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Epilogue, The Ninth: Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Memories

So We Meet Again

Rte. 139 - End of the Line

Hanging On

A Championship in Pictures

This Time of Year

Dotson Leads Ducks to the Sweet Sixteen

Grizzlies Overwhelmed by Orangemen

Empire

Challenge 11: Final Four Memories

By George, UConn is Dead

Butler and Us

Donning the Black and Gold

Challenge 10: Tourney Memories

The Madness of the Horizon League

The Rare Ivy League Conference Tournament

MAC Madness

Anything Can Happen in the MAAC

Challenge 9: Shock The Neighborhood

A Youthful Surprise

From Worst to First

Peers and Seers

Category Archives Season 9 (2012-13)
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S9 April 9, 2013 I. Bucharest, Romania - February 9, 2013Admission was free. I didn't think I'd have to squeeze into a first-row baseline corner a full half-hour beforehand, though. This was a country with a basketball legacy summed up in a single gentle-giant folk hero, one who wore his freakish height on his jers...
S9 April 7, 2013 Over the past two seasons, my opinion on #ghostbracket games has changed. Initially, and before I began writing for this site, I was in favor of tournaments such as the CBI and CIT. I felt that they rewarded teams for a successful season, gave teams extra practices to give younger players more expe...
S9 April 7, 2013 Whenever I watch Kent State and Akron play on television, one thing the announcers always mention is how close the two schools are. Depending on the announcer, I’ve heard 14, 11, and 12. When I went to Google Maps, I discovered that depending on the route, the schools are either 14, 11, or 12 miles...
S9 April 6, 2013 When George Mason announced its move to the Atlantic 10, I tweeted that I hoped the A-10 community was as good as the CAA community. The Colonial fanbase's Twitter contingent has had a number of great moments over the years, but one sticks out in particular: #3bids4CAA.The term's origins are clou...
S9 April 6, 2013 "Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.' "- Maya AngelouPROVIDENCE, R.I. - Game 139. End of the line.It was a fitting conclusion to a season that raced along faster than I ever imagined it would. Working on a couple of hours of sleep, going to an arena above the ...
S9 April 5, 2013 While mid-majors are making the Final Four more in the past, it still has not been that common. George Mason in 2006 (written about by Raymond Curren) was the first true mid-major in the modern era of college basketball to make the Final Four. Butler also made it of course in 2010 and 2011, VCU did...
S9 April 3, 2013 There's some irony in the timing of writing this, and a stiff reminder at how while we never change, the world around us most certainly does not.I'm an unapologetic hater of the University of Connecticut men's basketball program. As I relayed in a trip to neither beautiful nor historic Storrs earli...
S9 March 30, 2013 After the last loss at Davidson, College of Charleston fans were heartbroken. They were not going back to the NCAA Tournament. But C of C did get a consolation prize: a trip to the CBI! The CBI is the College Basketball Invitational, run by the Gazelle Group which an independent organization dedic...
S9 March 30, 2013 After spending the last week watching Liberty win both the Big South women's and men's titles, I wanted a break from watching the conquest by an empire. So I decided to spend a lot more money and make the trip to Asheville and the Southern Conference Tournament, our oldest conference tournament. N...
S9 March 30, 2013 I have been a reader of this website regular since Season 4 after being in and out of the first three seasons on here. The reason I became a dedicated reader is because Kyle Whelliston connected to me more than any other sports writer. His experience was going to the same games I did, literally go...
S9 March 30, 2013 In the round of 32 in San Jose, the first game of the afternoon matched fourth-seeded Saint Louis University with the (underseeded?) twelfth-seeded University of Oregon. The Billikens (28-6) reached this game by defeating WAC Champion New Mexico State 64-44 on Thursday; they had won their prior fiv...
S9 March 30, 2013 Going to the NCAA tournament is an interesting process. Within an hour or so of the selections and seeding being announced, each school's designated contact is called by the NCAA's travel agency about plans for reaching the first game. Generally, school contingents arrive two days before their firs...
S9 March 30, 2013 I really do not like talking about controversial subjects. But with Liberty University making a deep run in this year's Big South Tournament, it is hard to try and avoid controversy. And that is because Liberty University is a school all about controversy. Liberty University was founded as Lynchbu...
S9 March 30, 2013 Charleston Southern entered this game as the favorite, 12-4 in the Big South against an 8-8 squad from VMI. But as I mentioned in their last game, this is a new position for Charleston Southern. When you talk about places in Hoops Nation that have had a lot of struggling, CSU has to be near the top...
S9 March 30, 2013 We always tell ourselves "It always ends in a loss."And while that has always been the case, I found myself sitting in my chair as the seconds ticked by thinking "Why tonight?!"Why did I feel this way so strongly with this particular team. I never got this emotional even when Butler came within les...
S9 March 30, 2013 I was not very confident going into this Big South quarterfinal on High Point's chances against Liberty. High Point had won the North Division and six more games in conference play than the Flames had. But that had largely come from John Brown, which High Point did not have. Of course, my main wor...
S9 March 30, 2013 College basketball is a sport which is filled with sadness by the teams that lose to end their seasons. 343 teams (sometimes less if a team wins its final game and misses the conference tournament) end their seasons with a loss. Four teams end their seasons with wins, the winners of the NCAA, NIT, ...
S9 March 30, 2013 "Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them."- George EliotPHILADELPHIA - Don't get me wrong, we all love the NCAA tournament, but one of the drawbacks about the format is the extreme condensed version of it all. With 64 teams beginning play on Thursday, 48 of them would be gone by...
S9 March 30, 2013 Back when I was at High Point, I really did not think of Gardner-Webb and Campbell much. High Point sometimes played them out of conference, but mostly away from men's basketball and its guarantee game slate. And that is because Campbell and Gardner-Webb were both in the Atlantic Sun at that time. ...
S9 March 30, 2013 As I mentioned in my previous recap, Matt Cayuela was not too happy about watching Winthrop and Charleston Southern combine for 101 points. I told him that this next game between VMI and Longwood should be more to his liking, and he agreed. Both teams were well known for offense more so than defen...
S9 March 30, 2013 The last remaining coach below the Red Line in the NCAA Tournament is Gregg Marshall of Wichita State. Six years ago, Marshall was coaching at Winthrop where he led the Eagles to the Big South's lone Round of 32 appearance. In this quarterfinal game, it would be Pat Kelsey instead coaching Winthro...
S9 March 30, 2013 I was sure at the end of my nineteen-game week in Las Vegas (the WCC final, all 18 M/W WAC tournament games) that my season was over. I was so tired that I slept the entire trip on the plane home, through the St. Patrick's Day party at my spouse's college roommate's home, and through the family bir...
S9 March 29, 2013 A month ago, the challenge was to write about a team that could unexpectedly "shock the world" and win the conference tournament. Coastal Carolina had won homecourt advantage throughout the conference tournament because of its partnership with the website of the Myrtle Beach Area Convention & V...
S9 March 29, 2013 PHILADELPHIA - It always ends in a loss. Those words are gospel around here, drummed into our consciousness for most of the last decade. It is our masochistic creed, a prophecy that comes to its proper fruition every March....
S9 March 29, 2013 I knew exactly what I was going to write for this recap. I'd had 39 minutes and 32 seconds of game time to figure it out, and it was going to be a deep, thoughtful piece on Bob McKillop's lifestyle choice to stay at Davidson and why he's the pinnacle of American happiness.His Davidson team had pull...
S9 March 29, 2013 The NCAA Tournament can make you famous. It made Bryce Drew into a folk hero. It probably made Stephen Curry millions of dollars in NBA Draft money. For the first time all season, March Madness combines Our Game with The Game, catapulting mid-major stars onto the national scene in front of viewers ...
