"Welcome to The Palestra, college basketball's most historic gym."
With those nine words, from the perfect voice of public address announcer John McAdams, my season was officially underway. Oh, I had been to almost two dozen games at this point, but I hadn't yet been to The Palestra.
Happy New Year!
|  | | Maryland's Drew Nicholas guards Pennsylvania's David Klatsky on Saturday in the The Palestra. |
The so-called "big house" at the University of Pennsylvania isn't really all that big (current capacity 8,722). And it no longer houses every game of the famed Philadelphia Big 5. But The Palestra has played host to more college basketball games than any other venue, and that's good enough for me.
Since I said goodbye to winter's best friend last March, the greatest gym on earth has become equal parts basketball museum. The dusty trophy cases in the narrow corridors have been replaced by museum-quality artifacts and photographs representing eight decades of college basketball history.
Since The Palestra has been the homecourt of at least six different Division I teams, that's a lot of history. Wilt played there, both as a high school star and collegian. Calvin Murphy (52 points) holds the building scoring record. Dr. J, when he was merely Julius Erving, played there as a college sophomore and later practiced there as a member of the
Philadelphia 76ers.
Oscar Robertson. Jerry West. Bob Lanier. Adrian Dantley. Patrick Ewing. Charles Barkley. Bill Bradley. They all played the Palestra. Bob Knight coached there -- for Army. Dean Smith had almost 900 victories when he
retired, including one at The Palestra (over La Salle).
Since this column deals with box scores and "more," I thought it was time to give some attention to the "and more" part. What do you think of these lists?
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Stat of the Week
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Last time we checked, Duquesne had a point guard. However, there is no evidence that the Dukes know much about sharing the ball. The Dukes had a season-low two assists in a loss at Purdue last Friday, and have managed
three of the worst games all season in the category "Assists-to-Field Goal" ratio.
.111, 2:18; Duquesne
(at Purdue, Dec. 8)
.148, 4:27; Alcorn State
(at Ark.-Little Rock, Dec. 5)
.160, 4:25; Fairleigh Dickinson (at Sacred Heart, Dec. 2)
.167, 3:24; Alcorn State
(at New Mexico, Nov. 27)
.172, 5:29; Sacred Heart (vs. Fairleigh Dickinson, Dec. 2)
.188, 3:16; Tennessee Tech (at S.C. State, Nov. 20)
.190, 4:21; Wisconsin-Green Bay (at Gonzaga, Nov. 19)
Duquesne also had just five assists in games against both Charleston (Nov. 24) and N. Arizona (Dec. 9) while making 24 and 23 field goals respectively. And through 10 games, Duquesne has recorded an assist on 39.7 percent of its
field goals. We'll know later in the year just how that stacks up to the
national average. |
Favorite Barns
The Palestra, Philadelphia
Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke
The Pit, New Mexico
Rec Hall (Penn State, defunct)
St. John Arena (Ohio State, defunct)
Gyms I Must Visit
Allen Field House, Kansas
Pauley Pavilion, UCLA
McArthur Court, Oregon
Gallagher-Iba Arena, Oklahoma State
Rupp Arena, Kentucky
Underrated Arenas
Huntsman Center, Utah
Madison Square Garden, New York
Cincinnati Gardens, Xavier (defunct)
Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Tech
Memorial Gym, Nashville
Not that anyone cares, but my favorite baseball parks among the 20-plus parks I've visited are: Wrigley Field, Pac Bell Park, Camden Yards, Tiger Stadium, Yankee Stadium and Jacobs Field (in the rain).
Anxious to hear your best venue stories, as well.
Still Bluffing
Arkansas Pine-Bluff Update from Scott Preston of Frederick, Md. who wrote in:
"Belittling Arkansas Pine-Bluff was a mistake. Here's why:
The 1999-2000 Arkansas Pine-Bluff team beat Mississippi Valley State (106-102), who ... beat Alcorn State (67-62), who ... beat Texas-Southern (70-67), who ... beat Southwest Texas State (71-64), who ... beat San Diego (72-65), who ... beat Gonzaga (82-70), who ... beat St. Mary's (76-49), who ... beat Wright State (80-48) who ... beat the 1999-00 national champions, Michigan State, by a score of 53-49.
So, there you have it. Arkansas-Pine Bluff could have gone all the way last year. Sort of."
