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Monday, December 23, 2024
Tthe unabashed chaos of the conference tournaments this year may have reached a climax Monday night, with a pair of teams losing-and maybe even three-who will now be talked about at length for the next week. Then again, the night was pretty much par for the course for this season, so we shouldn’t be surprised in the least if/when it continues.
As conference tournament play picks up, we get reminded quickly of how great March basketball is. Plus one team’s star is done while another team’s complement returns, and more tournament action ahead.
At the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, it’s the tradition unlike any other: the winner of the first round game between the eighth and ninth seeds annually goes on to give the top seed a hard time in the quarterfinals.
Arkansas-Little Rock, San Diego State, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Valparaiso, Wichita State. All five share a lot in common as teams who are highly questionable to receive bids to this year’s NCAA tourney if they don’t win their conference tournaments. Those five also share something else in common, though: all will finish the season as sole, undisputed champions of conferences that play a double round-robin schedule.
Tuesday night was a moment New Jersey Institute of Technology awaited for 10 years. Unfortunately for the Highlanders, it didn’t last nearly as long as they hoped.
California caps off a big weekend in Washington in style. Plus a few bubble teams get wins, the first conference regular season titles are clinched, and one ACC game was never close.
Neither Oakland nor Iona are likely to win the regular season championship in their respective conferences. It also should surprise just about no one if either or both are in the NCAA Tournament a month from now.
In our latest conversation, we look at the great balance that continues and what it could mean with the NCAA Tournament, along with a controversial call earlier this week and a few other notes from around the country.
As the season hits its stretch run, there will be numerous teams that see their NCAA Tournament chances slip away late in the year, sometimes in painful fashion. What we really want to see are teams who play their way into the tourney, or at least make us take notice based on their accomplishments late in the season. On that note, we introduce the Creighton Bluejays,
It’s not a surprise that Oklahoma had an off day shooting on Saturday, or even that it came against one of the bottom teams in the Big 12 in Kansas State. The surprise is that it has taken so long for the Sooners to have a loss due to cold shooting outside.