S9 March 29, 2013 I hate nostalgia.It is the most powerful human emotion, but I hate it. It is the only emotion capable of connecting you to your past, but I hate it. Nostalgia makes me sad, because it makes me remember that nothing is ever the same and that time cannot stop, reverse or fast-forward. There's no such...
S9 March 29, 2013 I don't necessarily love post-game press conferences. They're tedious, boring and usually filled with questions that have no relevance on the game. But they are a requirement in my line of work as a journalist, so I attend them.The worst press conferences are during tournament settings with the los...
S9 March 29, 2013 "You've already quit," Greg Lansing tells his Indiana State team in the first half. I think the score was 29-11. Or something to that nature. Top-seeded Creighton, which lost to the Sycamores by double digits earlier in the year, was throwing down the hammer in this Missouri Valley semifinal game. ...
S9 March 29, 2013 A few days before Thanksgiving, right in the midst of ESPN's Feast Week, I turned on the television to watch a basketball game. Typical me. Ignoring family members to watch a bunch of college kids dribbling a basketball and aimlessly throwing it toward a net. On this particular afternoon, I was wat...
S9 March 29, 2013 Gregg Marshall appears to keep himself in reasonable physical shape. He is not overweight at all. In fact, he looks like he could play a pick-up game against his managers and not be absolutely terrible at basketball.However, I have a major concern about his health. Marshall has a drinking problem, ...
S9 March 29, 2013 Like Longwood in the last game, Presbyterian entered this game against Campbell as big underdogs. Presbyterian like Longwood finished last in the conference with a 4-12 Big South record. PC was only technically better because they beat the Lancers in Farmville. But unlike Longwood, PC has received...
S9 March 29, 2013 After years of being disrespected as an independent and shunned even by the Big South, Longwood was now finally in a conference tournament. This game would mark the first time the Lancers were finally in a Division I postseason. The last time Longwood played in a conference tournament was ten years...
S9 March 27, 2013 After nine years of the Big South having a conference tournament in the format of the higher seeds hosting (which varied year by year in how that was implemented exactly), the conference decided to go with the method Kyle prefers and having one neutral site venue. Well, not quite a neutral site. I...
S9 March 27, 2013 Following a Friday of upsets in the WAC Tournament, the championship game matched the third-seeded New Mexico State Aggies (23-10, 14-4 WAC) and the fourth-seeded University of Texas at Arlington Mavericks (19-12, 11-7 WAC). The regular season games between these teams were the first of the confere...
S9 March 26, 2013 Game 11 of the Atlantic 10 tournament was the championship game between the league's two best teams. Last month, in its Chaifetz Arena, Saint Louis had defeated VCU handily, keyed by a 21-1 first half run that left little doubt as to the ultimate result. In this rematch at the Barclays Center, th...
S9 March 25, 2013 High Point is my school, always will be my school. Nine years ago, I chose to go to High Point over Coastal Carolina. As I have mentioned before, my reasoning was that North Carolina seemed to provide more opportunity for new experiences than Conway would have. Coastal's reputation was a school whe...
S9 March 24, 2013 The UMass Minutemen entered the second A-10 semifinal with a chance to make a strong case for an NCAA tournament bid. Entering this game with a 21-10 overall record, and wins in five of their past six games, a UMass win over VCU might be enough to attract the attention of the selection committee. ...
S9 March 23, 2013 "Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it."- Dalai LamaAMHERST, Mass. - There is no truth to the rumor that I agreed to cover the UMass-Stony Brook NIT for Big Apple Buckets just to see how tall Chaz Williams actually is.I mean, I'm 5-foot-8, and completely convinced I have ...
S9 March 23, 2013 The hallmark of Tommy Amaker's teams at Harvard has been repetition. From the high pick and roll offense of Jeremy Lin to the 4 out, 1 in motion offense of the recent teams, Amaker has picked one basic offensive philosophy and stuck with it, no matter what. The Crimson have essentially run five off...
S9 March 23, 2013 The second Friday semifinal of the WAC tournament matched two schools in their first seasons in the WAC, coming from the Southland. Fourth seeded UT-Arlington (18-12, 11-7 WAC) faced ninth-seeded UTSA (10-21, 3-14). The Mavericks advanced to this game with a Thursday 83-78 win over Utah State; the ...
S9 March 23, 2013 It has been a disappointing season for both of the teams in the fourth quarterfinal game of the WAC tournament. Utah State's WAC leadership had been derailed by health issues. Forward Danny Berger collapsed and was resuscitated by the training staff in December; he seems to be returning to health a...
S9 March 23, 2013 The third game of Thursday matched top seed and regular season co-champion Louisiana Tech with the Roadrunners of the University of Texas at San Antonio. Louisiana Tech (26-5, 16-2 WAC) had won both season contests with UTSA (8-21, 3-14 WAC): in mid-January, the Bulldogs won 73-71 in San Antonio; t...
S9 March 23, 2013 Game four of the WAC tournament matched the seventh-seeded Texas State Bobcats (10-21 overall, 7-11 WAC), 68-56 winners on Tuesday against Seattle, with the second-seeded Denver Pioneers (21-8, 16-2), WAC co-champions of the regular season. Denver won both regular season matchups fairly easily, in ...
S9 March 22, 2013 When I looked at my schedule for this late season Thursday game, I saw that my expectation was to head to a basketball game between The Citadel and Furman. This was a matchup I was not particularly thrilled to see. Like with going to seven games at Presbyterian this year, I have also been to McAl...
S9 March 20, 2013 In the A-10 tournament's fourth quarterfinal, the Temple Owls opened up against UMass. Coach Fran Dunphy's team had a fairly good conference season, finishing in a three-way tie for third place, and entering the tournament as the #3 seed due to their win over league champion Saint Louis. During ...
S9 March 20, 2013 "Our stitching and unstitching has been naught."William Butler YeatsWEST HARTFORD, Conn. - This season marked the first time that Hartford advanced to postseason play, while the University of Connecticut - which plays most of its games just a couple of miles down the road at the XL Center - did not...
S9 March 20, 2013 One of the great things about living in our nation's capital is that it allows you meet from all over the world. It seems like no one that lives here was born and raised here, and it makes for some interesting discussions. I've met people from China, Taiwan, France England, and Turkey while living h...
S9 March 20, 2013 After two days off from my last game at Charlotte, I was glad to be back at a basketball game at Coastal Carolina on Wednesday. It was a game I was really looking forward to, and not because it was Senior Night for Coastal Carolina. Nor was the reason for my interest in this game being because Wi...
S9 March 19, 2013 One of the unusual aspects of Navy's Senior Night activities was that there were no senior basketball players to be honored. Each of the team's three senior student mangers were honored prior to the game, walking onto the floor with their parents, and being given a basketball by coach Ed DeChellis. ...
S9 March 19, 2013 "When it's time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived."- Henry David ThoreauBROOKLYN, N.Y. - For most of us, reflection is not a large part of our daily lives. We have a list of things in our brain that we feel we have to accomplish, and we mentally cross them off when they are compl...
S9 March 19, 2013 The A-10 tournament was into the evening session on the second day before the VCU Rams took to the court. While the Rams were idle up to that point, their fans were certainly not. Throughout the opening round, during which its team had a bye, VCU fans were frequently seen inside the Barclays Cen...
S9 March 18, 2013 "A man can be destroyed, but not defeated."- Ernest HemingwayBROOKLYN, N.Y. - Although as we've established, the crowd was not going to be on their side against the VCU traveling circus, you had to figure that UMass was the more motivated squad in Saturday's second semifinal. Their upset of Temple ...
S9 March 18, 2013 Prior to this season, I have not attended many Charlotte basketball games. This game against Temple would be my sixth time at Halton Arena this season. I have enjoyed going to Charlotte this season as a way to acquaint myself with a higher mid-major program in the region. Charlotte's student sect...