Not to worry, Scott, there won't even be a "fictional" national title for Pine Bluff this year. The Golden Lions just played their closest game of the season, losing at Drake by 36 points (92-56).
In this column, APB stands for "all points bulletin."
The wait is over
Here it is, the long-awaited debut of "Points Per Shot."
Some guys score a lot of points. Some guys take a lot of shots. Only a few guys score a lot of points without taking a disproportionate (for their team) amount of shots.
What follows is another way to look at the top 25 scorers in America, according to the first NCAA statistics of the year. We've added the last category on the right, "Points Per Shot" (PPS), which factors in field goal accuracy, 3-point shooting and the ability to get to (and convert from) the foul line.
To bring the "extremes" of these numbers home to you, let's take a closer look at Northern Arizona's Cory Schwab and Centenary's Ronnie McCollum. Schwab's shooting figures to date are .570 (FG), .578 (3PT) and .929 (FT). McCollum, on the other hand, is taking 44.7 percent of his team's shots and making only 38.3 percent of them. Ouch!
Who would you rather have on your team?
We'll make it easier for you by re-ranking the top 20 scorers in the nation based on points per shots taken.
| Player/Team |
GP |
Pts. |
Ppg. |
Pps. |
|
Troy Bell, Boston College
|
6
|
129
|
21.5
|
1.70
|
|
Cory Schwab, Northern Arizona
|
7
|
156
|
22.3
|
1.68
|
|
Preston Shumpert, Syracuse
|
8
|
193
|
24.1
|
1.62
|
|
Casey Calvary, Gonzaga
|
7
|
155
|
22.1
|
1.58
|
|
Troy Murphy, Notre Dame
|
6
|
144
|
24.0
|
1.55
|
|
Brandon Wolfram, UTEP
|
5
|
136
|
27.2
|
1.53
|
|
Wes Burtner, Belmont
|
9
|
193
|
21.4
|
1.52
|
|
Earl Hunt, Brown
|
6
|
129
|
21.5
|
1.52
|
|
Tavorris Bell, Rhode Island
|
8
|
180
|
22.5
|
1.51
|
|
Colin Charles, Quinnipiac
|
8
|
178
|
22.3
|
1.51
|
|
Victor Thomas, La Salle
|
7
|
153
|
21.9
|
1.51
|
|
Austin Ganly, New Hampshire
|
6
|
144
|
24.0
|
1.50
|
|
Darius Lane, Seton Hall
|
6
|
138
|
23.0
|
1.47
|
|
Henry Domercant, E. Illinois
|
7
|
162
|
23.1
|
1.46
|
|
Tarvis Williams, Hampton
|
7
|
164
|
23.4
|
1.40
|
|
Devin Brown, Texas-San Antonio
|
6
|
139
|
23.2
|
1.40
|
|
Marques Maybin, Louisville
|
7
|
150
|
21.4
|
1.39
|
|
Tamar Slay, Marshall
|
5
|
110
|
22.0
|
1.39
|
|
Kareem Rush, Missouri
|
7
|
152
|
21.7
|
1.38
|
|
Karim Souchu, Furman
|
7
|
153
|
21.9
|
1.37
|
|
SirValiant Brown, Geo. Washington
|
8
|
177
|
22.1
|
1.34
|
|
Isaac Spencer, Murray State
|
5
|
114
|
22.8
|
1.28
|
|
Eddie Griffin, Seton Hall
|
6
|
131
|
21.8
|
1.26
|
|
Kyle Hill, Eastern Illinois
|
7
|
152
|
21.7
|
1.25
|
|
Ronnie McCollum, Centenary
|
8
|
188
|
23.5
|
1.10
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Media Watch: More foul then they think
The Dec. 11 edition of Sports Illustrated, in an otherwise fine article by Alexander Wolff, decried a game in which "a whopping 55 fouls were called." Regular readers of this column know a measly 55-foul game wouldn't even
make one of our lists.
