Real College BBall games start tonight

[NT80]

NCAA basketball season tips off with Coaches vs. Cancer

November 11, 2004

BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) - The Syracuse Orange will play on the opening night of the season. They have expectations of also playing in the season's final game.

The NCAA tips off its basketball season Thursday with three top 25 teams playing in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim starts his 29th season at his alma mater against Northern Colorado, a school beginning its second year in Division I.

For the first time since the 1982-83 season, the sixth-ranked Orange bring back their entire starting lineup, which includes senior forward Hakim Warrick and junior guard Gerry McNamara - both Big East preseason All-Conference selections.

Warrick, a first-team Big East performer last season and one of the top players in the country, averaged 19.8 and 8.6 rebounds per game last season. McNamara - who scored over 17 per game - set a school record with 105 3-pointers, averaged just under four assists and shot a team-best 87.2 percent from the line.

Two other Top 25 teams trying to build on recent success will be in action Thursday.

With its second Top 25 preseason ranking in the last three years, No. 14 Mississippi State opens its season against Fairfield. The Bulldogs, who won their first outright Southeastern Conference title since 1962-63 last season, return 11 lettermen and three starters to a squad that finished 2003-04 at No. 13.

Mississippi State will be without reigning SEC Player of the Year Lawrence Roberts, who is serving a one-game NCAA-mandated suspension for accepting expenses for a pre-NBA draft workout. Roberts, a senior who averaged 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds last season, also is recovering from surgery to repair a broken nose suffered last week in practice.

With a new facility and four returning starters, No. 23 Memphis tips off its season when it hosts Savannah State.

After playing the past 13 years in the Pyramid, the Tigers are sharing the FedExForum with the Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis coach John Calipari is hoping the facility and its plush accommodations will help the Tigers build on their four straight postseason appearances, including two straight trips to the NCAA tournament.

The Tigers are led by sensational sophomore forward Sean Banks, the Conference USA Freshman of the Year in 2003-04 after averaging 17.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

The Coaches vs. Cancer Classic features a new look this season with 16 teams competing at four regional sites. The winners at each site will advance to play in the semifinal and championship rounds at New York's Madison Square Garden on November 18-19.

[CMJ]

I'm really psyched. Doesn't get any better than college roundball.