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Sunday, December 22, 2024
A light night of action starts the week with a champion crowned despite a prior champion’s best efforts. Plus a rematch in the nation’s capital is ahead, an in-state matchup will come in another final, and a couple of close ones out west close the night.
Three more automatic bids went out on Sunday, two of them to repeat champions, to set the stage for the week ahead. Plus lower seeds rule in the Colonial, three teams share the regular season title in two conferences, and a coaching change comes out west on a day off from tournament action.
Mike Daum’s terrific career at South Dakota State finished up this year. Surprisingly, it didn’t include another Summit League tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance, as this time it was North Dakota State returning to postseason supremacy.
It was time for a wild college basketball Saturday, and we sure got one yesterday. A busy and varied schedule was filled with surprises, upsets that maybe weren’t really that big of upsets, as well as near-upsets. There was something for just about everyone, and it had all the feeling of one of those Saturdays in the midst of conference schedules where also rans rise up to topple powers, but at least a month earlier than we usually get them.
The first three days of the college basketball season have been largely uneventful, not surprising when schedules are littered with endless guarantee games and schools seemingly have little interest in even playing at all so early in November. Here are some quick-hit notes looking around the country after the first weekend of regular season hoops:
We conclude our look at our favorite games for every day of the season from November through February, our ultimate dream road trip through an entire college basketball season.
We roll on with a look at our favorite games for every day of the season, our ultimate dream road trip through an entire college basketball year, with a look at January.
Returning all five starters, North Dakota leaped from fifth in the Big Sky to first, winning conference regular season and tourney championships that culminated with a first-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance.
With a light day, as well as a relative lack of questions about this year’s bracket, it allowed some time to let this year’s NCAA Tournament bracket marinate a bit. And here’s a thought: this year’s tourney has a lot of really good first round matchups.
This year’s NCAA Tournament is poised to have a number of great stories, including a number of schools making their first appearances ever. None will be better, though, than New Orleans.
