Basketball News and Notes

• The defending National Champion Florida Gators are off to a flying start. Last night the Gators crushed North Florida with an impressive defensive effort.
• Corey Brewer appears to have improved his outside shooting and when you couple that with his awesome ability to take defenders off the dribble and the fact that he is perhaps the best defensive swingman in the nation, he could be a top 5 NBA pick next year.
• Walter Hodge has improved his outside shooting considerably which will give Billy Donovan the option to spell Lee Humphrey more often and keep him fresh for late game situations.
• Don't be surprised if Lee Humphrey ends up being an NBA role player who takes his championship skills to the next level. Not only is he a great outside shooter, but his man to man defensive skill is rare for shooting guard in college.
• Florida State just got by Matt Doherty's SMU team last night. After showing an impressive inside game against McNeese State, the Noles did nothing inside last night.
• The inconsistency of the three headed monster (Swann/Rich/Mims) coming off of FSU's bench is mind numbing. When all three of these guys are on, FSU is unbeatable. When they are off, their isn't another ACC school that FSU is sure to beat.
• Miami has played two cupcakes, F.I.U. and Alcorn State but they appear to be much improved on offense over last year's NIT team. Brian Asbury looks more decisive and confident, and Jack McClinton is going to fill the role of scorer/outside shooter vacated by graduated Rob Hite nicely.
• Keep an eye on Miami Freshman Dwayne Collins. I was skeptical of all the talk from Canes fans about this guy being the next Tim James until I saw him first hand Saturday night. A year or two down the road, this kid could be a dominant post player.
• South Florida had a nice win over Buffalo the either night. USF needs to win all they can right now, because once the Big East season begins the wins much like last season will be very hard to come by.
• Kirk Speraw's UCF team which lost a lot of players from decent squads the last few years opens with two local games: Tonight vs Rollins and Saturday vs Stetson.
• I'm hearing from a reliable source that Sergio Rouco's time at F.I.U. is up at season's end. Being down 8 at the first TV timeout against Miami certainly didn't help him. (FIU was down 22 with 4:00 to go in the first half) Rouco would have been better off staying with Billy Gillespie at UTEP and perhaps either getting that head job or following Gillespie to Texas A&M as an assistant.