0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/29/2016
Yes, Saturday’s Big 12-SEC Challenge is a day for improving resumes and gaining NCAA tournament leverage. LSU, Florida, Georgia, Texas Tech, Texas, Vanderbilt — they could all significantly improve their standing to varying degrees. It is a day to burnish the nitty-gritty profile, with January about to end and March coming ever closer. However, the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The Big 12-SEC challenge is not a new thing in the world of college basketball. Conference challenges have become a regular part of the sport. The Big 12-SEC version has been around for a few years, following a six-year period in which the SEC paired up with the previous (old-school) version of the Big East. […]
November 8, 2013 – Atlanta: Georgia Tech’s head coach Brian Gregory gives his team instructions during Georgia Tech’s home opener in McCamish Pavilion against Presbyterian on Friday , November 8, 2013. Georgia Tech won 88 -57. JOHNNY CRAWFORD / JCRAWFORD@AJC.COM
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/27/2016
If money was no object at all, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State would not have to think twice about firing their head men’s basketball coaches at the end of this season. Brian Gregory and Travis Ford work hard and field competitive teams in tough, deep conferences. Georgia Tech consistently plays ACC opponents close, and Oklahoma […]
0 comments by Mike Abelson
This is the first part in a regular series profiling the Division 1 basketball teams in New England leading up to the NCAA Tournament. Our first stop is at the University of New Hampshire … The University of New Hampshire has been playing basketball since 1907. In the last 100 years the Wildcats have had […]
This man’s in a lot of trouble.
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/26/2016
First things first: This is not a column about whether two athletic programs should fire their head basketball coaches. No, this is more an exploration of whether it’s good for young coaches to suffer at high-major programs instead of being liberated from those jobs. * It’s always good to have a sense of boundaries and […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Last week offered a sobering reminder about the intersections involving sports analysis, personal preferences, and actual reality. In the course of human events, we often seek outcomes which fulfill our hopes and longings. Being emotional and aspirational creatures, we want so badly for certain things to happen — this is good and proper and reasonable. […]
Gonzaga forward Domantas Sabonis (11) shoots over Saint Mary’s center Jock Landale (34) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in Moraga, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar) ORG XMIT: CATA108
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/22/2016
The Saint Mary’s Gaels offered the Gonzaga Bulldogs a chance to steal Thursday night’s West Coast Conference basketball game in Moraga, California. Gonzaga refused the offer. In a game marked by endgame free-throw misses, awful foul calls, and unwise decisions, Saint Mary’s edged the Zags, 70-67. Gonzaga missed big man Przemek Karnowski, a space-eater in […]
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0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/21/2016
When the NCAA tournament ends, Jim Nantz tells us about “a tradition unlike any other.” Before the NCAA tournament begins, we are being brought in touch with the possibility that this edition of March Madness could be unlike any other. After Wednesday night’s events, which featured Michigan State’s home-court loss to surging Nebraska (the Huskers […]
0 comments by Ryan Palencer
There is no question that Butler has become a national power over the past decade, having reached two national title games while thriving under its third head coach in that span. Joining the Big East was a huge jump forward for the Bulldogs, and their success has translated into postseason play and opportunities. However, so […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/20/2016
No, no, no — we’re not going to use the “B-word” around here for another full month. The word which rhymes with “Clack it, Allah, gee!” is not going to be printed in this space until absolutely necessary. Projecting seeds and regions, plus the number of teams each conference will put in the NCAA tournament — […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
It’s not as though most conferences in this crazy, cluttered and clamorous college basketball season are portraits of stability and top-to-bottom clarity. Moreover, it’s not as though established powers are uniformly retaining their places in the top tiers of conferences. Duke is in trouble. Kentucky is clearly not the favorite in a very weak SEC […]
0 comments by Ryan Palencer
With Saturday’s seven-point win against an improved TCU squad, Kansas appeared to be in the fast lane to another conference title. However, with Tuesday night’s blowout loss to Oklahoma State, the Big 12 seems to be as balanced it has been in recent years. Coming into Monday, there was a four-way tie atop the conference […]
Northwestern players react as they walk on the court during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Wisconsin in Evanston, Ill., on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2014. Wisconsin won 76-49. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
0 comments by Yesh Ginsburg on 1/19/2016
One fact every college basketball fan has heard at one time or another concerns Northwestern’s history with the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Namely, that Northwestern has no history. The Wildcats have never earned a March Madness bid. Not once. It has not happened since the NCAA created its championship basketball tournament in 1939, though Northwestern […]
0 comments by Ryan Palencer
For the third time this season, the No. 1 team in the country went to the state of Iowa and fell. In this case, it was a game that rescued a team’s season. * Northern Iowa has plummeted ever since beating No. 1 North Carolina in Cedar Falls last November. The Panthers have lost their […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 1/18/2016
It was one year ago when Duke University’s men’s basketball team couldn’t play a lick of defense. It was two years ago that the University of Kentucky wobbled on many of its road trips in the conspicuously weak Southeastern Conference. In January of 2016, Mike Krzyzewski and John Calipari, both Hall of Famers, will once […]
