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Dec 22, 2015; Lincoln, NE, USA; Prairie View A&M Panthers head coach Byron Rimm II reacts to action against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Nebraska defeated Prairie View A&M 81-50. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Young and maybe restless: coaches trying to make the climb

0 comments by on 2/26/2016

It’s one thing to be a coach over 50 years old, without an NCAA tournament appearance at one’s current place of employment. The career path has been established, an identity formed. It is hard to imagine a different direction after traveling so many miles along a particular road. Being a younger college basketball coach in […]

For Gregg Nibert and Ron Cottrell, basketball isn’t the legacy which lasts

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We recently wrote about coaches who have devoted their lives to college basketball. These men are over 50 years old, and they haven’t yet made the NCAA tournament at their current coaching stops despite being on the job since the previous calendar decade (2009 or earlier). We also wrote about coaches who reached their postseason […]

Like hell you did: college basketball’s 10 unexpected pre-Thanksgiving plot twists

0 comments by on 2/25/2016

Reviewing the entirety of a college basketball season is a very difficult project. There’s such a clear line of demarcation between the regular season and “tournament season” (otherwise known as Championship Week, followed by the NCAA tournament) that the first 30 games very quickly recede into the background. What happens in the final six to […]

Gard him with your life, Wisconsin: Greg should be your permanent head coach

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The story of Greg Gard begins with the Bennett family. In the year 2000, Dick Bennett led Wisconsin to its first Final Four since 1941. Bennett’s relentless emphasis on the basic components of the sport produced teams which were so structurally sound that a lack of jump-through-the-building athleticism didn’t entirely matter. Yes, Wisconsin would fall […]

The Mountain West and the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad cycle

0 comments by on 2/24/2016

The Mountain West Conference had a lot to shout about in March of 2015. The league put three teams into the NCAA tournament after getting only two Dance invites in 2014. Wyoming made its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2002, showing other member schools that periods of struggle and postseason exile do not have the […]

Feb 23, 2016; Columbus, OH, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Denzel Valentine (45) speeds past Ohio State Buckeyes center Daniel Giddens (4) during the second half at Value City Arena. The Spartans won 81-62. Mandatory Credit: Joe Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports

Ohio State’s season of decline offers a reminder about high-level durability

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The Ohio State Buckeyes — without Jae’Sean Tate — were no match for the Michigan State Spartans on Tuesday night. The loss was significant in itself, but the surrounding details made it that much tougher to absorb. First, the Buckeyes took the court knowing that Tate, one of their core players, would miss the rest […]

Bubble baggage: the weight of unfamiliar pressure

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Life on the NCAA tournament bubble is difficult enough as it is. A long season winds toward its conclusion, which means that bodies are wearing down. There’s no mid-February week off for an All-Star break as there is in the NBA. Legs aren’t as fresh. The physical dimensions of late-February and early-March basketball are imposing […]

The Pac-12’s island of misfit toys is approached by a rescue boat

0 comments by on 2/23/2016

In a strange college basketball season, the Pac-12 isn’t necessarily stranger than any other conference. However, it’s a lot less defined than many. North Carolina, Virginia, Miami, and Duke are good teams in the ACC. The first three will get particularly high NCAA tournament seeds. The Big 12’s team-specific matchups produce plenty of plot twists […]

Miami, Virginia, and a metaphor for the season

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March being what it is — namely, the most wildly unpredictable month in American sports — we could soon see a postseason which undoes the themes created by the college basketbal regular season. Don’t count on it. The Miami Hurricanes’ 64-61 win over the Virginia Cavaliers on Monday night in South Florida was a portrait […]

Xavier, Chattanooga, and the different portraits of a season

0 comments by on 2/22/2016

College sports represent an analytical battleground for many reasons, chief among them the smaller sample sizes created by comparatively shorter regular seasons. It’s true that college basketball features a 30-game regular season, two and a half times the length of a football campaign. Yet, an 18-game conference season combined with 12 non-conference clashes — all […]

Endgame management: Avery Johnson and Kevin Ollie come up short

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The arrival of March — just a week away — means that coaching decisions will be met with a lot more scrutiny. Let’s get into the habit, then, shall we? Two coaches made the same basic mistake this past weekend, and while their teams were already likely to lose, their decisions turned defeat from a […]

Christian tolerance at Boston College: How long should it last?

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Late February, in the world of college basketball, means that small-conference tournaments are just around the corner. It means that bubble teams are arriving at crunch time. It means that the useless bracket projections made by an Italian American in Bristol over the course of a whole season will finally merit genuine interest. Late February […]

Saint Bonaventure would be proud of his basketball team

0 comments by on 2/21/2016

“The magnitude of things clearly manifests the wisdom and goodness of the triune God, who by power, presence and essence exists uncircumscribed in all things.” — Saint Bonaventure, The Soul’s Journey into God, 1259 * “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two impostors just the same.” — Rudyard Kipling, If, 1910 […]

A reconsidered thesis: Maybe there’s room for more little guys this March

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Any commentator who dives into the pool of news analysis — and makes assessments based on what s/he sees — has to do one thing more than anything else: acknowledge when the flow of events changes. What might have been one week’s accurate-enough analysis can be overturned the following week. Any forceful or firm proclamations […]

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