S9 March 17, 2013 Those of us who have followed the Atlantic 10 Conference this season have likely been a bit overbearing about the depth of quality teams in this conference, and perhaps I've been as guilty of that as anyone. However, on Thursday night, when Xavier took the court against Saint Joseph's in a 7-vs-1...
S9 March 17, 2013 The CAA Saturday quarterfinal night session revived some of the fan-based intensity of the opener after a somewhat uninspired supporting crowd in the intermediate contest. With the tournament in its final year in Richmond and two teams from Virginia in action, that was no surprise. And despite Wi...
S9 March 17, 2013 Top-seeded teams in a conference semifinal do not enter the first media timeout without recording a point.Top-seeded teams in a conference semifinal do not enter the second media timeout without recording a point.Top-seeded teams in a conference semifinal do not trail 13-0.Top-seeded teams in a con...
S9 March 17, 2013 The final opening round game of the A-10 tournament featured #6 seed Massachusetts and #11 seed George Washington. While fatigue was starting to set in by this point, I was interested to see a matchup of teams that I'd not previously seen in person. Much like the Richmond-Charlotte game to begin...
S9 March 17, 2013 "Or watch the things you gave your life to broken;And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools." - If, Rudyard KiplingBROOKLYN, N.Y. - Because you get oblivious to such things in March, I was totally unaware New York City was having its St. Patrick's Day parade on Saturday instead of Sunday this ...
S9 March 17, 2013 "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future." - J.R.R. TolkienBROOKLYN, N.Y. - This fact was either disturbing or enlightening, or maybe a combination of both depending on your perspective, heading into Friday night's final Atlantic-10 quarterfinal between Temple and UMass. The t...
S9 March 17, 2013 Troy Taylor is six feet tall. "But probably not even that," the Evansville fan behind press row says to me. "He's about 5-11 and a half." He is a foot shorter than his rebounding average. Think about that for a second. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and call him 6'0''. He averages 7.0 rebo...
S9 March 17, 2013 Creighton is so greedy. In a sport that pays its coaches millions and millions of dollars and agrees to enormously expensive television deals with giant conglomerates and networks, it's so greedy for Creighton University to want to make money and move to a better league. It's so greedy for them to ...
S9 March 17, 2013 One of the most rewarding parts about traveling the country for the Mid-Majority is the opportunity to see teams on multiple occasions. I envy my teammate, Ray Curren, for the amount of basketball games he's seen this season. I haven't approached his record, but I've been to several different venue...
S9 March 17, 2013 Exactly one year ago, Drake and Bradley faced each other in the play-in round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. These play-in games always occur on Thursday night. More precisely, they occur on the first Thursday of every March, since that's when the league holds Arch Madness. Last year...
S9 March 17, 2013 Butler got its third shot at Saint Louis this season in the A-10 semifinal. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, the Billikens were determined to be their "local rival," so that they were the one team that Butler played twice in conference play. Gee, thanks a lot! Saint Louis blasted Butler at their ...
S9 March 16, 2013 "You don't want to go to war with the Rams; don't start no stuff, won't be no stuff."- VCU War ChantBROOKLYN, N.Y. - On Thursday night, Jeff Borzello of CBS Sports was asked on Twitter who had more fans in attendance, and he answered "VCU".That really wasn't all that shocking, the Rams are renowned...
S9 March 16, 2013 "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves."- Philippians 2:3BROOKLYN, N.Y. - No matter your beliefs, there's a reason why jealousy is mentioned so many times in The Bible, and why envy made the cut to be included in the seven cardinal or dead...
S9 March 16, 2013 "I like boring things."- Andy WarholBROOKLYN, N.Y. - Look, I understand my job here is to try to make every game I attend as interesting as possible, but it's also to be honest to you. That's hopefully where my credibility and reliability come from; you as the reader can trust me to bring you the b...
S9 March 16, 2013 "The past is never dead. It's not even past."- William FaulknerBROOKLYN, N.Y. - I was somewhat surprised to see George Washington with the biggest student section of the four at the evening session of the first round on Thursday, especially because I had seen Saint Joseph's at the Palestra a couple...
S9 March 16, 2013 As most on here are aware, BracketBuster weekend is going away. BracketBuster weekend started mainly as a way to help get mid-majors better opponents to boost their RPI when they otherwise might not get a chance during conference play. Oh, and also to as Kyle put it, feed the "content monster". B...
S9 March 16, 2013 Game 7, the first semifinal, of the WAC tournament pitted third seed New Mexico State, a 65-49 winner against Idaho in the tournament's quarterfinals, against seventh seed Texas State. Texas State began the tournament with a defeat of Seattle, 68-56, in Tuesday's first round; their quarterfinal was...
S9 March 16, 2013 The middle game of the Saturday CAA quarterfinals began as the quietest. George Mason fans had traveled well for the opening game of the tournament, and a solid number remained for this one. James Madison was also well represented, as a number of Dukes fans trickled into the Richmond Coliseum pri...
S9 March 16, 2013 This was supposed to be Drexel's year. A year removed from a heartbreaking snub by the NCAA selection committee, the Dragons were poised and expected to dominate the new-look Colonial. Guard Frantz Massenat was the conference's preseason player of the year, the team's core players were all return...
S9 March 16, 2013 In the first quarterfinal of this year's WAC men's basketball tournament, the third-seeded New Mexico State Aggies played the sixth-seed, the Idaho Vandals. New Mexico State and Idaho are the only two schools that were in the WAC last year that will return next year, so this matchup is what passes ...
S9 March 16, 2013 Saint Louis University has been the class of the Atlantic-10 Conference this season. They have ridiculous balance and good depth, so while no particular individual may scare you significantly coming into a game, they have six or seven guys who are more than capable of being the star on any given n...
S9 March 16, 2013 Heading into Butler's quarterfinal matchup against LaSalle, I had a relatively high (for me) comfort level about this game. I didn't attribute this to any particular overconfidence on my part, especially since LaSalle had won the prior meeting between the teams, but there's a certain stigma when y...
S9 March 16, 2013 In the Horizon League, March is truly maddening. And the madness only increases with each win. If you are the 1 seed and graduating 6 seniors, 5 of whom start and the other who plays a key role, the spectre of a loss looms large, bringing with it that dreaded R word (rebuilding). It may take a whil...
S9 March 15, 2013 Thursday's initial opening round game between #8 seed Richmond and #9 seed Charlotte seemed to be a fairly routine clash of styles. In the basketball equivalence of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Sprat, Richmond would take no inside shots, and Charlotte would take none from outside. Richmond knocked down fou...
S9 March 15, 2013 Can you imagine the excitement that can be generated from a Thursday mid-afternoon game at a neutral site? After sitting through one, I'd give it a less than hearty endorsement. Nevertheless, the schedule dictated that Butler and Dayton would square off here in Brooklyn among a largely empty hou...
S9 March 15, 2013 "At every party, there are two kinds of people - those who want to go home and those who don't. The trouble is they're usually married to each other."- Ann LandersBROOKLYN, N.Y. - Let's be honest, the Barclays Center is not a Mid-majority facility. Nor does it pretend to be. With a total cost of $1...
S9 March 14, 2013 BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Even at rush hour, there isn't much conversation on the New York City subways, certainly not on the Brooklyn-bound lines full of folk that are drained after a long day at work doing something in a building that has more stories in it than teams that are changing conferences after t...
