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Thursday, November 21, 2024
Is it possible Minnesota found a way to beat not just one team but two on Thursday? The Golden Gophers’ 68-63 triumph over Maryland will go down as one of the very biggest “how’d that happen?” results in a season that has had plenty of them, but did it also hurt Wisconsin?
Coming into this season, it was natural and perfectly fair to wonder just how SMU would be affected by the postseason ban this year that was part of NCAA sanctions against the program this summer. The Mustangs are providing an authoritative answer so far.
Seldom does a team enter a season with high expectations and then fulfill predictions of greatness in almost every way possible the way Wisconsin did this year.
Normally, the Big South is not leading news items in college basketball, especially at the end of February, when never-ending talk of bubbles and No. 1 seeds dominate the discussion, but no conference in NCAA Division I has had a more competitive league race this year.
The end of both halves of Thursday night’s Michigan-Illinois game exposed once again just how ugly college basketball is when coaches cannot just let their players…play.
What a difference a couple days makes. A week ago, there was debate of whether Duke might be as good or better than Kentucky, but the Blue Devils have now lost twice in three days.
Happy New Year to all! It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t pretty. It was maybe the furthest thing from pretty. But Temple picked up another non-conference win on New Year’s Eve that could go a long way towards getting it back to the NCAA Tournament.
Some college hoops thoughts on the final day of 2014 before we turn over to a new year:
Friday was a day packed with tournament action, and most of it was either a championship game or set the stage for one. Plus, potential over-achievers and news on some key injuries.
Minnesota has had a few challenging games thus far, including in the NIT Season Tip-Off. The Golden Gophers’ big challenge, however, appears to be in their future.
