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Thursday, November 21, 2024
Collectively, the 2015 NCAA Tournament was a roller coaster. There was the high of the first few days before the tourney slipped into mediocrity in its middle rounds, only to rise high again for a big finish at the end, worthy of all the history of such a splendid event.
The opening games of the NCAA Tournament showed yet again that college basketball is not a sport in crisis, just one with some rough edges that can be softened.
The NCAA Tournament opened last night with its First Four games. For entertainment value, the night could not have gone much better.
Officially, the NCAA Tournament begins Tuesday night with a pair of games, part of the “First Four” as it is known. Manhattan and Hampton square off first in a tussle between two 16 seeds, followed by Mississippi and BYU in a tilt of 11 seeds. Unofficially, these are still the games that a lot of brackets are going to let you slide on picking, in order to have a little more time to get your picks ready for your office pool or friendly competition with friends.
If there was ever an advertisement for the NCAA Tournament going back to 64, the magic number for the tourney at its peak and the one that makes the most sense, this season is it.
With so many years of “bracketology” and the resulting better understandings of the NCAA Tournament selection process that has come from it, there are many years where predicting the teams in the field is not that much of a mystery, sometimes almost easy even. This year is not one of those years.
On the scale of chic topics in basketball in general, free throws is near the bottom. But like special teams in the NFL playoffs, you better believe free throws will be important this month.
Sometimes forgotten amidst all the “bubble” talk this time of year is a simple fact: if a team wins enough games, it doesn’t have to worry about being on the bubble.
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.
Thursday night was another light, finals week-inspired schedule of games. Among the headlines of the night: reserves making their mark.
