0 comments by Yesh Ginsburg on 3/10/2016
A week ago, I spoke about a potential dilemma for the selection committee. What would they do with Wichita State if the Shockers failed to win their conference tournament? It was an interesting thought exercise in what the committee would care about more–the resume or the team. This week, though, things got crazy. Every imaginable […]
SEATTLE, WA – NOVEMBER 27: Quarterback Jake Browning #3 of the Washington Huskies passes the ball as defensive lineman Darryl Paulo #99 of the Washington State Cougars and linebacker Peyton Pelluer #47 of the Washington State Cougars pursue during the second half of a football game at Husky Stadium on November 27, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. The Huskies won the game 45-10. (Photo by Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
0 comments by Bart D
If you’re woebegone, searching the Internet for college football pieces that are written far too early, congrats, you’ve come to the right place. The horses are extra dark this time of year, because we have no idea who is going to win position battles, let alone succeed in live games when the lights are on. […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/9/2016
When any competitor reaches an elevated place, only to fall from that height and spend years trying to climb back up the mountain, frustration is the natural human response. Frustration has characterized much of the past several seasons for Pittsburgh basketball coach Jamie Dixon. Accordingly, Panther fans have not been terribly pleased with their leader. […]
0 comments by Bart D
Pull up a chair and let your old man tell you about the days when no one cared what spring practice was, and if you were a die hard or just simply needed something to do, maybe the spring game was worth five minutes of your time. Also, get me a glass of bourbon while […]
8 Mar 1996: Tim Duncan of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons lays the ball up as Chris Alexander #30 of the Virginia Cavaliers looks on in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. Mandatory Credit: Doug
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/8/2016
The ACC Tournament began Tuesday afternoon, accelerating the parade of conference tournaments. The flurry of conference tournament basketball will reach its crescendo on Thursday and Friday, arguably the two craziest weekdays of the entire season. The conference tournaments possess an uncertain identity in college basketball. In the ACC, the conference tournament is sacred — largely […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The First Four is about to have its moment. This year, near the end of a season defined largely by the inability of teams to separate themselves from the field, the idea of the First Four seems more relevant and needed than ever before. Plenty of people — myself included — would rather live in […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Monday, Bloody Monday. The Monmouth Hawks and the Valparaiso Crusaders, two teams with complicated mid-major resumes, could have reduced the size of the bubble had they won their respective conference tournaments. Given that the Wichita State Shockers failed to win the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament over the weekend, the bubble was already growing as March […]
CHARLOTTE, NC – JANUARY 03: Head coach Lovie Smith of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers watches his team during their game against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium on January 3, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
0 comments by Bart D on 3/7/2016
Open jobs are only so open as long as no one else actually wants them. Good open jobs rarely, if ever, are. When Josh Whitman somewhat sloppily fired Bill Cubit and then hired Lovie Smith to be Illinois’ football coach, this had “genius” or eternal pariah written all over it. Wins will end up deciding […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
College basketball teams — not being as responsible as NBA teams — blow big leads all the time. Over the past week of zany conference tournament action, Austin Peay overcame a 19-point second-half deficit to win the Ohio Valley Tournament. Northern Iowa led Evansville by 17 in the second half of the Missouri Valley Tournament […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
It is a question that’s impossible to ignore during this week on the American sports calendar: How much is a college basketball conference tournament championship worth? We’re not referring to the one-bid conferences here. It’s obvious that winning the SWAC or MEAC or Big West means everything to the schools involved. This is really a […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Human beings can always use a timely reminder about anything from relationships to job applications to family obligations, anything under the sun. This includes the NCAA tournament. The bubble race is its own separate drama — plenty has been written about that, and plenty will continue to be in the lead-up to Selection Sunday. However, […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
Anyone ready for Championship Week? The big bracket is the one announced next Sunday on CBS, a little after 5:30 Eastern time. Before we arrive at that moment, however, we have a week filled with other bracketed tournaments, the conference collisions which will set the selections and seedings for the field of 68. The brackets for […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek
The Madness of March is delightful… but not 100 percent of the time. This is a great month, but precisely because it’s the one month when every American sports fan really cares about college basketball, March is a good time to study the landscape. This is when it’s important to reveal (or magnify) the excesses […]
0 comments by Kevin Causey
Northern Iowa went 11-7 in Missouri Valley Conference play and came into the tournament in a must-win situation. UNI came in as the number four seed. They beat top ranked Wichita State in the semi-finals and set themselves up for a chance. They took that chance on Sunday and with this buzzer beater advance to […]
0 comments by Matt Zemek on 3/6/2016
Roy Williams’s resplendent Hall of Fame career runs through some of the central veins of college basketball history. The sometimes-painful irony of that fact is that it’s all too close to the path carved out by his most famous predecessor and mentor, the late Dean Smith. Williams and North Carolina won another regular season ACC […]
