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Friday, November 22, 2024
It appeared Thursday night was going to offer us yet another instance of a top-ranked team losing this season when Virginia looked on its way to a sure loss at Louisville Thursday night. The Cavaliers trailed by four points, and there was less than one second left on the clock. No problem. All it took was two made free throws, a travel on the baseline by a Cardinals player inbounding the ball, and then a banked in three-pointer at the buzzer.
In our latest podcast, we talk about the big developments in the FBI investigation, a remarkable run by an elite school, early conference tournament play and the possibility of more conference realignment.
The best month of the year is here, and already the madness has started in one conference tournament, while it feels weird with another one going on. Plus a regular season title is clinched, a key meeting is on tap, and one powerhouse program could be on the move.
The FBI investigation into corruption is about to hit college basketball in a big way, Plus a thriller in Bloomington, different key road results in the Midwest, another big showdown ahead in the northeast, and a Tiger is done for the season and beyond.
There have been too many teams this season that have spent as much time in the news for off-court reasons as their play. Arizona was in the news again for the first on Thursday, and very nearly for the second two, and neither for good things.
For those who couldn’t resist all the curling and skiing at the Winter Olympics and watched hoops, it was yet another evening of highly ranked teams going down and streaks getting busted, something that has become the norm this year. The TV window of games that started at 7 p.m. Eastern time alone was enough to wear out the remote control as they came to an end.
It was hard to guess who was the more desperate team going into the latest incarnation of the Duke/North Carolina rivalry, which resumed Thursday night.
By its own lofty standards, the Big Ten has had a rather lousy basketball season. It’s hard to have much sympathy for a conference that practically prints money, but one supposes the league deserved a night like Thursday for its troubles this year.
Heaven knows there’s too much coach worship in college basketball, an art going back decades in the sport, well before the current best-known media sources. It’s hard not to get caught up in the work Chris Holtmann has done with Ohio State this year.
Wichita State and Cincinnati were poised to be the hottest things going in the American Athletic Conference this year, and both have generally delivered early in the season, if going through minor hiccups. Who else is going to join them at the top? Is it possible it could be…Tulane?
