0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/11/2015
It’s easy to simply say, “The NCAA Tournament,” when asked what’s best about college basketball. However, the sport which will once again become a part of our lives through early April is about more than just the Dance. Yes, casual sports fans view college basketball as a March-only entity, but those who love the sport […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone
When Shaka Smart was hired to become the Texas Longhorns’ new head coach, the move was hailed by many within the college basketball community, and rightly so. The success Smart had at VCU, given somewhat limited resources, remains rather incredible. However, there are reasons for skepticism. I touched on this when Smart was originally hired. […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 11/10/2015
The new college basketball season begins with a number of amazing streaks intact. In two seasons, Kansas is likely to surpass North Carolina (27, from 1975 through 2001) for the most consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. The Jayhawks sit at 26 and show no signs of slowing down. Currently, Stephen F. Austin is working on a […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The hot seat is an uncomfortable position for coaches to occupy. What’s especially unnerving for these men is that in many cases — more than what seems to be typical — they’re set up to fail. What does this mean? Here’s the explanation: A classic “hot seat” situation is one in which a talented team […]
0 comments by Ryan Palencer
With so many tight conference races likely to emerge this season, picking the most hotly contested one is difficult. However, further examination reveals that one league should be a little harder to win than others. Over half of the Big Ten could take the conference crown this season. Anyone in the top half of the […]
0 comments by Joseph Nardone
The Kansas Jayhawks have dominated the Big 12 longer than the Roman Empire dominated large parts of Earth back before we had smartphones — or at least it feels that way. However, there was a very recent time when some folks — myself included — felt their run was coming to an end. Then, sadly, […]
0 comments by Steve Fetch
Harvard has had a stranglehold on the Ivy League, winning the conference’s automatic bid for the last four seasons. The Crimson don’t look like the favorite for the upcoming season, but it’s worth noting they could welcome a top-10 recruiting class to Cambridge next season. In the meantime, though, Harvard lost Wesley Saunders, Steve Mondou-Missi, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The Student Section begins College Basketball Preview Week, a crash course on the coming season. In this piece, we provide a list of the five coaches — legends and lurkers alike — who have the most to prove: * Mike Brey and Mark Few parked themselves in the Elite Eight for the first time in […]
0 comments by Ryan Palencer
With thousands upon thousands of basketball players across the country, each player has something to prove to himself, his coach, and his team. For a select few, the presence of huge fan bases and the hype machine attached to them enhances those expectations. This gives those players a little more to prove. While everyone wants to […]
0 comments by Steve Fetch on 11/6/2015
Last season Wisconsin-Green Bay had a future NBA draft pick in Keifer Sykes, and Valparaiso finished just three points shy of an upset over Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Neither led the league in offense, however. That was Oakland, which scored 1.11 points per trip in league play.
0 comments by Steve Fetch
No conference has gone through more of a tectonic shift in the past few years than Conference USA. The league lost teams such as Memphis and Tulsa to the AAC and replaced them with the likes of Middle Tennessee and Florida International. The league has taken a hit in terms of prestige, but it still […]
Rick Pitino and Louisville made The American a much stronger league in 2014 compared to the current 2015 version. Sure, SMU leads the conference this season, but it achieved a lot more in the 2014 campaign. Why is 2015 SMU’s RPI at 18 while last season’s team carried an RPI of 53 into Selection Sunday? The answer becomes very obvious as you continue to read this piece… and no, it’s not about winning games, either.
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 11/4/2015
It probably feels played to death at this point, but more has to be said about the Louisville basketball scandal. Most scandalous stories tend to remain in view until either a larger, more scintillating story appears or the people at fault for the scandal — or those close enough to it — have to face […]
0 comments by Steve Fetch
The Colonial lost its identity a bit when VCU and George Mason left, and the quality of play in the conference has taken a bit of a hit as well. C0-conference champion Northeastern (part of a multi-team regular-season tie) won the tournament and narrowly missed a first-round upset of Notre Dame.
0 comments by Joseph Nardone on 11/3/2015
College football and the NFL will continue to dominate the headlines, sure. The NBA will likely get more eyeballs, because folks like high-quality hoops. However, there are many reasons why people should pay attention to the early portion of the college basketball season. Don’t get me wrong. College basketball has a lot of things going […]
0 comments by Steve Fetch on 10/30/2015
It’s not the MAC, it’s the MAAC. The largely New York- and Connecticut-based conference was one of the nation’s most exciting last season, with almost 30 percent of its games being decided by four points or fewer, or in overtime by any margin. Iona won the regular season title by multiple games, but its awful […]