Here's the latest on extreme fouling (and free throw shooting):
Most Fouls/Single Game
64, Illinois State at Central Michigan (Dec. 3)
64, New Mexico State at Washington (Nov. 25)
63, Southern Utah at Montana (Dec. 9)
62, Nevada at Montana State (Dec. 11)
62, Wisconsin-Green Bay at Idaho (Nov. 17)
60, Army at Stony Brook (Dec. 2)
60, Manhattan at Hartford (Nov. 28)
60, Quinnipiac vs. Howard (Nov. 25)
Most Free Throws/Single Game
87, Texas A&M at VCU-2OT (Dec. 2)
87, New Mexico State at Washington (Nov. 25)
84, Quinnipiac vs. Howard (Nov. 25)
83, Massachusetts at Oregon (Dec. 2)
82, Fresno State at San Francisco-2OT (Dec. 2)
81, Duquesne vs. Siena (Nov. 26)
81, Old Dominion at George Washington (Nov. 20)
80, Pennsylvania at Davidson-OT (Nov. 28)
80, VMI at Virginia Tech (Nov. 18)
Scoring extremes
Just under 1,000 Division I games have been played to date. Here are the
extremes in terms of winning (and losing) point totals.
| Highest Winning Scores |
Highest Losing Scores |
|
Dec. 10: Florida 125, Florida A&M 50
|
Dec. 2: Texas A&M 106, VCU 107 (2 OT)
|
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Nov. 17: Wagner 122, Brown 91
|
Dec. 2: Tx. A&M-C.C. 102, N. Texas 111
|
|
Dec. 3: Colorado 119, Texas-Arlington 75
|
Nov. 25: TCU 99, Minnesota 107
|
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Nov. 24: G. Washington 119, Howard 80
|
Nov. 9: UCLA 98, Kansas 99
|
|
Nov. 20: Virginia 117, Coastal Carolina 78
|
Dec. 2: N. Ariz. 97, Cal Poly-SLO 99 (OT)
|
|
Nov. 27: N.M. State 113, Ark-Pine Bluff 51
|
Nov. 28: St. Francis (N.Y.) 94, Iona 102
|
|
Dec. 2: N. Texas 111, Tx. A&M-C.C. 102
|
Nov. 24: Bradley 92, USC 107
|
|
Nov. 24: TCU 111, Siena 91
|
Nov. 10: Kentucky 92, UCLA 97 (OT)
|
|
Nov. 29: UTEP 110, Ark.-Pine Bluff 60
|
Nov. 24: Siena 91, TCU 111
|
|
Nov. 25: Alabama 110, Ark.-Pine Bluff 53
|
Nov. 17: Brown 91, Wagner 122
|
| Lowest Winning Scores |
Lowest Losing Scores |
|
Dec. 11: Columbia 45, Lehigh 42
|
Nov. 22: Md.-E. Shore 33, Nrthwstern 56
|
|
Dec. 9: Marquette 48, Ark.-Little Rock 46
|
Nov. 17: CS Fullerton 35, Ore. St. 68
|
|
Nov. 20: William & Mary 48, Va. Tech 46
|
Nov. 24: Appalachian St. 37, Ore.St. 60
|
|
Dec. 7: Step. F. Austin 49, SW Tx. St. 47
|
Nov. 21: Campbell 39, Winthrop 70
|
|
Dec. 2: Princeton 49, Ball State 47
|
Dec. 2: Jacksonville St. 40, Jacksnvlle 51
|
|
Nov. 29: Wis.-G.B. 49, E. Michigan 48
|
Nov. 22: Ark.-Pine Bluff 40, Baylor 85
|
|
Dec. 2: Jacksonville 51, Jacksnvlle St. 40
|
Nov. 18: Columbia 40, C. Conn. St. 62
|
|
Nov. 18: Ark.-L.R. 53, Northwestern 43
|
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Box Score Banter
On Friday, check out the full "Box Score Banter" for more E-mails and responses. Remember, it's the part of this column when your E-mail thoughts, insights, suggestions, etc. have a forum (jlunardi@home.com). It's also your chance to see your name in cyberspace. Some of the early-season responses have been priceless:
"I'd like to say that I really like your new column on ESPN. My roommate and I are sports junkies, and you would not believe how much time we spend on the Internet looking up and analyzing statistics. I'm glad to see that you share our interest and are able to get inside the numbers. If we spent as much time on homework as we do looking up stats, box scores etc., we'd both have 4.0's."
-- Matt Phillips
Matt (and friend),
The 4.0 GPA is overrated. Better to get a 3.5 and have some fun!
Joe Lunardi is a regular in-season contributor for ESPN.com. He is also
contributing editor of the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook,
www.collegebaskets.com. Write to Joe at jlunardi@home.com.
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ALSO SEE
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Box Score Banter
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