Manhattan's George Beamon Returns With a Bang

The tweet came at about halftime: George Beamon was going off.

I guess I deserved that. Beamon didn't make my top 50 mid-major players list. I was just asking for him to show me up in his first game back from an ankle injury.

Beamon scored 29 points on 10 of 15 shooting from the floor in a 67-56 win over Hofstra . Despite seeming to have the ball in hands all the time, he had just three turnovers. Beamon was fantastic.

Shane Gibson did the same thing the first game of the year for Sacred Heart. He hasn't been as consistently impressive since that comeback win against Yale, and is on pace for just a 2.7 HW30 this season (after a 5.1 HW30 last season). Flashes of brilliance, yes; consistency, no .

So maybe this will be a one-off effort for the Manhattan star as well. But given that his game doesn't require the streaky shooting of Gibson, it is more likely that this will stick.

We haven't used Game Score much yet to break down the games, but safe to say that Beamon's 44 (-50 to 50 point scale) Wednesday night is going to be one of the best we will see this season. (Side note: the Jaspers' Rhamel Brown scored a 38 and Hofstra's Taran Buie had a 32; this was a good night for three guys)

He won't have quite the same night all season long, but his performance Wednesday would put him on pace for a 12 or 13 HW30 score too. That isn't just good, that is All-American good.

It's a small sample size, but these stats are something special, especially coming in his first game action.

So safe to say, I may have missed on Beamon.