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Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Virtually every season as the NCAA Tournament nears, the talk of bracket projections revolves around that season havng a “soft bubble.” It’s often as much of an exaggeration as it is incorrect-you can’t have a soft bubble every year-but this year it’s also not true.
There will be flashier teams in the NCAA Tournament this year than Middle Tennessee State. There will be teams with more stars, and there will be hotter picks for underdogs to pull upsets, too. Few teams have taken as much of a complete team effort on the court to get an NCAA bid this year, though, than the Blue Raiders.
LSU needed to win the SEC Tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament. After exiting with a thud, the Tigers might not even be worthy of an NIT bid.
Stony Brook is finally going to the NCAA Tournament, and the story of tragic endings – and all that goes with it – is a thing of the past.
Friday gave us a tremendous day of basketball, and yet the best still seems yet to come. Plus more coaching moves, one of them leading to awkward situations, and one tournament is staying in the same city but changing venues.
In the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals, George Washington got off to a hot start shooting the ball, but could not maintain and now mus sweat it out, while Saint Joseph’s advances.
The quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament ended with Seton Hall toughing out a win over Creighton, also illustrating how different this year is from last season for the Pirates.
In the latest edition, we look at the Big East Tournament through most of the quarterfinals, as well as a notable coaching change just announced and Championship Week mirroring the rest of the season.
Coaches such as Jim Valvano, Rollie Massimino and Tom Izzo are among those to make the month of March their personal playground over the years, regularly leading teams on extended runs, regardless of the strength of their teams in the regular season. Few would include Ray Harper on that list, but it has become time that they should.
Xavier had a nice offensive game in the Big East quarterfinals, but the defense stood out in the win over Marquette, especially early on.
