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Saturday, November 23, 2024
Even acknowledging that it took some time for the Badgers to find their way under him (remember, the team was 2-4 in his first six games), what Greg Gard has done righting a previously middling team at Wisconsin deserves serious notice, to the point where it’s hard to imagine many others could’ve done it better this year.
Tulsa narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament last year, and the Golden Hurricane looked destined for a similar fate after their first meeting with Temple this year. After a second matchup with the Owls, though, it’s safe to say a lot has changed.
Before Iowa State was placed in so many preseason top 10s and labeled by some as a Final Four favorite and a short-list contender for the national title, it might’ve been instructive to watch the Cyclones’ final game from the 2014-15 season.
There is no substitute for double round-robin conference schedules where every team plays each other twice, home and away. For those of us who thoroughly enjoy and believe in the double round-robin format, the Atlantic Sun and Northeast Conference have been as good as it gets this year.
Is it possible Minnesota found a way to beat not just one team but two on Thursday? The Golden Gophers’ 68-63 triumph over Maryland will go down as one of the very biggest “how’d that happen?” results in a season that has had plenty of them, but did it also hurt Wisconsin?
February can be over any day now. After all that happened on a deliciously eventful Wednesday night, we’re sufficiently primed and ready for March, and the best month on the sports calendar can’t get here soon enough.
Conversation about the “bubble” will dominate college basketball for the next 3 1/2 weeks. Though at times it will encroach on being overkill, it’s pretty hard to ignore at the moment, and unfortunately for a number of teams that’s not a good thing.
Neither Oakland nor Iona are likely to win the regular season championship in their respective conferences. It also should surprise just about no one if either or both are in the NCAA Tournament a month from now.
Syracuse may or may not deserve to be an NCAA Tournament team this year
Remember when all the talk was about how that Kansas streak of 11 consecutive Big 12 titles was in serious jeopardy? It was barely a week ago, but right now might feel like two decades ago.