S9 March 14, 2013 It has been a long season for both teams in this game between the eight-seeded San Jose State Spartans (9-19 overall, 3-14 WAC) and the ninth-seeded UTSA Roadrunners (8-21 overall, also 3-14 WAC). The Spartans have struggled through several player suspensions. James Kinney, leading scorer for SJSU ...
S9 March 14, 2013 The VMI Keydets are always among the bigger attractions in the Big South. Not necessarily because they are good (although VMI is usually better than they are given credit for), but how they play Our Game. Keydet coach Duggar Baucom tends to emphasize a game focused on offense and often a high tem...
S9 March 13, 2013 With ten schools In the WAC for this year, the tournament starts with first round games on Tuesday among those teams at the bottom of the standings. The first contest, matched the seventh seed, Texas State (10-20 overall, 5-12 WAC), against tenth-seed Seattle (8-21, 3-15 WAC). Texas State swept the...
S9 March 13, 2013 "Talent is the divider."- Gary PalladinoSPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Gary Palladino began his coaching career like so many others we know in Our Game, only it was the 1970s, and there was no Mid-majority and college basketball was in its pre-Magic and Bird era.That doesn't mean there still weren't young co...
S9 March 13, 2013 Last year, my favorite baseball team, the Cleveland Indians, ran a season-long campaign in an attempt to get people into the ballpark called "What If." It was an attempt to promote the history of the team. The only problem is that when you think about teams with a rich tradition of success in major...
S9 March 13, 2013 As is a tradition every year, the final home game of the season for every team is devoted to honoring their seniors. Before the game (or after, as is the case in some schools, like Indiana), the team's seniors are called out one by one, typically escorted by their parents, and receive an ovation an...
S9 March 12, 2013 As I prepared for travel to Las Vegas for the WAC Tournament, I noticed that if I scheduled my flight a little earlier, I could make it to the Orleans in time for the WCC Championship final. Since BYU joined the WCC, the final has been moved from Sunday to Monday, making a quick turnaround for the ...
S9 March 12, 2013 The final game of the regular season in Las Cruces brought the Mavericks of the University of Texas at Arlington to visit. This was the thirteenth meeting between New Mexico State and UTA in men's basketball and the second as members of the WAC. Since UTA is moving to the Sun Belt next year, it is ...
S9 March 12, 2013 "Of all the causes which conspire to blind Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind; What the weak head with strongest bias rules, Is pride, never-failing vice of fools."- Alexander PopeSPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Bias is everywhere in our world whether we are aware of it or not. Sometimes, it's nice ...
S9 March 12, 2013 growth (n.) - development from a lower or simpler form to a higher or more complex form; evolutionIf we are to accept the above as a reasonable definition of the word, then how should we feel about growth? Should we celebrate growth in others or should we resent it? When given an opportunity for...
S9 March 11, 2013 "For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is to live dangerously."- Friedrich Nietzsche SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - One the first Tweets from the Hickory Picket Fences account last fall was a picture of my car. "Might be the biggest key to t...
S9 March 11, 2013 We are finally in the homestretch of the season. After an up and down start to the season, we know who the contenders are in the Big South. At least we think we know, anyway. The Big South North Division has looked shaky most of the season, with High Point in first. In the Big South South Division,...
S9 March 11, 2013 "I have always a sacred veneration I observe to be a little out of repair in his person, as supposing him either a poet or a philosopher." - Jonathan Swift SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - There are certain situations in life that we just know intuitively are dangerous for us. Wise people do what they can to...
S9 March 11, 2013 "No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly."- Oscar WildeSPRINGFIELD, Mass. - After finally enduring the wait outside so they could "clean" MassMutual Arena (my forgotten program was still sitting where I left it), they allowed us back in just 10 minutes prior ...
S9 March 10, 2013 I was this close.This close to returning to St. Louis today and getting some much needed breathing room in my vacation balance account.This close to witnessing first-hand the first ever 1 seed semifinal loss since the Horizon League switched to its current "Protect the top seeds" format.This close ...
S9 March 10, 2013 Wright State is the most deliberate, disciplined team in the Horizon League. Detroit is the most athletic, fast-paced team in the Horizon League. Doug Anderson's dunks have been all over Sports Center for 2 seasons now. These two styles go together like oil and water. Something had to give. Would D...
S9 March 10, 2013 This was a very entertaining game, much more entertaining than last year's 4-5 game. In fact both quarterfinal games this year were much more exciting than last year.For the 2nd year in a row, the 5 seed has more fan support than the 4 seed. UIC brought a healthy contingent of students along with t...
S9 March 10, 2013 Last year at the Horizon League quarterfinals, also held in Valparaiso at the Athletics Recreation Center (ARC), 3 seed Detroit ambushed6 seed Youngstown State from the opening tip, and the Penguins never seriously threatened. 5 seed Butler buried4 seed Milwaukee decisively in the 2nd half. In both...
S9 March 10, 2013 "Time crumbles things. Everything is forgotten under the lapse of time." - AristotleSPRINGFIELD, Mass. - In the days of yore, back when people didn't habitually reach into their pockets and pull out an object that they stared at for hours a day, we would have wondered what the hell Momo Jones w...
S9 March 10, 2013 One of the things I've noticed about the games that I've been to this season that is many of them have not been very competitive. Part of this is simply the teams that I'm watching. While there have been a couple of exceptions, many of the teams that I'm watching are between two teams that are on op...
S9 March 9, 2013 "By 'guts', I mean grace under pressure." - Ernest HemingwaySPRINGFIELD, Mass. - When it comes to March, there is a big difference between playing the role of the young underdog as opposed to being handed the role of the favorite. It takes a marvelous actor to be able to play both in back-to-back...
S9 March 9, 2013 The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry] - To a Mouse, Robert BurnsSometimes you have to change your needs and trust in someone else. Over the last few months, I've been in a transitional period during which I truly learned the personal impact of inaction and inert...
S9 March 9, 2013 What a season for the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs! Coming into the final weekend of the regular season, they had twenty-six wins, having won all fourteen home games and the last eighteen contests consecutively, the nation's longest active streak. Although two of their three losses (at Texas A&M, No...
S9 March 9, 2013 This weekend's INCREDIBLY LARGE GAME in the WAC was the second meeting of the year between the second- and third-place teams in the standings, the Denver Pioneers (18-8 overall, 13-2 in the WAC) and the New Mexico State Aggies (19-9, 12-3).Denver had won its prior seven games, including five away f...
S9 March 9, 2013 "Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception." - Carl SaganSPRINGFIELD, Mass. - When last we saw Fairfield, they were laying eggs at Marist to close the regular season, lacking any sort of flow, confidence, momentum, whatever term for intangibles you wanted to come up with.Forced to play on...
S9 March 8, 2013 "Do not go gentle into that good night" - Dylan ThomasSPRINGFIELD, Mass. - It's hard to put a positive spin on a 7-23 season, even harder to do so when your team used to be the dominant team in your conference in the not so distant past.Siena won the MAAC three straight times from 2008-2010, win...
S9 March 8, 2013 SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - If I try to sell you on the merits of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, I probably wouldn't start with the actual venue. While just a couple of blocks from the Naismith Hall of Fame, the MassMutual Center is a decaying relic much better suited for hockey than basketball.S...
S9 March 8, 2013 Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, the conference tournament that I paid the most attention to was the Mid-American Conference Tournament. In 2000, the decision was made to move the tournament from its previous location at the SeaGate Convention Center in Toledo, Oh to Gund Arena (now named Quicken Loan...
