Alcorn State

For the second consecutive year, the NCAA has its two lowest seeds playing for the 64th spot in the tournament as Siena takes on Alcorn State tonight. The winner will catch a flight to Washington to play No. 1 Maryland on Friday. The play-in format returned last season when the number of automatic bids expanded. Siena (16-18) won four games in four days on its home floor to get the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's automatic bid.

Rk. Team Rec. Result Next 1. KANSAS 5-0 Did not play Alcorn State, Wednesday 2. TEXAS 5-0 Did not play USC, Thursday 3. VILLANOVA 6-0 Did not play Drexel, Wednesday 4. PURDUE 5-0 Did not play Wake Forest, today 5. KENTUCKY 7-0 d. N.C. Asheville, 94-57 No. 10 No. Carolina, Saturday ...

A short but fruitful visit to Southern California probably could not have played out more perfectly for the Alcorn State football program. The Braves flew out from southwest Mississippi on Thursday, toured the Southland on Friday, rolled to a 23-6 nonconference victory over Morehouse College of Atlanta on Saturday in front of 10,012 in the Coliseum and this morning will return home with a $100,000 check, their guarantee for playing in the Silver Dollar Classic.

A short but fruitful visit to Southern California probably could not have played out more perfectly for the Alcorn State football program. The Braves flew out from southwest Mississippi on Thursday, toured the Southland on Friday, rolled to a 23-6 nonconference victory over Morehouse College of Atlanta on Saturday in front of 10,012 in the Coliseum and this morning will return home with a $100,000 check, their guarantee for playing in the Silver Dollar Classic.

Alcorn State quarterback Steve McNair, who is trying to become the first Division I-AA player to win the Heisman Trophy, is expected to play Saturday against Mississippi Valley State. The senior suffered a slight shoulder separation in the fourth quarter of a 48-23 loss to Sam Houston State at Huntsville, Tex., last Saturday. * With Nebraska's Frazier still hospitalized, coach Tom Osborne was hopeful the second-ranked Cornhuskers would not lose their quarterback for the remainder of the season.

Steve McNair ran past Ty Detmer to become the NCAA career leader in total offense, and he did it by breaking his own Division I-AA single-game yardage record. McNair had 649 total yards Saturday against Southern, Division I-AA's top-ranked defense, to end Detmer's three-year stay atop the NCAA career list. After Alcorn State's 41-37 victory, McNair had 15,049 total yards.

Hopeful that a football game can generate interest among Southern Californians in the nation's historically black colleges and universities, most of which are in the South, Morehouse College of Atlanta and Alcorn State of Lorman, Miss., will play Saturday at the Coliseum. Promoters have dubbed it the Silver Dollar Classic, but classic might be stretching it. On the surface, at least, it's nothing more than a nonconference matchup of struggling lower-level teams that usually travel by bus.

Alcorn State Might Get Liberty Bowl Bid Alcorn State is being considered for the Liberty Bowl, the game's selection committee chairman says. The committee, expecting the host team for the Dec. 31 game in Memphis to be the winner of the Nov. 19 East Carolina-Memphis game, is considering Alcorn for the opposing team, chairman Reggie Barnes said. Alcorn State, which features record-setting quarterback Steve McNair, is 5-2 and tied for second in the Division 1-AA Southwestern Athletic Conference.

USC Coach Tim Floyd has attributed much of the Trojans' success during a six-game winning streak to losing their first two games and "treating teams with respect" as a result. That trend might be hard to sustain this afternoon when USC plays winless Alcorn State at the Sports Arena. The Braves, in the midst of a season-opening stretch of 11 road games, are 0-6, with losses to Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin. Alcorn State's leading scorer, junior forward Clifton Douglass, averages 14.

Second-ranked Purdue, behind Todd Mitchell's 22 points, crushed Arkansas Little Rock, 102-88, Friday night in an opening-round game of the Big Apple NIT college basketball tournament. Also advancing with first-round victories were No. 8 Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Seton Hall, New Mexico and UCLA. Georgia Tech had no problems with Alcorn State, 114-71; Iowa State downed Texas, 100-83; Seton Hall defeated George Mason, 85-63, and New Mexico beat Weber State, 88-72.

From overhead, Mark Butler heard a frightening snap. That much, the Alcorn State defensive end remembers. He does not recall running from the sound, or the falling tree branch crashing into the back of his head, slamming him face-first into the sidewalk. Hurricane Katrina had knocked him flat, generating the winds that whipped across Alcorn State's southwest Mississippi campus in the late morning hours of Aug. 29, 2005, and throwing an oak missile into his path. He was headed to lunch.

Hopeful that a football game can generate interest among Southern Californians in the nation's historically black colleges and universities, most of which are in the South, Morehouse College of Atlanta and Alcorn State of Lorman, Miss., will play Saturday at the Coliseum. Promoters have dubbed it the Silver Dollar Classic, but classic might be stretching it. On the surface, at least, it's nothing more than a nonconference matchup of struggling lower-level teams that usually travel by bus.

Sensing something was amiss only 54 seconds into a game USC was expected to win big Sunday afternoon at the Sports Arena, Tim Floyd whirled toward an official and called a timeout. The Trojans had ignored their coach's instruction to move the ball around and work it into the post, settling for jump shots that clanged off the rim and led to fastbreaks by Alcorn State.

USC Coach Tim Floyd has attributed much of the Trojans' success during a six-game winning streak to losing their first two games and "treating teams with respect" as a result. That trend might be hard to sustain this afternoon when USC plays winless Alcorn State at the Sports Arena. The Braves, in the midst of a season-opening stretch of 11 road games, are 0-6, with losses to Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin. Alcorn State's leading scorer, junior forward Clifton Douglass, averages 14.

The team that couldn't win during the regular season has figured it out at tournament time. Siena became only the second team to win an NCAA tournament game with a losing record, defeating Alcorn State, 81-77, Tuesday night in a play-in game that provided a fitting start. Prosper Karangwa scored a career-high 31 points and Dwayne Archbold made two free throws in the closing seconds--the type of clutch performance that the Saints (17-18) rarely managed in the regular season.

For the second consecutive year, the NCAA has its two lowest seeds playing for the 64th spot in the tournament as Siena takes on Alcorn State tonight. The winner will catch a flight to Washington to play No. 1 Maryland on Friday. The play-in format returned last season when the number of automatic bids expanded. Siena (16-18) won four games in four days on its home floor to get the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's automatic bid.

Rk. Team Rec. Result Next 1. KANSAS 5-0 Did not play Alcorn State, Wednesday 2. MICHIGAN STATE 5-1 Did not play at No. 11 North Carolina, Tue. 3. TEXAS 5-0 d. Rice, 77-59 USC, Thursday Longhorns prevail after missing 16 of their first 24 shots. 4. VILLANOVA 6-0 Did not play Drexel, Wednesday 5. KENTUCKY 6-0 Did not play N.C. Asheville, today 6. PURDUE 5-0 Did not play Wake Forest, Tuesday 7. DUKE 6-0 Did not play at Wisconsin, Wednesday 8. WEST VIRGINIA 5-0 d. Portland, 84-66 Duquesne, Dec. 9 Mountaineers win 76 Classic, their first title in a tournament since 2001.

AT DENVER * Connecticut (29-2) vs. New Mexico (25-8)--The Huskies didn't need Coach Jim Calhoun, who stayed in bed sick with a virus, to steamroller Texas San Antonio in the first round, and they shouldn't need him in the second round either. The Lobos have only eight sound players and even one of them, star center Kenny Thomas, is playing with a strained groin that kept him out of the last two Western Athletic Conference tournament games.