ESPN Men's Basketball

Utah’s futile Pac-12 debut
Colorado defeated Utah 73-33 in the first Pac-12 game for both schools. It marked the fewest points allowed by Colorado since beating Kansas 42-30 in January 1949. Utah hasn’t had this low of a scoring total since 1980, and the Utes’ 22.8 field goal percentage was the fourth lowest in school history. The 40-point loss stands as the fourth worst in school history. Utah’s 11 first-half points are the fewest ever allowed by Colorado.

Oglesby hasn’t missed since November
Torian Oglesby made history on Sunday in Bowling Green’s overtime loss to UTSA. He came off the bech to hit all 10 of his field goals, setting a school record for attempts without a miss. Even more impressive than that? Oglesby hasn’t missed a shot since November. After finishing December 16-for-16 from the field, Oglesby has now hit a Division I record 26 straight shots. That broke the record set by Ray Voekel of American University, who hit 25 shots in a row in 1978.

Robinson impersonates Wilt
Thomas Robinson had career highs with 30 points and 21 rebounds in Kansas’ 84-58 win over North Dakota on Saturday. It was the first 30-point, 20-rebound game in the Big 12 since Blake Griffin did so. It had been 50 years since a Jayhawk had done it. The last 30-20 game in Kansas history came on February 13, 1961 against Missouri when Wayne Hightower scored 36 points to go with 21 rebounds. The only other Jayhawk to record a 30-20 game? Wilt Chamberlain, who did it seven times.

Gabriel makes Auburn history
In the 106 years and 2,322 games of Auburn basketball history, no one had recorded a triple double. Until Monday. Kenny Gabriel recorded the first triple-double in Auburn history as the Tigers beat Bethune-Cookman 67-41. Gabriel matched career-highs with 24 points and 13 rebounds, while setting a new career-high with 10 blocks. He’s the first SEC player with a points-rebounds-blocks triple-double since Jarvis Varnado in January 2010.

BYU’s 1st 20-20 game in over 35 years
Brandon Davies pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds to go with 21 points, as BYU defeated San Diego 88-52 for its first West Coast Conference win. The 22 rebounds are the most for a Cougar since Steve Trumbo’s 23 in January 1982. It’s the first 20-20 game by a BYU player since the 1974-75 season.

1. Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy has had a hard time catching breaks since he arrived in Oxford. The Rebels have dealt with injuries, defections and early-entrants and an inability to be consistent enough to be an NCAA tournament team. Whether or not Ole Miss can get there in 2012 is still to be determined. But the Rebels finally closed out a game in a frenetic situation as they beat DePaul on the road on a Murphy Holloway layup. Holloway, who played at Ole Miss, transferred to South Carolina and then came back, had committed a silly foul the previous possession before coming up with a decisive steal and layup. The Rebels got blitzed by 30 by Marquette in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands but did finish off Miami in overtime last week. DePaul may be in the bottom fourth of the Big East but the win will still do wonders for the Rebels’ confidence. “It’s the first road win versus a Big East opponent ever in Ole Miss basketball history,’’ said Kennedy late Thursday night of a random fact that seems hard to digest. “Sometimes you’ve got to win ugly.’’ The Rebels aren’t going to be better than Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt or likely Mississippi State or Alabama. But can Ole Miss be more productive than Tennessee or Arkansas or Auburn? This squad has a shot to be a top-six SEC team.

2. The Colonial Athletic Association has been disappointing through the first month of the season. Drexel (2-3) was the preseason favorite but the Dragons haven’t been completely healthy and don’t have a quality win. Other contenders like George Mason, VCU and Old Dominion have either not had their full complement of players or simply are rebuilding and aren’t ready to win elite games. The best win by the CAA so far may be Northeastern’s victory at St. John’s, hardly a NCAA-bound victory since the Red Storm are likely a lower-half Big East squad. “We don’t have that juggernaut team that stands out,’’ said ODU coach Blaine Taylor. “But once we get our people back, the same with Drexel, George Mason and you’ll see VCU play better than people will see how good the (CAA teams are). Our teams have been up and down that doesn’t mean in the long haul that we won’t have real good teams once we get to January and February.’’ The CAA had its second Final Four team in six seasons when VCU earned a bid last April.

3. The MAC last had multiple NCAA tournament teams in 1999 when Miami was a 10-seed and Kent State was an 11. The league once had a flurry of NBA-level-talented players who for whatever reason didn’t make it to the Big Ten. But the MAC slump has been going on for a dozen years. That is, possibly, until now. The MAC has already picked up significant wins: Akron at Mississippi State, Ohio at Marshall, Kent State at West Virginia, Miami and Buffalo beat Dayton (which won the Old Spice Classic). Bowling Green beat Temple. Will any of those wins get the MAC an at-large berth? Probably not. But the MAC is at least proving that it is no longer a weaker comparison to the Horizon League, the Missouri Valley or the Colonial.

Before we get to the Blue Ribbon team-by-team previews for the Mid-American Conference, here is Eamonn Brennan's quick wind sprint through the league:



Blue Ribbon breakdowns of all 12 teams in the MAC:

Akron
Ball State
Bowling Green
Buffalo
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Kent State
Miami (Ohio)
Northern Illinois
Ohio
Toledo
Western Michigan

More MAC content:

• Eamonn Brennan profiles new Northern Illinois coach Mark Montgomery.
• Watch, listen and marvel at Bowling Green's Stroh Center rap.
• Video: Fran Fraschilla on which MAC team he thinks can be a national sleeper this season.
• Reggie Rankin gives the lowdown on the top incoming freshmen in the MAC.

You have a new arena. You want to introduce fans to said arena. How do you go about doing it?

You could issue a news release. You could film a guided tour. Or, you could do what Bowling Green did -- and create the single greatest arena-themed rap video in the history of the genre.

That's not damning with faint praise, either. See for yourself:



The man on the mic is Mikey "Rosco" Blair, accompanied by senior gospel singer Rachel Willingham, and you can read more about their contributions in this piece from The BG News. But I think we can all agree the true stars of the show are as follows:

1. Whoever came through with those production values, because they are incredibly high.

2. Kermit Stroh, Larry Miles, Bill Frack and Allen Schmidthorst, or as you now know them, the generous donors who also agreed to wear BGSU jerseys and make ominous faces at the camera in the glorious pursuit of hilarity and school spirit. Those guys are great.

3. The urinals. Everyone loves new urinals.

In any case, for this video, Bowling Green -- if I may borrow a phrase from Pete Carroll -- wins forever. It is brilliant in every way, and it just made my Friday at least 30 percent better. Your results might (not) vary.

"His name is Larry Miles, gave cash in piles, sporting Charles Taylors, rocking argyles." Good to the last drop, kids.