearn had 25 in the win. additionally, Missouri State had beaten all-black Houston earlier in the pre-season NIT.
Ahearn, the Bears' floor general
almost all-white
Marist, led by last year's collegiate assist leader Jared Jordan took care of coal black Minnesota in the opening round of the Old Spice Invitational Tourney. before the game, the announcers were talking about the Gophers "vastly superior afaleticism." after the game, they couldn't stop talking about how good Jordan was and how much Minnesota missed their
suddenly best player, white center Spencer Tollackson.
Jordan had a near-triple double, with 11 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds.
Jordan nearly led the very under-sized Red Foxes to another upset in their second-round game, against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Friday. they came up short at the end, but Jordan had another stellar game. he led his team in scoring, assists, and rebound with 21, 8, and 8.
Jared Jordan doing his thing
nearly all-white
Western Michigan knocked off midnight black Virginia Tech on Thursday in the Old Spice Tourney, as well, behind Joe Reitz' 17 points and 8 boards. WMU got smoked in the next round by racially mixed West Virginia.
speaking of West Virginia, they are led by the high flying sophomore Joe Alexander. Wow! can this kid get off the floor! with a little more experience (he barely played last year as a true frosh), he will be special. he has a tremendous all-around game, from blocking shots to making assists to hitting the 3. he's going to be something.
mostly white Northern Arizona knocked off Arizona State at ASU. of course, they then got rolled at Arizona by Chase Budinger who had 32.
the Air Force Academy knocked off Texas Tech. former MWC PoY Nick Welch is back. an under-sized center, Welch might be the best passing big man in the country. i really like watching him play. forward Jacob Burtschi is also very good.
my Zags knocked off #2 North Carolina in Madison Square Garden. i don't know what Roy WIlliams was thinking, but his poor player management helped the Zags a whole lot. with the backcourt of Frasor and Miller on the court, the Zags really struggled. fortunately for the Zags, the two white Tarheel guards spent most of the game on the bench for some reason.
Raivio and Heytvelt took advantage, and carried Gonzaga to the title game. they lost that one, to nearly all-white Butler.
i wonder how that works?
