NCAA Tournament Talk: six risky picks
It’s crunch time. Brackets are due tomorrow. Do you have yours picks settled? Here are a few teams that you might want to got back and think twice about before putting them in the Sweet Sixteen. These are six teams, all with seeds seven or higher, have huge, gaping holes that will need to be [...]
Ole Miss vs. Wisconsin: Profiling West Region Matchup
Similarities between Ole Miss and Wisconsin are few and far between. The 5 vs. 12 matchup is always interesting, but this West Region matchup takes the cake. Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy will be coaching in his first NCAA tournament. Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan will be coaching in his 12th NCAA tournament. In [...]
NCAA Tournament Talk: Six safe picks
Nothing is ever certain in the NCAA tournament. That’s why we love it. But, if you’re looking for a few surefire bets you can hang your hat on when filling out your bracket, here are a few teams I think you can’t go wrong on. I’m sure that once I’ve put it in writing, one [...]
Cruelty of small-league tournaments is inevitable — and right
Earlier this week CBS writer Jeff Goodman and Sports Illustrated scribe Andy Glockner railed against the cruelty and injustice of the small league conference tournament. Their fundamental protest being that these small conference tournament are essentially unfair to teams that have obliterated their conference opponents in the regular season. If a team runs the gauntlet [...]
Five slumping teams that will be dangerous come tournament time
As the regular season winds down and we look ahead to the tournament, conventional reasoning would tell you teams that are surging are poised to make deep runs in March. Teams like Louisville, Gonzaga and Kansas are peaking at the right time. They’re playing solid basketball and putting together a string of nice wins to close [...]
Why Indiana Will Win the National Championship
It’s a bold proclamation to make before we’ve seen their NCAA Tournament draw, their conference tournament, or even the finish to their regular season, but Indiana will cut down the nets this year. How they’ll do it is just as much about the other top contenders as it is them. After all, with no dominant [...]
Gary Harris: the Big Ten’s best freshman
Michigan State forward Derrick Nix told took some time after practice yesterday to air his frustration with the national media. Despite sitting atop the Big Ten, Nix asserted players from Indiana and Michigan have basked in the limelight this year, while his teammates remain largely ignored on the national scene. “I don’t know if it’s [...]
Looking at Miami’s Case for No. 1
In the second half of Miami’s 87-61 rout of North Carolina, Doris Burke broached the “Hurricanes as No. 1” debate. We’ve reached that point in this chaotic year of college hoops where a team unranked in the preseason has a legitimate case to top the polls in Week 15. Really, though, who cares? If there [...]
Is Gonzaga a genuine national title contender?
When Elias Harris burst onto the scene for Gonzaga more than three years ago now, scoring 17 points in a loss to No. 2-ranked Michigan State on Nov. 17, 2009, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas couldn’t stop raving about him. Bilas played four years at forward under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and has spent many more [...]
Arkansas Proves that the SEC Has Some Fight Left
On Feb. 5, Matt Norlander wrote this article detailing the most likely candidates to run the table in conference play. Florida held the top spot. Later that evening, Arkansas handed Florida their first SEC loss. Such is the way of college basketball this season. Florida received seven No. 1 votes in the AP Top 25 [...]
College Basketball Stock Market: Groundhog Day Edition
As we enter the first weekend of February, you’ll begin hearing proclamations about the NCAA Tournament prospects of various teams. But will every team that’s hot right now make a run through the bracket? Will teams that seem mediocre now end up fighting for bubble spots and not making an impact on the road to [...]
Why Louisville should fear Draymond Green
PHOENIX — When Louisville plays Michigan State Thursday in the Sweet 16, they will fear the versatility of Draymond Green. When Rick Pitino, the Louisville (28-9) head coach, was asked about Green and the matchup that he presents, he said, “Well, that’s just it, his position, I’m not sure what his position is. If they [...]
Bracket Busters: Three lower seeds that can ruin your brackets
For me, the best part of the NCAA Tournament is trying to pick upsets in the Round of 64. Each season I have a few teams I like heading selection Sunday and then once the games are announced I pour over the numbers and matchups to see where the possible upsets could occur. I think [...]
Despite MAAC championship setback, Iona makes case for NCAA Tournament
Springfield, Mass. – In the end, from his seat at the postgame conference podium, all Iona’s basketball coach Tim Cluess could do was vouch for his team’s entrance into the NCAA Tournament. For the second consecutive year, the top-seed team in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championships fell in the semifinals. Last year, it was [...]
Introduction to the College Basketball Champions League
It’s perfectly reasonable for someone to adopt the approach of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” with college basketball. The sport’s popularity continues to grow, and that growth has helped college athletics in general. There are complaints, but the big issues being debated (amateurism, academics, eligibility, enforcement, etc.) are not parts of the basic [...]
Enough (Recruiting) is Enough
This is a plea. A desperate call for sanity. An end to the violence and bloodshed (metaphorically speaking). After much debate and negotiation, it is time to make this declaration: Basketball coaches have enough tools to recruit. Starting with the introduction of the Academic Progress Rate, coaches have been responsible for retaining the players they [...]
Why Jae Crowder is even better than you think
Jae Crowder defies a lot of conventions. He’s listed as a 6-6 forward, but he’s taken the second most 3s on Marquette. In one possession on defense you’ll see him hedging up top on the perimeter and then grabbing the defensive board down low. He’s a junior college recruit, but he’s beloved by his coach [...]
MLS Has Solved NBA and NCAA Age Debate
When should a basketball player enter the NBA draft? The short answer is when he is ready. The NBA has decided that for an American basketball player, it is impossible for him to be ready prior to the year he turns 19 and is one year out of high school. Or at least it is [...]
