Your Home For College Hoops
Thursday, November 28, 2024
In an ultracompetitive league where four teams finished tied for fourth place, third through eighth were separated by three games and no less than six teams had winning streaks of at least five games in conference play, it’s the team that went 0-9 on the road in conference play and finished ninth overall that is the tournament champion.
Georgetown got a key player back from injury and broke a six-game losing streak to advance in the Big East Tournament. DePaul, meanwhile, tries to look ahead beyond this season.
It’s been a combined 30 years since Wisconsin-Green Bay and Fairleigh Dickinson have made the NCAA Tournament. For that reason and many others, both will be very welcome additions to this year’s NCAA tourney field.
Maurice Newby. Ben Jacobson (the player, not the coach). Ali Farokhmanesh. Wes Washpun. A growing history of memorable buzzer-beating shots is building at Northern Iowa. Not coincidentally, so is a record of postseason success.
Southern Illinois coach Barry Hinson: “I don’t mind saying this. I’ll say this proudly. Saluki basketball is back. We’re back. We’re back. Period. And I’m proud to say that.”
Tthe unabashed chaos of the conference tournaments this year may have reached a climax Monday night, with a pair of teams losing-and maybe even three-who will now be talked about at length for the next week. Then again, the night was pretty much par for the course for this season, so we shouldn’t be surprised in the least if/when it continues.
The MAAC semifinals are in the books, leaving us with a championship matchup of two rivals who each won on the other’s home floor during the regular season.
The ACC Tournament is about to start, and there’s a good deal of balance, meaning the champion will likely have run a gauntlet by the time it’s over.
Three more bids go out, with a dramatic ending and one that could have led to an odd outcome. Plus a surprise in one semifinal win, and a few more regular season finales were mixed in with the tournaments.
The first two NCAA Tournament bids went out on Saturday, and you can’t blame either coach if they got a little emotional. Plus a full day of tournament action, a coach gets the dreaded “vote of confidence”, and winning was especially hard for one team this year.
