Spartans Have Plenty to Play For by Phil Kasiecki When your team has to play one of the Cinderella stories of the tournament, things aren’t easy. Any fans who are neutral will swing to the underdog’s side, and it’s easy for people to forget that your team has some incentive […]

Reflections on the early madness by Ray Floriani HILLSDALE, NJ – Ran into an officiating friend on Saturday en route to the Hiilsdale Hoop ‘Mad Marchness’ youth tournament in this quaint Northern New Jersey town. Mad Marchness, have to love that , but the tournament was well organized with nice […]

A trying season ends by Phil Kasiecki WORCESTER, Mass. – Defending champions are never supposed to have it easy the next season. It’s tough to repeat for a lot of reasons, but for the Connecticut Huskies, the 2004-05 season was perhaps an extreme case of this. With Sunday’s 65-62 loss, […]

It’s a good time to move ahead by Phil Kasiecki WORCESTER, Mass. – Teams seeded 15th in a particular region aren’t necessarily expected to have close games against the No. 2 seeds. Upsets in that matchup have only happened four times, so the casual observer isn’t figuring to even see […]

What does next year hold for Syracuse? by Phil Kasiecki WORCESTER, Mass. – This wasn’t how things were supposed to go for Syracuse. The Orange had a veteran team that included key holdovers from their 2003 national championship team. To go with that, they have a very promising sophomore class, […]

Brennan will be missed by college basketball by Phil Kasiecki WORCESTER, Mass. – He sure knew how to make an entrance, whether it was in Burlington at a regular season home game, or on the day before the NCAA Tournament got started. Famous for entering the floor before games at […]

Catfight Between The Bearcats and Wildcats! by Bill Kintner CINCINNATI – Only 85 miles separate the University of Cincinnati from the University of Kentucky, but for the last 14 years it might as well have been 8000 miles. For years the fans of both programs that live in the Greater […]

Can it Get Any Better in Vermont? by Phil Kasiecki WORCESTER, Mass. – The Bay State is fast becoming the place of great sports stories these days. There also seems to be a common theme, one that should be refreshing to sports fans all over. The Boston area had the […]

Sendek Isn’t Going Anywhere by Phil Kasiecki WORCESTER, Mass. – How many coaches who have brought their teams to four straight NCAA Tournaments wind up on the hot seat? One would think that a coach with that record, as well as a recent conference Coach of the Year award and […]

Coles: I’m Proud, But Not Satisfied by Bill Kintner OXFORD, Ohio – It happed in last 1:03 of the game. With the score tied at 58-58, Miami’s Doug Penno had a three point shot blocked, a charge by Miami’s Chet Mason, a jumper with three seconds left that goes in […]