S9 March 8, 2013 If you've read my writing, you may have guessed that my main area of conference expertise is the Ivy League. The Ancient Eight does not have a conference tournament, preferring to send the winner of their true round-robin conference schedule to the NCAA's. On rare occasions, however, when there is ...
S9 March 8, 2013 AMHERST, Mass. - They came in out of the snow by the hundreds and thousands. The students filled their allotted seats and spilled over into other sections of the Mullins Center nearly an hour before tip-off. The building, which is rarely full these days for much of anything these days, almost got t...
S9 March 8, 2013 I'm probably only as dedicated a Penn fan as I am because of Route 301.The option of driving that stretch of road to Wilmington instead of I-95 is one of the things that has contributed most to my willingness to continually make the 2-hour drive back and forth to Philadelphia for Penn games (especi...
S9 March 8, 2013 "Not all of us can do great things. But all of us can do small things with great love." - Mother TeresaBROOKLYN, N.Y. - I'm partial to neutral-site conference tournaments, whether it be high school or college, really. Having all the teams you regularly play and know in one place leads to an inte...
S9 March 8, 2013 One of the games that I was looking forward to attending this season was the Army-Navy game. This is a rivalry that traditionally gets attention when the two schools are playing in football. However, any time these schools play each other it's a big deal. I can't think of any other university where ...
S9 March 8, 2013 The Horizon League was formed on June 4, 2001, as part of a rebranding strategy by the Midwestern Collegiate Conference. In part, the MCC had become somewhat annoyed by being confused with its nearby little brother, the Mid-Continent Conference, and so its leadership group told themselves that it w...
S9 March 8, 2013 The College of Charleston has two traditions which have been a part of the program for many seasons. Almost every program does a Senior Night or a Senior Day promotion. This promotion has gotten more ink lately after Indiana did Senior Night festivities after a loss to Ohio State, in a 9pm game. To...
S9 March 7, 2013 The month of February was the wettest February in Charleston history. After just over a third of an inch of rain in the month of January, with an 80 degree day, we had over ten inches of rain in the month of February.This Saturday afternoon was another one of those gloomy days that everyone endures...
S9 March 6, 2013 New Mexico State believes their all-time record before the second game this season against UTEP is Aggies 103, Miners 100. The Miners believe the long rivalry is tied at 102 games each. Whichever is correct, a question I may try to tackle over the summer, the Aggie-Miner rivalry, begun in 1915 betw...
S9 March 5, 2013 "You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocket ship underpants don't help." - CalvinPOUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - You've probably heard it more times than you can count from a coach whose team had just laid a giant, foul smelling egg on the court behind him."We had no heart tonight.""We just couldn't fin...
S9 March 5, 2013 "When the prophet, a complacent fat man,Arrived at the mountain-topHe cried, 'Woe to my knowledge!I intended to see good white landsAnd bad black lands-But the scene is grey.' " - Stephen Crane HACKENSACK, N.J. - Part of the job of the sportz journalist is to make judgments about people we d...
S9 March 4, 2013 As I mentioned in my last recap, during the game between USC Upstate and Kennesaw State game it snowed. While I was watching basketball, two inches of snow fell on the ground in Spartanburg. I know Ray Curren is going to be amused by this coming from a place that had several cancellations due to th...
S9 March 4, 2013 The college basketball season is one which goes through many twists and turns during a regular season. Conferences can change with one game or one moment. The regular season conference schedule is important for most teams. It tests your mettle in a 14-20 game schedule, and whoever is the winner of ...
S9 March 4, 2013 IT WAS NOT UNTIL I ARRIVED AT USC UPSTATE THAT I REMEMBERED WHAT DAY IT WAS. IT WAS THE ALL IMPORTANT #ALLCAPSDAY! I FIRST REMEMBERED WHAT DAY IT WAS WHEN I SAW RAYMOND CURREN TWEET IN ALL CAPS. AND RAY WAS IN THE BEST SPOT OF THEM ALL FOR ALL CAPS DAY, AT A LOYOLA GAME IN CHICAGO WITH OUR WEBSIT...
S9 March 4, 2013 "That's the shock: All cliches are true. The years really do speed by. Life really is as short as they tell you it is. And there really is a God - so do I buy that one? If all the other cliches are true..." - David BowieBETHLEHEM, Pa. - Just because you know something is coming doesn't make it a...
S9 March 3, 2013 "Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest ones are, 'It might have been'." - Kurt VonnegutPRINCETON, N.J. - About a month ago, I mentioned one of my regrets for the season was not seeing a game in Jadwin Gym.Screw that.It took four hours to get there on a Friday afternoon, but with Princeto...
S9 March 3, 2013 As the end of February approached, we finally reached the first conference home game on the schedule that all Butler fans had circled - the rematch against Saint Louis. The Bulldogs were embarrassed by the Billikens in late January, and this game would allow them the opportunity to avenge that loss...
S9 March 3, 2013 For BracketBuster Saturday, I wasn't too intrigued with any of the matchmaking done to my local teams, so I decided to make a little weekend road trip. The two games that appeared to be most interesting were to be found five to six hours to the south of me; I passed up one last chance to see Nate...
S9 March 2, 2013 "What's normal anyways?" - Forrest Gump's motherNEW BRITAIN, Conn. - My original schedule from way back in November had the Central Connecticut-St. Francis Pennsylvania game - a concoction and confluence of directions and names you might only get in the NEC - slated for Thursday night, with the ...
S9 March 2, 2013 "People always clap for the wrong things." - J.D. SalingerWEST POINT, N.Y. - It was the end of my high school soccer practice one day last fall when one of my players asked to talk to me after practice. If you've been around enough, you start to understand that "Can I talk to you?" usually has ...
S9 March 2, 2013 When I was planning out my schedule for this season, one of the trips I had wanted to make was to West Point, to see an Army basketball game. I've enjoyed my trips to Annapolis and the Naval Academy, and wanted to see West Point as well. I picked out a game, when they were playing Bucknell, and plan...
S9 March 2, 2013 Usually, I always try to find an interesting topic to talk about in my recap. If you have read any of my recaps before, you know that they sometimes can focus very little on the actual game. Take my last recap, for example. I talked about how big it was for me to finally get to a North Carolina A&a...
S9 March 2, 2013 Charleston is one of the biggest towns for tourism in the nation. Tourism gets very slow during the winter months in Charleston. December after Christmas and January is a very slow time. You can walk King Street through downtown Charleston on a weekday morning and only see a few people around. The ...
S9 March 2, 2013 "You can't get there from here"-- Richard L. Harlan, TV voice of the Valparaiso Crusaders, 1946-2012Out in the middle of nowhere in the western part of the state of Illinois is the city of Macomb, home of the Western Illinois Leathernecks, the last remaining charter member of the Mid-Continent Conf...
S9 March 1, 2013 The commitment and dedication it takes to be a Division I college athlete is insane. Not only do you have to manage a full-time class load of 15-18 credit hours each semester, you have 20 hours of practices and games each week during the season, and that doesn't account for any travel time. Even in...
S9 March 1, 2013 The 26 closest Division I schools to me are in this order from nearest to furthest based on miles away as the crow flies: South Carolina, South Carolina State, Charleston Southern, Winthrop, Coastal Carolina, The Citadel, College of Charleston, Presbyterian, Charlotte, Davidson, Wofford, USC Upst...
S9 March 1, 2013 Every season ends, but they all end differently. In 2011-12 I couldn't wait for the Portland Pilots' season to be over. After seeing too many games in which they were overmatched and inexperienced I was tired and ready to wait for next year.This season, however, after a 1-8 start in WCC play, the P...
S9 February 27, 2013 My original plan for this Saturday was to see two games, which the other leaders on this site like Raymond Curren and Matt Cayuela have also usually tried to do on Saturdays. The plan was to see Davidson play Appalachian State at 4, and then hopefully make it to the UNC Charlotte campus by 6:30 t...
