I can’t believe I am left to cover the basketball beat, but even I know that this is a huge deal. And I am after all the resident Ramette and I know how to look things up, so here goes. According to GoRhody.com,

The Rhode Island men’s basketball team overcame a 12-point second half deficit to defeat Virginia Tech, 79-72, Wednesday night. The win advances Rhody to the NIT semifinals for the first time since 1946.

In researching this comprehensive report I bumped into the Rhody the Ram photo album which documents his various incarnations over the years. Check out the diabolical incubus prancing about the floor in the 70’s! Yikes. More about last night’s victory over Virginia Tech at ProJo. I’ll bet certain sports bars will be hopping next Tuesday night when the Tar Heel Wuss Brigade opens up a can of Blue on Blue whoop-ass!!!

NIT Semifinals, Tuesday, March 23, 9pm, Madison Square freaking Garden

Finally Rhode Island is getting some national exposure for something really awesome. Tonight on 60 Minutes Lara Logan interviews Dr. Bob Ballard of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. She joined a recent expedition last September when his crew discovered a new site, a 1400-year-old Byzantine wreck on the floor of the Black Sea. According to URI’s GSO website,

The news program is reporting on efforts to explore the oceans by focusing on Ballard’s work and the operation of the Inner Space Center, which connects researchers and ships at sea with URI and shore-based scientists.

This stuff is so cool. (For preview of 60 Minutes segment go here.)

I just love that yesterday’s dire article in The New York Times about our floundering home state includes the crazy URI fight song, which really can’t be appreciated without the little staccato handclap just before the above phrase (I perform this song with some frequency).  But there isn’t too much else to rejoice in here.  I will add that they illustrated the piece with a picture of a boarded up “office building” on South Main Street with which I have had a passing familiarity — and yes, it was an office building in that it had been carved up, rented out and some people had desks.  I would just hate to think that people in, say, Houston are laughing at our office building.  So Houston, if you are reading this, I want you to know we have many tall and shiny buildings that are also empty and boarded up.

At least the piece ends on an upbeat note with a recent transplant, Marjory Garrison, singing our praises.

Ms. Garrison moved to Providence last summer from Brooklyn and became so captivated that she started her own recruitment campaign, plastering neighborhoods in Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn and Seattle with posters that shout “Move to Providence!”

“It has so much going for it, and so much of that is still under the surface in a lot of ways,” she said. “I think people here believe that once you crack that open, anything is possible.”

Well then, let’s get cracking.

With about 7 mins left.

They won today, but need to beat Charlotte next weekend just to get back to .500 in the A-10, even after starting 19-3. And it seems like they need to make it to the conf championship game to have a real shot at the tourney.

Cornell clinched the Ivies, and PC is at 4-11 in the Big East. So it looks like there won’t be much post-season for RI schools this year.

I’m feeling pretty pooped out on politics right now, but if you’re not, there’s some big stuff going on:

• Ted Kennedy, in support of Barack Obama, at URI at 12:30 today. (Remember to ask him why he’s trying to kill Cape Wind.)
• The Guild Follies, tonight at 7pm
• Barack Obama, on Saturday at noon, at RIC. (Yes, on the very same stage Hillary spoke from last week…)

Or something like that:

BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhuanet) — It’s been 40 million years since Antarctic waters were warm enough for sharks to lurk around and feed on polar prey, but rising ocean temperatures from global warming could eventually bring the toothy predators back, media reported Tuesday quoting scientists as saying.

If sharks reenter Antarctic waters, the entire polar ecosystem will be severely altered, with the ferocious predators easily preying on a wide assortment of slow-moving, soft-bodied organisms that dominate the sea floor of the cold-water environment, said Cheryl Wilga, an associate professor of biomechanics at the evolution at University of Rhode Island.

Lost to Temple last night. Lost to Mass, and barely beat Fordham. And only 6-4 in the Atlantic 10. They’re still 20-5 over-all, but uh-ohs…

PC is miserable. But Brown’s second in the Ivies, and within striking distance. Are they the dark-horse RI candidate to make the tourney?

Also, what’s with Cornell leading at 6-0, with Penn and Princeton in the middle of the pack? The last time neither Penn nor Princeton won the conference was 1988. And the last time before that was 1961.

Looks like they’re inching back towards a top-25 spot:

The Rams improved to 18-3 (4-2 A-10), equaling their best start since the 1987-88 season when they went 18-3 through their first 21 games.

ESPN is hosting an online chat with URI’s guard Parfait Bitee today at 1pm.