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News Nuggets, 12.22.03
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Compiled from staff reports and electronic dispatches

Women Pirates hijack Wake Forest

East Carolina's women's basketball team extended its winning streak to four on Sunday with a 68-64 road win over Wake Forest.

Courney Willis scored 17 points and pulled down 15 rebounds to record her fifth double-double of the season as ECU improved its record to 6-3.

The Wake women fell to 6-4 on the season.

The Lady Pirates' next game will be Dec. 30 at South Carolina State, followed by a New Year's Day home game against Savannah State at 3 p.m.

Read the comprehensive story on ECUPirates.com...

ECU-bred coach's Mustangs upend Purdue

Brian Hopkins, held to two points the first 39 minutes of the game, scored on a driving layup with 24 seconds left to lift Southern Methodist to a 60-59 upset of No. 17 Purdue in the championship game of the Boilermaker Invitational.

"To win like this is tremendous for our guys," SMU coach and East Carolina alumnus Mike Dement said. "It's rare to win one of these."

Dement, whose team and those of the Mustangs' other sports will join Conference USA in 2005-06, graduated from ECU in 1976. His career coaching stops included stints as an assistant with the Pirates and at Duke.

Purdue's Kenneth Lowe had two chances to win the game, but Justin Isham rebounded his miss on the following possession and then Lowe missed a coast-to-coast drive as time ran out.

The Boilermakers (8-2) lost their tournament's championship game for just the second time in the event's 13-year history. The last time they lost was Dec. 7, 1991, to Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Hopkins' shot redeemed a frustrating day for the sophomore, who scored 35 points in the Mustangs' first-round win over Miami of Ohio. Kris Lowe led SMU with 16 points and eight rebounds and Patrick Simpson added 13 points.

The Mustangs (5-3) frustrated Purdue for much of the game by collapsing its defense into the lane and daring the Boilermakers to shoot from the outside, and the plan worked.

Bowl results/TV schedule for C-USA teams

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16
New Orleans Bowl
Memphis 27, North Texas (Sun Belt) 17
(ESPN 2) 7:00 pm

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18
GMAC Bowl
(14) Miami (OH) (MAC) 49, Louisville 28

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23
PlainsCapital Fort Worth Bowl
(19) Texas Christian vs. (16) Boise State (WAC)
(ESPN) 7:30 pm

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 25
Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Houston vs. Hawaii (WAC)
(ESPN) 8:00 pm

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31
AXA Liberty Bowl
Southern Miss vs. (25) Utah (MWC)
(ESPN) 3:30 pm

All times Eastern.

Scholars label BCS formula unreliable

LOS ANGELES — Some Southern California professors who specialize in statistics are crying foul over the computerized ranking system that left the Trojans out of the national championship game.

Started in 1998, the Bowl Championship Series uses computer calculations of game statistics and outcomes to pick two teams to play for the national title each year.

James R. Beniger, an associate professor at USC's Annenberg School of Communications, said it's better to decide which team is the best on the field -- not through the statistics.

"As a statistician, I could find statistics to prove that USC is the best team in the country, and I could just as easily find some to show that another team is," said Beniger, who holds a master's degree in statistics from California.

Beniger said statistics provide good data on the past performances of teams, but added: "When you want to know the outcome of one team beating another team, statistics really don't help."

USC finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press writers poll and USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, which are decided by human voters. But the Trojans didn't get the nod from BCS computers, which placed the team third behind Oklahoma and LSU.

USC will play Michigan in the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena on New Year's Day while Oklahoma faces LSU in the Sugar Bowl three days later.

USC, Oklahoma and LSU finished the season with one loss each. The Trojans could still claim a share of the national championship by finishing atop the final AP poll.

Seven BCS computers make their selections based on the same set of game statistics but give differing priorities to pieces of data.

Fans know little about how these computers make their decisions or who programs them. As it turns out, the computers are, for the most part, run by a handful of math whizzes who happen to be sports fans.

News Nuggets are compiled periodically from staff, ECU, Conference USA and its member schools, and from Associated Press and other reports. Copyright 2003 Bonesville.net and other publishers. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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