Bracket basics: Don’t complain about Wichita, Arizona or Seton Hall

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 […]

NCAA tournament: ordinary teams have to do the ordinary things well

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 […]

Michigan manages in narrow win over Tulsa

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 […]

64 to 32 to 16: expectations for the next four days of college basketball

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 […]

The racket bracket: 6-11, 7-10, and 8-9 games through the prism of coaches

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 […]

History made, history to be created by Stony Brook

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 […]

The wheat rises and the ship sinks: The Shockers down the Dores

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 […]

NCAA tournament: 10 history-based notes on the 2016 bracket

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 […]

10 big-ticket programs and where they stand in college sports

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 […]

Memebers of the Belmont team sit on the bench during their loss to Wisconsin during a Southeast Regional NCAA college basketball tournament second-round game in Tucson, Ariz., Thursday, March 17, 2011. Wisconsin won 72-58. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

The history of NCAA tournament wins: the impoverished classes

How hard is it to get a college basketball program to win one NCAA tournament game? The Belmont Bruins are shown above in the cover photo for this story. They fell to Wisconsin in 2011, one of seven NCAA tournament losses without a single win for the program. The Bruins are hardly alone. At North […]

The history of NCAA tournament bids: a four-period study

The NCAA tournament’s 68 teams have been announced, offering the latest picture of college basketball’s balance of power. How has this balance of power emerged over time? Plenty of fans are aware of programs’ histories on a general level — UCLA dominated in the John Wooden years, Kentucky roared under Adolph Rupp, and Indiana flourished […]

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