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Monday, November 4, 2024
Sometimes, our best-laid plans just flop. In March, this writer rolled out a historical series looking at NCAA Tournament at-large selection and the proverbial ‘bubble’, examining teams just above and below the cutline in the tourney every year from 1985 through 2019. The series ran in early March, five years […]
The second part of our review of bubble teams in and out in the NCAA Tournament over the past 35 years focuses on 1990-94. The span included those spurned during arguably the greatest NCAA Tournament of all, a 25-4 Dick and Tony Bennett led Wisconsin-Green Bay team left out, and a committee point of emphasis develops favoring conference champions.
Michigan got the first big win under its new head coach, and now has a chance for another one right behind it. Plus the Orlando Invitational gets going, lots of drama in a tournament out west, and a cool story coming out of the big upset in Durham a couple of nights earlier.
A string of remarkable parity in the Big West Conference this decade was snapped by UC Irvine, which had a huge season and has emerged as the league’s top program.
Recapping the mass of conference tournament games Thursday, as well as the bubble winners and losers, a list that included mostly losers among those truly on the fence.
Kansas State appears to be back, and so is the Big 12 we’ve come to know over recent years. Plus, double ejections in Tulsa/Connecticut, South Carolina pulls out another in the SEC, Houston keeps rolling, VCU back on the rise and more.
The Maui Invitational is the last great preseason tournament left, and it opened with another terrific set of quarterfinals, even as it was missing something-host Chaminade. Plus more tourney recaps
After a decidedly down season before, the Big West Conference followed up with a much-needed bounce-back year in 2017-18. Perhaps surprisingly so.
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.
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.