S9 February 27, 2013 It doesn't take very long to tell the Pilots have struggled to score the past couple of seasons. In fact, when they were mired in a six-game losing streak in the middle of the WCC season I was not alone in thinking the offense had actually gotten worse over the course of the season. Portland may ha...
S9 February 27, 2013 "Hermits have no peer pressure." - Steven WrightNEW BRITAIN, Conn. - Complaining about the weather in the Northeast seems like a chronic obsession for some, but the blizzard that hit Connecticut two weeks ago was awful. Where I live, a ridiculous 40 inches of snow fell, schools were cancelled fo...
S9 February 26, 2013 STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - The "forgotten borough" is an often tongue-in-cheek way for New Yorkers to refer to Staten Island, by far the least populated of the five City boroughs, and also by far the toughest to get to from Manhattan (or Connecticut, for that matter).Staten Island is the only borough th...
S9 February 26, 2013 "The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it." - Richard BachEASTON, Pa. - I didn't learn much Calculus from my high school teacher, but he did say something that has stuck with me in the two decades since: "No matter how good you think you are at something, there's always someone som...
S9 February 26, 2013 "There's no real bracket busting in it... It's an extra game on your schedule"-- Billy Donlan, Wright State coach won't miss BracketBusters eventI agree, though there was nothing wrong with the concept. The 4-letter network dreamed it up as a way of giving mid-majors a chance to impress the NCAA To...
S9 February 26, 2013 I hope for big things making the drive to New Haven with a carload of fifth grade boys to see Yale host Columbia. My son Ian's friend Desmond is turning eleven. In the back seats the five boys talk about the NBA all-star weekend. They play a simple memory game, taking turns naming a current NBA play...
S9 February 25, 2013 "Don't live up to your stereotypes." - Sherman AlexieNEW HAVEN, Conn. - In general, stereotyping is easy. And most people love to do things the easy way. It takes time to break down a group of people or things and understand that -even in groups you think might not be very diverse - there is...
S9 February 25, 2013 "People don't always get what they deserve in this world." - Lemony SnicketFAIRFIELD, Conn. - When last we left our heroes from Sacred Heart, Fate was shining upon them as the Pioneers were tied atop the Northeast Conference. I wondered if Fate could hold out for a few more weeks and maybe kee...
S9 February 25, 2013 After five days without seeing any mid-major basketball, it was finally time to get back to seeing more of Our Game. I had last been to a game at Gardner-Webb on Saturday, and it was now Thursday. I had only had a SEC women's game and a local high school doubleheader to get my basketball fix earl...
S9 February 25, 2013 After the beat-down I witnessed at Chaifetz Arena 3 weeks ago, I was hoping to see a much better game tonight in the rematch. I regret that I failed to give myself plenty of time to get there. I had meant to give myself an extra hour, in case there were traffic problems, but once I hit the road, I ...
S9 February 25, 2013 Butler and VCU both home games for the A-10 school that plays in the metropolitan area where I live? I'm there, looking to see how these Final Four combatants from 2 years ago will fair. The Butler game turned out to be one-sided, but I was still pumped to see how #HAVOC would fare at Chaifetz Aren...
S9 February 25, 2013 I had seen this before from the IPFW Mastodons. In a home game against a top-tier Summit League opponent, the Mastodons get off to an early lead, sustain that lead for a considerable period of time, gradually lose the lead, then fall behind and never get back up on top again. I saw that pattern in...
S9 February 23, 2013 The Seattle University basketball program was once one of the nation's premier teams. Led by Elgin Baylor, the Chieftains reached the 1958 Final Four, defeating #1 Kansas State before losing to Kentucky in the national final. Seattle gave up its independent status in 1971, joining the West Coast At...
S9 February 23, 2013 INDIANAPOLIS - The biggest dilemma in writing, no matter what the genre, often doesn't come down to what to include, but what to omit.Wonderful scribes sometimes get bogged down in detail, leaving their audience moving one way than another, never quite wrapping the seemingly wonderful details into ...
S9 February 23, 2013 Prior to Idaho joining the Big West, there had only been one basketball game between New Mexico State and the Vandals, an 81-69 Aggie victory in the 1964 Anaconda, Montana, tournament. Since then, the teams have met 24 times. The Aggies won six of eight contests while both were members of the Big W...
S9 February 23, 2013 The College of Charleston and Davidson College have been two of the biggest basketball rivals in the Southeast for many seasons.The two schools are complete opposites of one another. Davidson is a private school north of Charlotte, NC, along Lake Norman, that is known for its academics (and its bas...
S9 February 22, 2013 "I have lived to see the last warrior in the wise race of the Mohicans." - Tamenund, The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper)BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - There was a time when independents roamed the college basketball landscape, happily feeding off the crumbs of the conferences, some of whom di...
S9 February 21, 2013 Predictions are an integral part of any sport, but seem to be even more present in the world of college basketball. Every single season culminates in a billion-dollar monthlong prediction party, and the extended offseason of about thirty weeks affords more than enough time for amateur and professi...
S9 February 21, 2013 The question posed was "Why are they more than their previously maligned parts?", but the first thing that pops into my head when I watch Bryant this season is, "What happened last year?"The Bulldogs suffered through the pains of restricting to Division I and pulled a coup when they grabbed Tim O'S...
S9 February 21, 2013 For deciding where my night cap should be this Saturday night, the choice was clear. Gardner-Webb is a fairly long drive for me compared to where I usually go, at three hours away. But Boiling Springs is just over an hour west of Charlotte, where I had been earlier in the afternoon. And I would get...
S9 February 21, 2013 It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fightRisin' up to the challenge of our rivalAnd the last known survivor stalks his prey in the nightAnd he's watchin' us all with the eye of the tigerAt the second media timeout of Butler's home game against Duquesne, with the Bulldogs leading 13-9,...
S9 February 21, 2013 This was never supposed to be Boston University's year. The Terriers lost what were widely considered to be their two best players, swingman Darryl Partin (to graduation) and center Jake O'Brien (to transfer) from last year's squad. The Terriers also graduated two other starters, leaving juniors Dom...
S9 February 21, 2013 "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." - Abraham LincolnCHARLESTON, Ill. - In an alternate universe where the Mid-majority is king - and not the evil one where we root for the biggest schools with the humongous athletic budgets - Rick Byrd would be a Hall of Famer and househo...
S9 February 20, 2013 In two of my three previous visits this season to Halton Arena I had not bought tickets until the day of the game. But as this game approached between Charlotte and UMass, I looked at ticket availability again. UMass has not had the success that they once had with John Calipari in the 1990s, but ...
S9 February 20, 2013 "Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here." - Max Ehrmann, DesiderataTERRE HAUTE, Ind. - There were two times that Terre Haute was the center was at the center of the American cons...
S9 February 19, 2013 "Loss of virginity is rational increase; and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost." - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends WellNORMAL, Ill. - I was set to lose my Valley virginity Sunday night as I traveled south from Chicago to central Illinois. As you'd expect, I was very excite...
S9 February 19, 2013 Kids these days. The worst, right? No respect for authority. No maturity. Always need something handed to them, don't know the meaning of hard work, never had to fight for anything in their lives. They play too many video games. They don't read enough books. They are too overweight. They don't vote...
