0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 4/7/2015
Saul Goodman, Wolverine, and Grayson Allen have so much in common as it is. Tough, overcoming normally unbeatable odds, and now having origin stories. For Goodman it was his time as Slippin’ Jimmy and his struggles to battle his conscience before becoming Walter White’s lawyer. Wolverine’s was filled with worldly travels, motorcycles, and a cycle of women […]
No, Bo Ryan, you shouldn’t be surprised at all if Wisconsin ends the Big Ten’s national title drought next April.
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 4/6/2015
The fact that one game in a single-elimination tournament can define legacies is slightly strange, but it’s understandable. In a sport where many coaches average over 20 wins a season and some of them enjoy rather lengthy runs in the NCAA Tournament, there has to be a way to separate the good coaches from the […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 4/5/2015
Frank Kaminsky is pretty good at the basketball. Most of us already knew that. His footwoork under the basket, his ability to shoot from distance, and his ability to be clutch have helped make other people realize that over the course of a full season. Doing so in a Final Four game against previously unbeaten Kentucky […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone
The Wisconsin Badgers beat the Kentucky Wildcats in a wildly entertaining Final Four game. End column… or not. Despite the game itself being as pretty and fun a semifinal as anyone could ask for, the Internet predictably became an ugly place immediately after it was over. We have been down this road before, too — the […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 4/3/2015
I promise that I am not doing this in an effort to try to be contrarian or cute, but Texas bringing Shaka Smart aboard doesn’t excite me in the ways it seems to have stirred the general public. This is the case even though almost every other aspect of this situation is telling me that I […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 4/2/2015
It is officially official: Gregg Marshall will return to coach the Wichita State Shockers thanks to a new deal that will pay the coach $3 million per year. This is after rumors swirled around the idea that Alabama would fork over $3 million to scoop up the highly sought-after coach. The fact that Marshall is […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 4/1/2015
With the Final Four quickly approaching, people are looking for different ways to talk about each national semifinal on Saturday. Duke playing Michigan State has that tried-and-true angle: Coach K and Tom Izzo. Kentucky-Wisconsin is being viewed by many in a different way, one which — unfortunately — ignores a season’s worth of evidence in […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone
The college basketball coaching carousel is in full swing: coaches getting fired, others hired, and everything in-between. Tennessee just treated Texas’s trash like its treasure when it hired Rick Barnes to lead the Vols. DePaul retreaded a guy — Dave Leitao — who once left that program for a better job. St. John’s attempted to […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 3/29/2015
Many Big East Conference fans have grown accustomed to the new version of the old league. I mean, not everything in it has changed. So the adjustment to it seems to have been rather smooth. Jay Wright is still the sharpest dressed man, the conference tournament continues to be played at Madison Square Garden, and […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 3/26/2015
It is that time of year in college basketball: Universities are considering whether to extend coaches’ soon-to-expire contracts, fire their coaches, or — in an underappreciated move — wait and see. Coaches rarely enter the final year of their contracts before one of two things happen: Either the coach is fired for not being able to […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 3/23/2015
CBS and Turner have the rights to the NCAA Tournament. From an overall perspective they have handled broadcasting March Madness with mixed results. The good: They can showcase every single game among their TNT, TBS, TruTV and CBS channels. The bad: They are heavily relying upon NBA analysts to give fans college basketball feedback. This […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 3/21/2015
College basketball was apparently broken. Then, because magic happens in March, it is now fixed. You have seen the tweets, Facebook messages, and other social media posts by lovers of the game: “College basketball is fine” or the sarcastic “But college basketball needs fixing” messages after retweeting the great rating the Thursday games brought CBS […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 3/18/2015
March Madness is apparently the time of year when perceptions trump everything else. It doesn’t matter if the things perceived can be backed up factually or not. Whether it is the idea that a 12 seed will always upset a five; that the First Four is the most evil thing ever; or that certain coaches and […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 3/17/2015
When the NCAA Tournament field went to 68 teams, many were agitated. The idea that the people in charge of the Big Dance would mess with something so perfect was mind boggling. Not only did they have the audacity to tinker with one of the best things in all of sports, but it altered the […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 3/16/2015
Duke was not Duke until Mike Krzyzewski helped make it so. The same could be said for UConn with the help of Jim Calhoun and a few other programs that we view today as powerhouses in college basketball. While Duke and UConn are widely accepted today as college hoops royalty, there was a time when neither […]
