0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/21/2016
Xavier fan Bill Murray knows all too well that real life and art converge frequently — sometimes in moments of unrestrained pleasure, sometimes in moments of limitless pain. Sunday night in St. Louis — a city which has lifted Chicago sports fans’ hearts in hockey but broken them so many times in baseball over the […]
Utah guard Lorenzo Bonam, front, reacts as Gonzaga guard Eric McClellan, forward Kyle Wiltjer and Gonzaga guard Kyle Dranginis celebrate late in the second half of a second-round men’s college basketball game Saturday, March 19, 2016, in the NCAA Tournament in Denver. Gonzaga won 82-59. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/20/2016
When the Utah Utes got absolutely annihilated by the Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday night, it became official: At least one double-digit seed will make the Elite Eight this year. What also became apparent: America needs to learn a new term at the NCAA tournament — call it a piece of tournament terminology, or “tournamology.” That […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
We’ll have more to say on the victorious Indiana Hoosiers on Monday, as we look ahead to the Sweet 16 and North Carolina, but let’s first deal with the Kentucky Wildcats, out of the NCAA tournament earlier than most expected. The Wildcats fell to Indiana on Saturday in Des Moines, failing to make the second […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/19/2016
The Big 12 is struggling in March again… and Big 12 fans are already sick and tired of commentators pointing it out. The fatigue (like the disappointment at the source of it) is more than understandable from fans. Moreover, plenty of commentators can’t stand it when other commentators bring up the conference-strength debate in basketball […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Kermit Davis and Middle Tennessee certainly attained college basketball immortality on Friday afternoon in St. Louis. Yet, we all know that for the likes of the Blue Raiders and their coach, their immortality belongs to one season, one special point in time, one frozen moment unlikely to be reduplicated. Yes, other 15 seeds will beat […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/18/2016
We all love to dissect our bracket when we get it on Selection Sunday, and then as results pour in on Thursday in the round of 64. We saw Wichita State pulverize Arizona Thursday night in Providence with a typically ruthless and focused defensive effort, the kind of masterpiece we’re accustomed to seeing from a […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
No conference received more love from the NCAA tournament’s Selection Committee than the Pac-12. Seven teams were all placed in the higher end of the bracket, meaning that all seven teams were a higher seed in the round of 64. Only the Big 12 joined the Pac in that regard. The lowest seed in both […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/17/2016
Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio, the Michigan Wolverines did what all human beings have to do at some point in life: They managed. When life is difficult and when the course of events just isn’t flowing our way, there are days and weeks when we just have to manage. We have to live to fight […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/16/2016
The 2016 NCAA Tournament is a time to remember the life and career of Ralph Miller. One of college basketball’s quietly great coaches — a Hall of Famer without a Final Four appearance — no longer walks the earth. Miller died in 2001 at the age of 82. However, if there is a heaven, you […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The magic of the NCAA tournament can be captured in so many ways — more than 16, to be sure. Yet, one way in which to express the beauty of this multi-layered event is that it really isn’t one tournament at all. The NCAA tournament essentially consists of three two-game tournaments, three weekends at three […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
When the bracket for the 2016 NCAA Tournament was unveiled (leaked, more precisely) on Sunday afternoon, you went through the round of 64 wondering which team would win. Before the round of 64 begins, we’re going to engage in a slightly different exercise: identifying which coaches need to win more in the 6-11, 7-10, and […]
0 comments by Mike Abelson
For the entirety of this decade, Stony Brook basketball has been associated with almost. Almost an America East champion. Almost an NCAA qualifier. Almost making history. Going into this year, the Seawolves had won two America East regular season titles and made four America East title games since the 2010-2011 season. All they had to […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The Wichita State Shockers hit under 37.5 percent of their field goal attempts Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio — a rate slightly below three-eights of their tries. The Shockers’ two best players — Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker — scored a modest 14 points apiece, combining to hit 3 of 11 three-point shots. Wichita State […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/15/2016
The NCAA tournament bracket is such a big deal not just because teams want to know where they’re going and whom they’re playing. The more fundamental drama associated with a bracket involves the larger combinations of matchups — those which could happen, and those which will either be avoided or delayed. The construction of the […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
After the revelation of the NCAA tournament brackets on Selection Sunday, the annual “who’s in or out” exercise offered a natural way to assess various college sports programs in basketball and football. This won’t be an exhaustive deep-dive; it’s merely a collection of 10 observations about various programs in the two big-ticket sports, hoops and […]