S9 February 18, 2013 Johan calls to say he has to get out of the house. He plans to drop in on the game between Hartford University and Boston University in West Hartford. "It's basketball alumni day," Johan says, "and Vin Baker will be there." Baker is the local phenom from nearby Old Saybrook, a one-time Celtic, Sonic...
S9 February 18, 2013 I've made the drive on Route 15 in Northern Maryland many times, mostly when driving to different points in Pennsylvania. On each trip, I've driven past Mount St. Mary's University. I've always been in awe of the campus when I've driven past, and knew that the Mountaineers had been successful in the...
S9 February 18, 2013 "Successful people and successful teams are able to do difficult things." That quote was one I heard from Lehigh coach Brett Reed while driving back from their loss at Stabler Arena to Lafayette. He gave credit to someone, but I couldn't catch who it was. Nevertheless, I think it can be applied to...
S9 February 18, 2013 "The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture." - Alfred HitchcockVALPARAISO, Ind. - Back in the glorious 1980s, 10-year-old me despised the Iron Sheik. When the Sheik would come to the ring and demand everyone stand and be quiet for Nikolai Volkoff's rendition of the Sovie...
S9 February 17, 2013 Last March, after the Horizon League championship game, this happened:Yesterday, during ESPN's Rivalry Week, the team celebrated brashly by denizens of the 313 area code returned to the scene of the crime and were greeted with this:Detroit-Valpo has developed into something that lends itself to eas...
S9 February 17, 2013 I'm here to make a shameful confession as a Butler fan. I miss the Horizon League.While I do enjoy building potential rivalries with new teams in the Atlantic 10, the current sixteen team league allows for a home-and-home series with only one conference opponent. In some respects, it feels like p...
S9 February 17, 2013 "Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat." - Ralph EllisonCHICAGO - No one likes to cede control. Think of a facet of your life, maybe the place you work, or even something you're going to do today. Control is paramount to your s...
S9 February 16, 2013 It is often difficult for college basketball fans who do not follow the Ivy League to understand the profound swings that race their way up and down the Eastern seaboard on cold winter Fridays and Saturdays. For every other college basketball league, the regular season is important, but there is al...
S9 February 16, 2013 When you don't need to worry, there'll be days like thisWhen no one's in a hurry, there'll be days like thisWhen all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fitThen I must remember there'll be days like this Van Morrison - Days Like ThisButler returned home after a shaky weekend trip to Ge...
S9 February 16, 2013 "Lord save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms." - Mark TwainNEW HAVEN, Conn. - The tough or impossible thing, depending on your perspective, about trying to project where a Mid-majority basketball team is going to finish the season, is often exposure.Granted...
S9 February 16, 2013 As I have mentioned before, The Citadel is not a big basketball school. Part of the appeal in coming to a game at the Citadel is that McAlister Field House is a wide open building with lots of space. You can just sit atop the general admission bleachers at mid-court, and watch a basketball game to ...
S9 February 15, 2013 After Thursday night's special performance, I decided to make a return trip to IPFW on Saturday night to see the Mastodons host the North Dakota State Bison. Actually, it wasn't quite a return trip, as the Memorial Coliseum (home to The Nate Wolters Show) was booked Saturday with both a high scho...
S9 February 15, 2013 The Big South leading Charleston Southern Buccaneers had another big game against the Gardner-Webb Runnin' Bulldogs. Charleston Southern was the last team in the Big South to be undefeated, having won all seven games in conference to start. But to keep ahead of defending champion UNC Asheville, the...
S9 February 15, 2013 "Bravery never goes out of fashion." - William Makepeace ThackerayHAMDEN, Conn. - Velton Jones came out with the rest of the Robert Morris team for warm-ups, but not in the same garb as the rest of the squad. While his teammates went through the layup lines and jump shots, Jones - dressed in a sw...
S9 February 15, 2013 After their win against Loyola Marymount it seemed as if the Pilots might have turned things around. They had shot the ball well, especially from superhoop range. They also got a good game from starting center Thomas van der Mars when another inside player to complement Ryan Nicholas had been lacki...
S9 February 14, 2013 "When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have." - Stephen HawkingBOSTON - Like pretty much everything in life, dealing with expectations means a balancing act, the scales needing to be constantly moved and pushed into the correct place to deal with t...
S9 February 14, 2013 Our challenge this past week was to write about a rivalry. I have written pretty extensively on rivalries before, with certain rivalries High Point has had as well as rivalries in the Charleston area. I felt that there really was not much more in the way of rivalries I could write about among tho...
S9 February 14, 2013 Homecoming has been a part of sports for over a century. Homecoming began in 1909 at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, who had the first homecoming mixed with a football game. Homecoming is a tradition at thousands of colleges and high schools around the world. It is usually filled with pageantry, ...
S9 February 14, 2013 Sometimes things do not work out as planned. I had a big plan at the beginning of the season to try to get to close to 70 games this season and mapped out an ambitious schedule months in advance. Unfortunately, lack of sufficient funds has caused me to curb much of my travel. Until that glorious ta...
S9 February 13, 2013 During the Monday holiday, my eleven year-old Ian and I are watching the Knicks on television when we see the ad for that night's Fairfield-Loyola game. The spot features Fairfield players dunking, although the moves do not happen in game situations; the empty blue seats of the Webster Bank Arena s...
S9 February 13, 2013 "We can't run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us." - Professor Petrovsky, RoundersFAIRFIELD, Conn. - We live for the amazing, the unexpected, the moments that defy explanation. When we finally see them, we just look on in wonder and amazement.But that wonder and amazement isn't necessarily in ...
S9 February 12, 2013 I had yet to visit Oxford, Ohio or Miami University yet this season. That may not seem strange, except that Miami is the closest Division I school from my home. I'm not the only one that has struggled to find a reason to attend a Miami basketball game this season. Millett Hall was only seeing an av...
S9 February 12, 2013 "Make happy those who are near, and those who are far will come." - Chinese Proverb PHILADELPHIA - I could sit here and talk to you about Penn basketball and their remarkable second half against Brown Saturday night at the Palestra, outscoring the Bears by 25 points in the final 22 minutes on the w...
S9 February 12, 2013 Upon the fields of friendly strife, are sown the seeds that, upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory. -Douglas MacArthur, USMA Class of 1903It's a brisk Sunday afternoon in West Point, NY, but it's like a sauna inside Christl Arena. Despite it being a holiday weekend on ca...
S9 February 12, 2013 Going into this game at South Carolina State in Orangeburg, Savannah State was 10-9 and 4-1 in the MEAC. The Tigers were third in the MEAC out of 13 teams, which is not too bad. But Savannah State entered with higher expectations. The Tigers were the preseason favorites in the MEAC, after finishi...
S9 February 11, 2013 As was the case last year with the 800 Games Project, one of the trips that I wanted to make was to Lehigh University. The prospect of the Mountain Hawks hosting a game against rival Lafayette made the game even more exciting, as did their win in their previous game at Bucknell, giving them sole po...
S9 February 11, 2013 The game between Stony Brook and Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) featured two teams that have gone in opposite directions in recent years. Back in 2008, the Retrievers were champions of the America East Conference, the only time in school history they've been to the NCAA Tournament. However, things...
S9 February 11, 2013 "In all things, I adore the will of God in my regard." - Jean Baptiste de la SallePHILADELPHIA - "I don't know La Salle.""You don't know La Salle University? It's a big college, they actually have a pretty good basketball team, north part of Philly? Someone must have had to go there at some point?...
