Good news regarding Belmont and Lipscomb. It's a shame they both can't make the Tourney!
Actually, Lipscomb is in the Atlantic Sun conference while Belmont is in the OVC; so both teams can get in if they win their conference tournament! Lipscomb looks like a heavy A-Sun favorite right now, seeing what they did to SMU and TCU earlier in the year, and former A-Sun power Florida Gulf Coast struggling thus far. Belmont is looking very good, but has a good team in all-black Murray State (who've knocked Belmont out of the OVC tournament the last couple of years), so the Bruins will have their work cut out for them.
Iowa had a nice win over nearly all-black Iowa State last night, the game Jimmy alluded to. Bench players and 6th and 7th men Nicholas Baer and Conner McCaffrey led the Hawkeyes' white contingent with 14 and 12 apiece off the bench. Baer's barrage of threes in the second half broke the game wide open, and McCaffrey's taking over of the game down the stretch helped Iowa seal the deal.
A white friendly Purdue squad knocked off all black Maryland, who the commentators were salivating over for large portions of the game. Matt Haarms had 10 points, 6 boards, and 3 blocks in the win.
Another Mid-Major to keep an eye is Wofford. The Terriers start do-everything guard Fletcher Magee, one of the best in the country from deep, and Wofford's leader. The springy 6'4, 200 lb senior had 27 points in the Terriers' devouring of a cupcake last night. The Terriers also start two more white guards in freshman PG Ryan Larson, and guard/wing Nathan Hoover. Guard Storm Murphy and big man Matt Pegram come off the bench for nice minutes.
Butler senior Paul Jorgensen has been exceeding expectations so far this year. Not only has he proven to be a reliable second scorer behind their "star," Jorgensen is actually Butler's leading scorer so far this year at over 17PPG. Yet, this is the same game some DWFs are talking about benching once a Duke transfer of the magical variety becomes eligible next week. Typical DWF fandom at its worst. They're hoping either Jorgensen or Sean McDermott (who happens to be the squad's third leading scorer at nearly 11 PPG will be bench for this magical athlete who couldn't even get on the floor at Duke, despite Coach K's new affinity for magical athletes.
One last team I'd like to mention: No. 13 Texas Tech is currently undefeated at 8-0. Normally, I wouldn't care, seeing as how Tech is usually nearly all-black. However, this year, the Red Raiders decided to inject some diversity into their squad; 2/3 of the starting backcourt is white. Matt Mooney, a senior graduate transfer who tore up the Summitt League at South Dakota last year, starts at one spot and is the second leading scorer with nearly 11 PPG. Italian Davide Moretti, a sophomore guard, starts at another backcourt spot, and is third on the team with nearly 10 PPG. Hopefully the Red Raiders can contend in the Big 12; with their two white starters, they qualify as the whitest team in the conference (going by numbers of players who play heavy minutes). That's right. Only one other team in the 10-team Big 12 (Oklahoma State, who likely won't be good) gives 27+ minutes every night to two white players like Texas Tech does. I hope their coach doesn't get fired for this transgression. There are a couple of teams with solo white stars (Iowa State's Michael Jacobson, Kansas State's Dean Wade, Baylor's Makai Mason, Oklahoma's Brady Manek, and Texas's Dylan Osetkowski), but on these teams, the white player is the only one that gets time, or only 1-2 players play sparse bench minutes. Hey, it's better than the SEC.