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Sunday, December 22, 2024
In a Big East opener, a team that was expected to be pretty good was just that down the stretch to get a key road win. Plus a tough team to figure out down south, road teams are winning early in one conference, and a few other notable results include a milestone win.
Conference play is about to begin in earnest all around the country. How does every conference in Division I shape up after non-conference play has (mostly) completed? We take a look here.
Another season of college basketball beckons, and as usual, quite a bit has changed since last season. Three big sources of change have seemingly been on the rise over time, but perhaps we are now getting used to this.
The 2018-19 CAA went as expected to a large degree, though a few details were a bit different. The postseason has seen some notable transactions that should shake things up ahead of next season.
On a night with five automatic bids handed out, one of them was a shocker to gain a second bid for the league. Plus it wasn’t a good night for higher seeds, and one more coach is out.
Three more tickets are punched, and all three seemed unlikely in one way or another. Plus a few semifinals are set while others are right behind them, an unexpected outright regular season title, and a couple of Big Ten teams need to stop the bleeding.
Few have been talking about the ACC regular season co-champions despite the incredible season they have had. Plus one team is now officially in the field, upsets rule a couple of conference tournaments, and one team backs into an outright regular season title.
So much for any talk about one team possibly going undefeated, and given that their conference is better than some think despite its downward trend, there are teams capable of beating them anyway. Plus no surprises in one big conference, while it was a good day to be a road team in another, and a mild surprise in an academic league opener.
Northeastern completed a non-conference slate that produced a .500 mark against a very tough schedule. More important, though, is the growth the CAA favorites showed not only through who they played, but having to go without key players for stretches.
After the last day without a Division I game for a few months, we look at how the conferences shape up since non-conference play is just about in the books. Plus a story from the gridiron that seems to unbelievable to be a coincidence.
