Your Home For College Hoops
Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Alabama and Central Florida apparently aren’t worthy adversaries in football, yet have played a home-and-home the last two years in basketball, with UCF winning both. Plus, Arizona rolls, the Belfast Classic begins and Belmont and Norfolk State among OT winners.
Some late November notes about the college basketball landscape, including looks at Villanova, Furman, Michigan, Oklahoma, Charleston and the West Coast Conference.
There was plenty of drama and a lot of good basketball, and in the end the ACC/Big Ten Challenge ended up even. Plus Big East teams add wins, a Bonnie is finally back in action, and a couple of monster games with teams on opposite ends of the bottom line.
With early season tournaments mostly behind us, we look back on a few of them and some of the big stories from them. Also, some key injuries have occurred, plus the sport continues to be challenged to get attention in November and December.
After a bad night to be on the road in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, they’re knotted at four wins apiece with one night to go. Plus a few key injuries include a couple of SEC teams and a suspension won’t help one Big Ten team’s depth.
The NIT Season Tip-Off delivered two great games the day after Thanksgiving with four solid teams. We have notes from that right here.
The NCAA released its first-ever NET rankings on Monday, showing off its new grouping tool to replace the RPI. To absolutely zero surprise, many still aren’t happy. Plus, Texas Southern gets another stunner, Gonzaga to No. 1, Nebraska gets a road win and Wofford gets an SEC scalp.
As the fun of in-season tournaments largely comes to an end, it’s a great day for one particular conference. Plus one team that beat the champs keeps winning, as does a team that has had some potential and might be ready to turn a corner again.
Campbell’s 5-foot-9 guard Chris Clemons has become a must-watch player, and nearly brought the Camels back to upset Georgetown-were it not for Trey Mourning. Plus, Ja Morant & Charlie Brown deliver prize individual performances and Cincinnati wins the Emerald Coast Classic.
St. John’s took home the title in the Legends Classic in a great game, a win that is significant for the program and the coach in more ways than one. Ray Floriani has that and more notes from Brooklyn.
