SI.com - SI On Campus - The Vent: 03/04/2007

3/08/2007 11:55:00 AM

Who Will be this Year's Breakout Star?

Bryce Drew became an overnigth star after a buzzer beating three-pointer knocked Ole Miss out of the 1998 tourney. Who will be this year's breakout star?

Photo by AP

Major conference tournaments kick into full gear on Friday and over the next month you'll be hearing plenty about the Kevin Durants, Greg Odens and Joakim Noahs of the college hoops world. The tournament, after all, is about watching the top nation's players perform on the biggest stage. However, the Big Dance wouldn't be complete without a few bracket-breaking players – mid-major stars who are virtually unknown by the nation and step up on the game’s biggest stage to knock out the heavyweights. Who could forget Harold "The Show" Arceneaux of Weber State, who in 1999 scored 38 points in the Wildcats' first-round upset victory over North Carolina? Or Valparaiso's Bryce Drew, who nailed a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to knock Ole Miss out of the first round of the 1998 tournament.

So who are the under-the-radar players who could bust some brackets this year? Keep a close eye is Wright State's DaShaun Wood, who is averaging 20 points per game and is the hope player in the Horizon League. And don't sleep on Oral Roberts' Caleb Green or Weber State's David Patton, the Big Sky Player.

What other unknown stars could wreck havoc on the brackets?

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3/07/2007 01:40:00 PM

Adopt-a-Program

The Boston College football fanbase will get bigger next year with the addition of students from St. Joe's. Should this be allowed to happen?

Jim Rogash/WireImage

In one of the stranger sports stories we've seen in a while, Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia has officially "adopted" the Boston College football team. The school doesn't have the finances to field its own team, so the school's University Student Senate, Student Activities, and the Athletics Department got together and came up with this adopting BC idea (even though the two schools have little in common outside their Jesuit roots). While no BC home games will be played in Philadelphia, St. Joe's students do have the option of attending a game in Boston.

Frankly, we think this is a little bizarre, and we're not sure if we back this random school adopting another school business. What do you think? Should St. Joe's be allowed to call BC its college football team ... or should the students just accept that they are attending a school without a football program, and get on with their lives?

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3/05/2007 12:26:00 PM

Henderson's Elbow -- Cheap Shot or Not?

Tyler Hansbrough wasn't pleased at the elbow he received from Duke's Gerald Henderson, but was it a cheap shot or an unfortunate accident?

Photo by AP

By now, you've seen the elbow from yesterday's UNC-Duke battle. With 14.5 seconds left and Carolina cruising to victory, Tyler Hansbrough grabbed his own rebound off a missed free throw and tried to score from up close when he was struck in the face by Gerald Henderson's right elbow. The officials reviewed the play and ejected Henderson, who under NCAA rules will be suspended for one game. But the question remains: Was Henderson's elbow a cheap shot or simply an inadvertent blow to the face. While we know what Duke and Carolina fans are going to say, we want to hear your take.

Cheap shot or accident?

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