With the absence of 6-11 senior Johnathan Holland from Los Angeles, Calif., the UAM Boll Weevils showed a mere sign of struggle against NAIA Philander Smith College.

   The crowd was in shock to not hear the announcement of the giant Holland. "So you have a 3-1 record and you kick one of the tallest players off your team for some kind of team misconduct?" At least, that was what was heard going throughout the crowded field house.

   Holland is first in the conference in rebounding (averaging 9.3 boards a game) and field goal percentage (averaging .735 a game); what coach would not want him to play?

   Last Thursday, the Weevils matched up against the Philander Smith Panthers, which should have easily been a blowout. It was a two-point game with 17 minutes remaining as the Weevils finally came to life and tamed the Panthers in a final decision, 90-65. In the contest, Nate Newell scored 24 points and senior Billy McDaniel led all scorers with 26. Within 24 of Newell's points, he scored his 1,000^th career point as a Boll Weevil. Wednesday, the Weevils head up to Little Rock to visit Philander as what could be a brawl for all to see.

   The Cotton Blossoms are making headlines as well, all over the Web that is. They are a feature headline on www.wbca.org (Women's Basketball Coaches Association) and the www.d2basketball.com Web sites for their upsetting of division I Lamar University. Although the Blossoms fell dead-last in the conference in areas of rebounding offense, rebounding defense and rebounding margin, they have players on the team who can step up at anytime and take over a game.

   Theresa Tran was the key ingredient to success in the Lamar victory. Tran had a line of three 3-pointers, two rebounds, three assists, two blocks, two steals, 15 points and one turnover in 30 minutes. In the 94-point frenzy, the Blossoms had five players score in double figures, outscoring Lamar by five points.

   Their next match-up comes this weekend when they face West Alabama, the team they opened the season with in an overtime loss. At the time, the Blossoms were without 6-3 senior Wendy Young for unknown reasons. Now, they look at the middle part of where they could be depending on how the defense will hold up throughout the season.

   With non-conference games quickly coming to an end, both Weevils and Blossoms basketball teams have some real work to do before conference begins. 

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