0 comments by Matt Zemek on 2/6/2015
Thursday night in college basketball, a number of exasperating teams stepped on the hardwood. Iowa is playing well this season, but that doesn’t mean the Hawkeyes don’t know how to toy with the emotions of their fan base. A penchant for blown second-half leads is the most central reason this season had been such a […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 2/5/2015
There’s an off-court aspect to yesterday’s big college basketball story, in which Syracuse announced a self-imposed postseason ban. In this space, however, we’ll address an on-court topic connected to Wednesday’s news. As a result of the Orange removing themselves from postseason play, the 2015 ACC Tournament will shrink from a 15-team field to a 14-team […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
There are two main angles to explore in the wake of Wednesday’s announcement that Syracuse men’s basketball program will not participate in any postseason event in 2015. In case you missed it, Syracuse self-imposed a postseason ban in response to an ongoing NCAA investigation into the program. Orange fans can rightly say that the NCAA’s constant, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 2/2/2015
The Super Bowl is done. No more high-profile football games until late August. You’ve read about how the NFL can become more like college football. You’ve read about how college football should become more like the NFL. What about the ways in which both versions of this sport can improve at the same time? Here […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The end of the Super Bowl — and all of football season until late summer — invites football fans and commentators to explore the relationship between college football and the NFL. We’re exploring how these different versions of America’s most popular sport can embrace each other and change together. We’ve already published an installment on […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The Super Bowl and — with it — the full run of the live-game football season at all levels of competition (high school, college, and the pros) are over. There are two times of the year when it makes sense to explore the question of how the NFL and college football compare to each other […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 2/1/2015
The Saturday before the Super Bowl is one of the busiest single days of the entire college basketball season, since more schools try to avoid playing on Super Sunday. Which five stories jumped off the page more than any others from 151 games? Here’s the list: * 5 – SEC: CLUTTERED MORE THAN CLEAR The […]
0 comments by TSS LOCKER on 1/31/2015
Montrezl Harrell provided an electric moment in Louisville’s game against North Carolina on Saturday:
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/30/2015
Remember the end of last March? Heading into the Elite Eight’s four regional finals, three Big Ten basketball teams had a chance to go to the Final Four. Two teams were seeded higher than their opponents (Michigan versus Kentucky in the Midwest, Michigan State versus Connecticut in the East), and the third team was arguably […]
“Hey, Big 12! We’re really good!” — The message BYU wants to send in its bowl game, even though the Big 12 won’t expand next year or the year after that. BYU is trying to plant seeds that will sprout several years down the line.
0 comments by Matt Zemek
If you were to cite one pervasive flaw in college football — not a specific policy such as pass interference not being reviewable, or an isolated failing such as the unwillingness to schedule New Year’s Six games on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016 — you could come up with several legitimate and compelling answers. You could […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/29/2015
When 19- and 20-year-old athletes are thrown into the fires of midseason pressure, with every game potentially pointing the way toward the NCAA tournament, volatility will emerge. This is just a fact of life. Some teams will win more consistently than others — think of Florida and Wichita State last season, Kentucky and Virginia this […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/28/2015
The circumstances under which Anthony Grant became the head basketball coach at the University of Alabama are, weirdly enough, the very reasons why the Crimson Tide need to start fresh with a new basketball coach at season’s end. Following a loss at home on Tuesday night to Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators, it’s clear […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
For the University of North Carolina (and, for that matter, Wake Forest University), this is supposed to be basketball season, a time of year when sports news focuses on the true religion of the Carolinas. Yet, the Tar Heels and the Demon Deacons have raised a few eyebrows in the province of pigskin with an […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/26/2015
One of the central emergent themes in this college basketball season — one which will continue to merit attention in the coming weeks — is that a lot of big-name programs are in trouble relative to making the NCAA tournament. The two teams that played in the first national semifinal at last year’s Final Four, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
It’s good on a number of levels that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski notched his 1,000th victory on Sunday, in a non-conference game against St. John’s. The win occurred outside the realm of the ACC. It served as a stand-alone event removed from the league race. The seminal achievement in the history of college basketball could […]
