Been a couple weeks. Time for another check-in on our old friends.

Brown has gone 3-1 since my last post and now sits at 8-5. Paxon continues to get good minutes. In a win vs U-Mass Lowell, Paxon filled up the stat sheet with 9 points (2-3 from deep), 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Against Sacred Heart, he finished with 17 points (3-7 from deep), 2 boards and an assist. In a blowout win vs Merrimack, he had 14 points (4-5 from deep), 3 boards and an assist. And in a tight loss vs a good Vermont team, Paxon had 11 points (2-4 from deep), 4 boards, an assist and 3 steals. He is now the team's second leading scorer (10.6 PPG) and has upped his 3P to 35%. Good for Paxon. Strong player.

Samford recorded wins vs Mississippi College (non-D1), Alabama State and Alabama A&M and a loss to Belmont. They now sit at 8-2. Cooper put up 9 vs Mississippi College (3-6 from deep). He struggled vs Belmont putting up 6 points in 26 minutes (2-6 from deep). Against Alabama State, he finished with 6 points (1-4 from deep) to go with 5 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Against Alabama A&M, he had 8 points (disappointing 2-7 from deep). Cooper is still struggling from deep, shooting only 30%.

Big Frank's SMU Mustangs and Baylor Hebb's Colorado State Rams are both having strong seasons (the Rams are still undefeated). But neither is getting any minutes.

Jalon Pipkins is exercising his 5th year at Purdue Fort Wayne and putting up similar stats to his last year there.

The Mastodons are currently 5-5 (1-1 in Ho League)

Pipkins is starting (started all games last year), averaging 30 minutes, and is putting up
14.1 points
3.2 boards
1.5 assists
1.5 steals
45% FG
32 % 3Pt FG
84% FTs

Always thought he was a solid player when he got usage, but just got buried in our depth chart.

Similarly, Christian Negron is exercising his fifth year at Grand Valley State. He is having another solid year there:

11.3 points
8 boards
70% FG

Always thought he could have been a decent player on a lower D1 team (thinking a Horizon level team). He has decent size and quickness. Good athleticism.

Few updates:

Brown is looking like a middle-of-the pack team in the Ivy. Paxon is still in the starting lineup but has been relatively inconsistent. He did break out for 17 points in a win over Harvard (3-6 from deep), 13 in a loss to Yale and 15 in a win over Columbia (4-6 from deep). Paxon is 3rd on the team in PPG (10.2), 4th in RPG (3.4), 4th in APG (1.3) and is shooting a respectable 35.5% from deep. I've caught a few of Brown's games as they have played some big time teams (North Carolina, Syracuse, Maryland). Paxon, unsurprisingly, plays really tough defense and seems to be 'in the mix' on every play. He leads the team playing 28.8 minutes per game.

Samford had a good non-conference season but has stumbled to a 1-6 start in conference play. Cooper still seems to be struggling from deep (0-5 vs Mercer, 2-9 vs ETSU, 1-5 vs VMI), now sitting at 29.5% on the season. He only has two double digit games on the season and hasn't been filling up the stat sheet anywhere else. He is still an important player for Samford as he plays 25.7 MPG (2nd most on the team).

For IPFW, Jalon has continued to be solid although a bit inconsistent. In his last 5 games, he has put up 19 points (vs Youngstown St., 9 points (vs Robert Morris), 12 points (vs a non-D1), 6 points (vs Oakland and 7 points (vs Detroit). He is the team's second leading scorer (13.1 PPG), but his 3P% has dropped to 28.2%.

Big Frank had a career high in minutes (19) today. Shot 4-4 (8 points) and grabbed 7 boards in SMU's win over Memphis, in a battle of bubble teams. Made some headlines after the game by saying that SMU fed off Memphis disrespecting SMU as a team and school (not sure what comments there were).

He'd be pretty damn helpful playing the 5 for us this year.

After a brutal start to conference play, Samford has reeled of 6 of its last 7 and has a decent chance in the Southern conference tourney. In his last two games, Cooper went 4-4 and 2-5 from deep. Put up a season high 14 points vs VMI. Good for him.

Paxon hasn't been doing much of note recently. His Brown Bears are sitting at 4-8, which is good for 7th place in the 8-team Ivy. Only the top 4 make the Ivy League tourney. Brown is 1.5 games off 4th place Harvard, with only two left to play. Likely no postseason for Brown.

IPFW has won 6 straight and is in 2nd place in the Horizon (13-6, behind Cleveland State at 15-4). Jalon has been playing big minutes, including 51(!!!) minutes in a 3OT win over Cleveland State. He had 27 points in that effort. He is average 13.6 PPG along with 3.4 RPG and 1.9 APG.

Happy for Frank to get some PT. Always thought his transfer was interesting as when healthy he had a clear path to playing here. Probably the Knight transfer scared him off.

gr11.....thanks for these updates....been interesting to follow those guys....I really liked Big Frank and thought this would be his year.....Baylor Hebb has done almost nothing at Colorado St this year....playing in less than half their games and 3 field goals all year...Interesting to think about if they had stayed...I just think Pipkon would not have fit in to our system?but who knows with the offense we have been running this year....Paxton and Schweiger...compteting for time....Once our guys decided to come back for an extra year made it hard for some of those guys to stay......I guess it worked out for Coop and Paxton and Pipkens.....seems Frank would have contributed this year and given Hutson another year to develop and Hebb may have gotten another year to develop as well, and this year has turned into a developmental year at CSU