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Sunday, December 22, 2024
If the Big Ten is to get 11 or even 12 teams into the NCAA Tournament, a couple of teams need to play their way in, including one who won on Sunday. Plus the Bearcats finally avoid overtime, two conferences get tighter, and a subpoena is served to rekindle the hard feelings between a school and its former coach.
We continue looking at some of the biggest surprises in each Division I conference through the season’s first two months. Plus, big news at Evansville, and Loyola (Md.) and Mount St. Mary’s win the only two games on the D-I docket Friday.
The Northeast Conference continues to regroup as top players are now routinely transferring up from conference schools. This is changing the challenge of running a program that has hit several member schools.
Much the same as the NFL season opening on a Thursday night or Major League Baseball beginning on a Sunday night, the NCAA Tournament beginning with play-in games on a Tuesday night-starting with two 16 seeds against each other-will never feel right. That said, as long as the NCAA continues playing its First Four, then Tuesday night was a pretty good start for a tourney.
In a tumultuous few years for the Horizon League, Northern Kentucky has come along at just the right time to provide a bright spot.
It wouldn’t be a college basketball season without Belmont finding a way to make ripples with its excellence, and sure enough, the Bruins are at it again.
Mount St. Mary’s went into Fairleigh Dickinson and knocked off the defending Northeast Conference champs, putting both teams at 4-1 in conference play. Here’s a look at numbers behind that game.
The Northeast Conference is always competitive, but this time around there is another important storyline with it – a potentially bright future with young talent.
There is no substitute for double round-robin conference schedules where every team plays each other twice, home and away. For those of us who thoroughly enjoy and believe in the double round-robin format, the Atlantic Sun and Northeast Conference have been as good as it gets this year.
As much as almost any teams in the country, Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s are programs both known for offense, but their latest meeting was one marked with defense.
