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Sunday, November 24, 2024
For Villanova, times were not always this good, as it was a journey to get to the point of winning two national titles in three years and being poised for more. Plus some new language could go into one contract, more coaching jobs are filled, and plenty of NBA Draft decisions are continuing to be made.
The NCAA Tournament field has now been selected, and now we can expect more unexpected. Plus a Hurricane won’t return, a Tiger will be out for at least one game, and three other tournament fields are released with one starting right away.
In a season of parity, Saturday was just another day, loaded with happenings and surprises.
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.
Funny things happen in college basketball in late January and early February, and Saturday was a perfect example of as much, as the day was marked by upsets and near-upsets, and we’re talking real upsets.
The Sun Belt was one of the best-kept secrets of the college basketball season, with improved teams and an improving cache of star power leading to its best year collectively in more than a decade.
The Sun Belt Conference provided the biggest surprise of the 2015-16 college basketball season, as Arkansas-Little Rock rose from 13 wins to 30 under a first-year coach.
Tulsa narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament last year, and the Golden Hurricane looked destined for a similar fate after their first meeting with Temple this year. After a second matchup with the Owls, though, it’s safe to say a lot has changed.
Georgia State was one of the great stories of last March, especially with the father-son combination on the team. This season’s team will look different, but should have similar bottom-line results.
Seemingly in a perpetual search for an identity due to so many membership changes in recent years, the Sun Belt Conference found one in 2014-15 as a conference that provided a little of it all.
