Your Home For College Hoops
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Christmas Day has long been one day on the sports calendar that has no distinct connection with a particular sport. Over the years, college football and the NFL have taken occasional shots at the day, while the NBA has in recent years attempted to make a claim to the holiday.
It’s not fair to say Stanford and UNLV faced must-win situations last night, but boy, both sure could’ve used wins in their games against top 10 opponents.
It bears repeating over and over: college basketball teams are not static entities over the entire season. They change and hopefully continue to grow and improve. What a team is in November is not what it will be in March.
What looked like it should’ve been the game of the night wasn’t much of a game at all. Iowa State sometimes gets on those offensive runs at home when it looks like one of the top five teams in the country, and the Cyclones did it Thursday night in a 95-77 win over Arkansas. A game that looked to have a ton of promise coming in was never really close, and the Razorbacks were tagged with their first loss in seven games.
There were undoubtedly those who thought the Atlantic 10 peaked in 2012-13, especially with important programs departing. They were proven wrong in a historic 2013-14 season for the conference.
VCU used great defense in the final eight minutes to run away from George Washington and reach the championship of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
The deadline for early entrants to decide whether they’re staying in the draft or heading back to school has passed. Meanwhile, in College Park, the Gary Williams era has officially come to a close.
A week’s worth of news is capped by the NCAA rule change that forces early entrants to go all-in by mid-April, even if they don’t have much relevant information. How does qualify as making the student-athletes’ educational experience paramount?
George Washington is doing a few things well, from defending to taking care of the ball. But unlike some past teams, they’re struggling to shoot, and that may hold them back in the Atlantic 10 unless they can start making shots.
It was quite a year for the Atlantic 10, with a lot of winning that led to three teams in the NCAA Tournament. We take a look back at that and more from the conference.
