The talented Corky England will periodically writing about college basketball. This is his second offering.

Ben Woodside’s 60-spot against Stephen F. Austin Friday night was just the 25th 60-plus point game in Division I history and only the second since 1994. Incredibly, Woodside scored 49 of his 60 points in the final 8:51 of regulation and overtime. Almost as incredibly, Woodside’s North Dakota State Bison lost the game, 112-111 in 3OT.

Which leads to the more interesting question: Given Woodside also had eight rebounds and eight assists, was this the [Shanoff]Best. Line. In a loss. Ever?[/Tebow Fathead owner]

Eight of the 25 60-point games actually came in a loss, but we can discount half of them.

- U.S. International’s Kevin Bradshaw scored a Division I-record 72 points in a 186-140 loss to Loyola Marymount in 1991, but USIC/LMU games from that era were borderline farces. Bradshaw only shot 23-for-59 in a regulation game that featured 239 field goal attempts and 85 free throws.

- Three of Pete Maravich’s four 60s came in defeat, but two were in games that LSU lost by at least 16 points. Likewise, Ole Miss legend Johnny Neumann had 60 in a 19-point loss.

That leaves Woodside and the following candidates (all before the 3-pointer):

- Maravich’s 69 points (second-highest total ever) in a 106-104 loss to Alabama in 1970. (26 of 57 FG, 17 of 21 FT, five rebounds, four assists)
- Anthony Roberts had 65 for Oral Roberts in a 90-89 loss to Oregon in 1977 (in the NIT against a team ranked 5th in national scoring defense at 60.9 ppg)
- Rick Mount’s 61 for Purdue in a 108-107 loss to Iowa, also in 1970 (27 for 47 FG)

Is Woodside’s 60-8-8 ahead of those three? You could at least make an argument, right?

Bonus note: Woodside is around this season only because former NDSU coach Tim Miles (now at Colorado State) redshirted his recruiting class so they would be eligible as seniors when the Bison completed their D-I transition and were allowed to play in the NCAA Tournament.

Now on with the rest of the program …

A Crockwork Orange: Losing at home to mid-majors isn’t new for Syracuse, but was there some karmic quality to Cedric Jackson’s 60-foot Orange crusher given the way Jim Boeheim has handled Eric Devendorf’s pending suspension? Sorry, enabling a recidivist harasser because you would “lose the locker room” if you sat him while his appeal was pending doesn’t fly. Boeheim’s annual whines about his team’s exclusions from the Field of 65 after opening the season with a two-month homestand are mostly innocent. According to a panel of his peers, Devendorf is not, which means he doesn’t belong on the court right now. Syracuse losing one of the games it tried to notch with Devendorf was justice.

Taking a stab: Paul Pierce is a Boston demigod for making it back from a serious stabbing to (eventually) win an NBA title (with significant help from KG and the corpse of Ray Allen). So why isn’t the play of behemoth Broncos big boy John Bryant a bigger national story? Bryant was stabbed three times in a September incident at a campus-area bar, but has returned to average 18.4 points and 12.0 rebounds per game this season for Santa Clara. Quality players like Bryant, on what likely is the fourth-best team in the league, are more evidence that perceptions of the WCC as Zagsland are sorely outdated.

Russia’s Moscow: Not much farther, probably less homogenous: The season’s oddest non-conference home-and-home wraps tonight with the MEAC’s South Carolina State traveling to Moscow, Idaho to take on the homestanding Vandals after tagging them 66-59 in Orangeburg, S.C., last Wednesday. Idaho is an annual WAC doormat, in large part because of its relative lack of athletic funding, so the difference in these teams’ quality is not that different (and with the way the WAC’s been over the last season and a half, the conferences aren’t that far apart, either). Rather, it’s the two mid-week games between completely non-geographic rivals entailing a ton of travel hassle/expense on both sides that makes this pairing so curious. Oh, and if you took the crowds at the two games and put them side by side, it would look like this, despite Idaho’s best photoshop efforts.

Who does No. 2 work for?: Forget all the breathless talk about whether North Carolina will go undefeated. Even if UNC was expected to win 49 times out of 50 against every opponent it faces (which is absurdly optimistic in many cases), the Heels would only run the table 45% of the time. That doesn’t mean they’re not way, way better than anyone else. Frankly, there shouldn’t be a No. 2 in the rankings. UConn (or whichever team comes next) should be at something like No. 7. That’s probably a fairer assessment of the gulf between the Heels and everyone else. Unfortunately, March sample sizes are 1, so don’t start sewing the national championship banner just yet.

Nova are lox to lose Wright way: Jay Wright is one of the most underrated coaches in the land and will get a very big job soon, if he wants one. Despite having his big men fracture something every year, Wright’s program has been to the Sweet 16 (or better) in three of the past four seasons. Yeah, Villanova won a national title 23 years ago and has all that sweet cash rolling in from its I-AA football program … who wouldn’t win there? Wright clearly can recruit and coach, plus he’s a nice guy who understands Philly’s Big 5 (which Nova tried to murder in the early 1990s). This season’s Cats are a good bet to make it four Sweets in five seasons, thanks to quicksilver forward Dante Cunningham and increased maturity from their young, talented guards.

Johnny, Be Good
Stanford is a quiet 5-0 in Johnny Dawkins’ first season on The Farm. Asking the Lopezless Cardinal to make noise this season, even in a very down Pac-10, might be asking too much, but this isn’t a one-year turnaround situation. Dawkins is the rare coach who made a career move that made perfect sense. If he wasn’t going to wait for Coach K to step down at Duke, what other school offers a better combination of comparable academics and a standout athletics program? More important from a basketball standpoint, Dawkins’ eventual success at Stanford is a huge barometer for the value of the Coach K Tree, which has had way too many branches like this and this (and that doesn’t even count Bobby Hurley showing up at his Columbia interview in 2003 in a sweatsuit). A couple of years of loosely connected Mike Brey isn’t enough to offset all of that, so Wojo & Co. on the Duke bench are privately hopeful that Dawkins can help pave the way.

Saturday’s sexy slate
If you’re in the “I don’t watch college hoops until Jan. 1″ category, this Saturday will be your loss. Here’s a primer:

- No. “2″ UConn vs. No. 7 Gonzaga: Bulldogs West took last year’s meeting in Boston. Bulldogs Huskies East will have their hands full in Seattle.
- VCU at No. 4 Oklahoma: The Jeff Capel Bowl, triggered by the buyout in his VCU contract that mandated a home-and-home with his new program. If only OU had Eric Maynor at the point …
- No. 22 Michigan State at No. 5 Texas: Horns looking for revenge that they should get.
- No. 7 Xavier vs. No. 6 Duke: A win in the Sweet 16-matchup-that-wasn’t would mean much more to Xavier.
- No. 11 Syracuse at No. 21 Memphis: A December road game at a ranked team??!! Could help offset the CSU pratfall.
- BYU at No. 18 Arizona State: You know about James Harden, but probably not enough about Lee Cummard (19.6 ppg, 48.1% 3s).
- No. 20 Davidson at No. 18 Purdue: Steph Steph Steph Boilermakers Steph Steph Lovedale Steph Steph at-large chances.

Oh, and don’t forget the weekend’s upset special: Wake Forest at Richmond Friday night. Young uptempo team meets experienced Princeton offense on the road.