FanHouse JimmyBaron

There are big things planned in Durham this year. While haters around the country are celebrating the supposed "demise" of the Blue Devils, they are gearing themselves for another Final Four run.

That swagger was nearly ruined by Rhode Island yesterday. The Rams gave Duke fits before losing, 82-79.

Rhode Island led much of the game behind Jimmy Baron's 23 points and the Rams hitting 10-of-14 from behind the arc. Duke, normally an excellent outside shooting team, struggled to hit just 4-of-17 from three.

The difference was free throws. Duke shot twice as many free throws as Rhode Island (32 to 16), including the Blue Devils' final six points to seal the win. After chasing the Rams all day, Kyle Singler hit two free throws to tie the game at 77-77. Singler and Jon Scheyer would then ice the game from the line and scoot bye with a win.

Duke did extend the nation's longest home winning streak against non-conference opponents to 62 games.

The Blue Devils will go on to finish off the 2K Sports Coaches vs Cancer Classic this week. They will take on Southern Illinois on Thursday before facing either UCLA or Michigan on Friday.

Wins over big-time nonconference opponents earned teams like Dayton and Rhode Island a lot of headlines in the first two months of the season. Each flew to the top of the RPI and into the Top 25 before getting cooled off by A-10 opposition. The Saint Joseph's Hawks, on the other hand, lost to teams big (Gonzaga) and small (Holy Cross) while navigating their way through a challenging early schedule. Once league play started, though, they've been a bear.

Three road wins, including last night's 61-59 victory at GW, highlight a 5-1 start that has them tied for the league lead and thinking about dancing for the first time since 2004. The reasons for their success are very similar to the reasons for co-leader Xavier's. They are well rounded team that does everything well.

Pat Calathes scores 18 points and grabs eight rebounds a game, throwing in a flair for the dramatic as well. His shots have beaten Temple and GW in the last two games and his 45% three-point shooting stretches defenses beyond their limit. Ahmed Nivins controls the paint and scores 14.5 a night on 63% shooting. Iowa State transfer Tasheed Carr missed four games with injury but returned last night with six assists. That's what the point guard's averaging per game, in addition to 11 points and five rebounds.

It's not often that the Atlantic 10 gets three teams into the Top 25 at the same time. It's even rarer that all three of those teams lose games within 24 hours of each other but thanks to the resurgent Saint Louis Billikens that's just what's happened. They shut down the league's best shooting team for a surprising 68-61 win.

Rick Majerus's crew followed up their 20-point embarassment by taking Dayton to overtime but this was still very unexpected. Rhode Island has been piling up points all season while SLU has struggled to find the basket with any consistency. That makes last night's game the basketball versiot of the Judge Reinhold classic Vice Versa.

Saint Louis made 54.5% of their shots while the Rams converted just 34.3% of theirs. Will Daniels and Jimmy Baron average 35 points a game for URI, they combined for 22. Tommy Liddell, averaging 12 a night for Majerus, came up with 22 on 9-of-12 shooting. Up was down, black was white and the Rams are now 1-2 in the A-10.

I don't foresee it happening but the last two days have been a reminder of how close to the edge this conference lives. Dayton, Xavier and Rhode Island all lost the kinds of games that take away some of their luster and it won't take too many more for their tournament standing to get precarious.

Xavier 68, Fordham 50 - After beating St. Bonaventure this week, Sean Miller wasn't happy with the way his team played defense. Yesterday, though, he had no reason to be upset. The Musketeers shut out the Rams for seven minutes and set a new low in points allowed on the season. Up six at the half, the X-men put the game away with a 16-4 run to start the second half. C.J. Anderson and B.J. Raymond combined for 11 of the points and Raymond led the team with 20 points overall. Bryant Dunston, Fordham's impressive big man, had 19 points and 11 rebounds but couldn't overcome a keyed up Musketeer defense.

Rhode Island 80, Duquesne 78 - The Rams narrowly avoided a second straight loss to start conference play thanks to Jimmy Baron's late heroics. Baron hit a fadeaway jumper with three seconds left to put the Rams up one after Reggie Jackson missed a big free throw. Jackson led the Dukes with 19 points while the Rams got another huge game from Will Daniels. He tied a season-high with 28 points and added 11 rebounds. Kahiem Seawright also had a big game for URI. He scored nine points, grabbed 10 caroms and blocked four shots.

Day one of the Atlantic 10's conference season was a good one. So good, in fact, that they didn't even let the start of league play stop them from knocking off another ACC school. Charlotte went into Clemson and whipped the Tigers 82-72 to even their record against the conference to 2-2 on the season. While that's a good thing for the A-10 and the Niners, it's a bad thing for those of us who wrote that Charlotte's inconsistency has made them a little disappointing this season. At least we saved ourselves by pointing out Leemire Goldwire's skills. He had 21 points and 10 rebounds to lead the upset.

On the league front, there was a dandy of an opener in Dayton where the #22 Flyers played host to #20 Rhode Island in a thriller. The Rams cut a 13-point Dayton lead to four with 90 seconds to play but Marcus Johnson nailed a three on the next trip downcourt and the home team escaped 92-83. Brian Roberts was also huge down the stretch for Dayton. Despite the full attention of the Ram defense that forced him into seven turnovers, Roberts scored nine points in the final two and a half minutes to keep his team in front.

That defense was a key for Rhode Island all night. They forced 18 turnovers overall but it came with a downside.

Christmas week tournaments find teams in the strangest places. Rhode Island, for example, is celebrating their first Top 25 ranking in nearly a decade far from New England. They are in Corpus Christi for the Islander Classic and will meet Georgia Southern in the finals today after routing Eastern Michigan 92-75.

The Rams shot the lights out and even shot 19-of-21 from the line, a strong performance for sometimes charity stripe-challenged URI. Four Rams scored in double figures, led by Will Daniels and Jimmy Baron's 18 apiece. Daniels carved up the Eagles inside while Baron and his four threes took care of the perimeter. Baron also added three steals, the Rams had 13 overall, and it was an easy ride to 12-1 for the Rams.

Eastern has lost four of five games and looks like they'll be a bystander in the MAC-tion. They were hitting their threes early on and looked like they'd make a game of it, but fell to 9-of-25 from the floor in the second half. Today's URI opponent, Georgia Southern, has a 9-2 record but no win better than UAB on their record. Their best shot at an upset is if Louis Graham, their leading scorer, can outplay Daniels inside but even if he does, URI is deeper and should come back from Corpus Christi as champions.

Elsewhere on the mid major hardcourts: