Trietley: Cleveland State, Georgetown grab recent headlines

Midterms are in the air, so I’ll keep things short and sweet with a little study break.

But… Midterms are in the air, so I’ll keep things short and sweet with a little study break.

But did you hear about Norris Cole?

The Cleveland State guard dropped 41 points, 20 rebounds and nine assists on the Youngstown State Penguins men’s basketball team Saturday.

Although the Penguins are tied for last in the Horizon League at 2-13, Cole deserves accolades for the feat and for scoring double-digit points in every game this season. I do, however, have reservations about him and the Vikings until they beat Butler.

The Butler Bulldogs aren’t what they once were — their next loss will double the number they had last season — but Cleveland State is still 0-2 against them this season. Cole needs to put on a show in the conference tournament against Butler, assuming the teams meet, before I demolish my bubblegum Jimmer Fredette shrine and build one for him.

Cole could also post a quadruple-double next game. That’d do. In 2007, Lester Hudson of Tennessee-Martin logged the only one in Division I history, recording 25 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals. That’s my stat of the day.

But hey! Did you hear about the Georgetown Hoyas?

Any respectable Big Eastern soul has to stand and recognize when another program is on a roll, and Georgetown is that program. The Hoyas lost to Pitt way back in mid-January, but hadn’t lost since then until last night. They bested Syracuse and Villanova on the road and upended Louisville and St. John’s at home.

Georgetown stood at 1-4 in the Big East a month ago and questioned if it’d have the resume to make the NCAA Tournament. Now the Hoyas are 9-4 and counting. It helps that guard Austin Freeman scores almost 20 points per game these days.

They haven’t received the publicity that Pitt and Notre Dame have, but they’re going to make a run at the Big East Championship in New York City next month. I wouldn’t bet against them.

Speaking of streaks, did you hear about the New Jersey Devils?

Back in 2010, the Devils were the joke of the NHL, scoring fewer than two goals per game and giving up, oh, whatever goalie Martin Brodeur felt like giving up that night. That was typically six or so.

But now it’s 2011, and that arbitrary Western calendar change meant a lot to them. Or maybe it’s because they fired their coach. One of the two.

The Devils are 12-1-2 in their last 15 games, entering Wednesday’s contest against Carolina. Last week, they gave San Jose its first regulation loss in a month.

The tagline on New Jersey’s website reads “one game at a time” — before you even get to the part about dollar-hot dog nights. If teams keep their current pace, 90 points gets the Devils into the playoffs. They would need 42 of 52 possible points in their remaining games to get to 90. Sounds crazy?

Well they just grabbed 26 out of a possible 30 to get into this position. 19-3-4 isn’t impossible.

In other hockey news, did you hear about Michael Grabner?

It’s your typical “Austrian teenager comes to North America, plays junior hockey in Canada, gets drafted, gets traded, gets waived, gets claimed, scores 16 goals in a month” story.

Grabner wasn’t on my Calder Trophy (NHL rookie of the year) radar a month ago, and why would he be? He had nine goals in 38 games for the Islanders at one point. He was fun to watch because he’s absurdly fast, but he couldn’t finish.

Then I don’t know what happened. He started scoring — every game. He now has more goals than Alex Ovechkin. He had eight goals last week. Eight. That’s eight more than I’ll ever get in the NHL, or seven should a Disney Channel movie-type fluke occur.

Oh wow, now I’m daydreaming. I guess I better get back to studying.