S9 February 11, 2013 "a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain."- Ecclesiastes 3:6-7NEW YORK - Whenever there is a snowstorm, or in this case a blizzard, one of the things to do here in New Haven...
S9 February 10, 2013 awesome (adj.) - inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear; causing or inducing awe.Early February always has been the most challenging part of the season for me as an occasional chronicler of Our Game. The freshness of a new season and the intrigue of certain non-confer...
S9 February 10, 2013 One of my favorite trips to make in the Washington, D.C. area is Annapolis, Md., home of the United States Naval Academy. The campus is one of the prettiest I've seen, and it always makes for a great visit. There are many differences between a visit here and almost every other college campus. First...
S9 February 10, 2013 After a string of three straight Saturday sellouts at Hinkle Fieldhouse (Gonzaga, Temple, Rhode Island), the Bulldogs hosted St. Bonaventure this past Wednesday night, and attendance at the old barn was at about two-thirds capacity as a result. The resultant relatively low energy level in the bui...
S9 February 9, 2013 I have to admit, at this point in the season it's not as easy to get excited for a Pilot game. I'm more nervous than anything. If they're playing someone good like Gonzaga or Saint Mary's I worry about how badly they're going to get blown out. If it's a team at the bottom of the standings, like Loy...
S9 February 9, 2013 "It is felt that a disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering." - Dalai LamaNEW BRITAIN, Conn. - Perhaps because he saw me popping up everywhere he went like a unwanted nuisance, John Templon of Big Apple Buckets asked me earlier in the season to do a guest ...
S9 February 9, 2013 Initially, I had planned on this final Saturday of January attending a South Carolina basketball game against Arkansas, and then going from there to see Wofford play College of Charleston. But the last time I saw South Carolina, they lost at home to a bad Auburn team. Why would I want to continue...
S9 February 8, 2013 College basketball is a game that is one of the best in sports for the fans. The fans, especially at the mid-major level, re closer to the fans than in most other sports. They can be a part of the game by yelling chants, being close enough to the crowd that they can bother the opposing team, and th...
S9 February 8, 2013 "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or ...
S9 February 8, 2013 "I father, I Brooklyn Dodger themI Jack, I Rob, I sinAwww man, I'm Jackie RobinsonExcept when I run base, I dodge the penLucky me, lucky we, they didn't get meNow when I bring the Nets I'm the Black Branch RickyFrom Brooklyn corners, burnin branches of stickySpread love, Biggie, Brooklyn, hippie"- ...
S9 February 8, 2013 I usually look forward to going to see the Campbell Camels play at home. I am a big fan of the Gore Arena as it is probably one of my favorite arenas I have been to. I like the bowl design with just enough seats for it not to be too small, while not being cavernous. The parking is plentiful and the...
S9 February 7, 2013 Last year I wrote about Valpo's current rivalry with Milwaukee, and I alluded to a potential budding rivalry with Detroit from last year's Horizon League championship game. Both last year and this year, I've written about Valpo's reviving rivalry with Oakland.But there was another rivalry Valpo had...
S9 February 7, 2013 "Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar to few." - Benjamin FranklinBOSTON - When making a schedule for TMM Season 9 way back in October, there wasn't much thought paid to the road team. One of the primary goals was to see as many venues as possible, and that meant I couldn't really be too p...
S9 February 6, 2013 One of the great old debates on this website has been: "What is a mid-major?" It is also the question Kyle hates the most. But on a website dedicated to mid-major basketball, it ultimately has to be answered. That is why we have what we call the Red Line. The Red Line has not always existed on th...
S9 February 6, 2013 It has been a shame that I had taken so long to go to South Carolina State to see the Bulldogs play. There have been many contributing factors to not going to Orangeburg the past two seasons. Mainly, the Bulldogs have not been very good, even by MEAC standards. They had not won a league game in the...
S9 February 6, 2013 On this Monday, January 21, there were very few games across Hoops Nation. Sure, Ray Curren was able to find Fairfield playing a Metro Atlantic game this day. But most games today were at one of the HBCUs in either the MEAC or SWAC. So the only option for me on this day was to go see South Caroli...
S9 February 5, 2013 So might have said Bob Ramsey after this one. Or not; I didn't listen to much of the post-game show.I hadn't planned to go to this game, but a friend of mine had an extra ticket at half-price through something called "Living Social", so I jumped at the chance. He brought his two young boys along an...
S9 February 5, 2013 Once upon a time, I used to see UNC Greensboro play at home quite regularly. In my senior year at High Point, I saw six UNCG home games. I had one project in a Sociology class that required me to do an observational study of people off the HPU campus, so I decided to pick UNC Greensboro home game...
S9 February 5, 2013 So said, St. Louis' own Bob Ramsey, who ritually announces a Billiken 3 with "BANG!" As I pulled out of the parking garage next to Chaifetz Arena, Ramsey wanted to make sure SLU fans knew that this was no cupcake win. Either that, or he was just so blown away by what he had seen that his Hype-O-Me...
S9 February 4, 2013 "Young people need models, not critics." - John WoodenWEST POINT, N.Y. - Proportion and inverse are mathematical concepts, but they can be twisted and bastardized to work in psychology. For instance, our willingness to accomplish a task is directly proportional to our motivation to get said task ...
S9 February 4, 2013 CATONSVILLE, Md. - Coaches often get credit for designing brilliant plays that win games, but - especially when time is limited - they all seem to pretty much follow the same ­outline, whether you're Brad Stevens or Maryland-Baltimore County's Aki Thomas. Of course, unlike Stevens, Thomas likely ne...
S9 February 4, 2013 "The best way to solve any problem is to remove its cause."- Martin Luther King, Jr.BALTIMORE - If you're doing any kind of comprehensive tour of the Mid-majority, you have to see a game in the MEAC and the SWAC.This is not negotiable.First and foremost, because they exist. But second, because of h...
S9 February 4, 2013 I was fortunate enough to have tickets to this week's big game, featuring the two brothers who are following the coaching legacy started by their father, one a veritable coaching lifer, the other a former star player who came into coaching after a high-profile playing career. Yes, I was able to w...
S9 February 3, 2013 Noon on a Sunday seemed like a rather unfortunate time for Iona and Loyola, two of the MAAC powerhouses, to square off.Despite the time, there was a decent crowd filing in when we arrived, including a fair number of traveling Iona fans. Some of the people sitting around me were locals, including a ...
S9 February 3, 2013 "Example is leadership." - Albert Schweitzer BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - As January turns into February, the games sometimes have a tendency to blend together, especially when it's a Friday night and I'm in a huge rush to make it on time.In the pre-TMM days, Fridays were designated for my high school games...
S9 February 3, 2013 January's schedule provided Butler with an unusual opportunity to become almost a temporarily adopted member of the famed Philadelphia Big 5. After a win over Penn at Hinkle on the 2nd, a road win over Saint Joseph's on the 9th, and a road loss at LaSalle on the 23rd that broke the Bulldogs' 13-g...
S9 February 3, 2013 James Madison and Old Dominion are not, in the strictest sense, rivals. Virginia's most prominent and most vitriolic sub-Red Line rivalry is ODU-VCU, and JMU has a less-celebrated rivalry with George Mason. But intrastate programs are natural foes nonetheless, and matchups between Virginia teams ...
S9 February 2, 2013 After my previous game at Coastal Carolina, I would make the long drive down the South Carolina coast to see High Point play at Charleston Southern. I would of course not be the only person doing that, as Matt Cayuela would be making the same trip as well. Due to the early start of the Coastal ga...
S9 February 2, 2013 When planning my Saturday, I was looking for two games to go to. High Point was playing at Charleston Southern, the closest my Panthers would be to where I live during the season. But Charleston Southern plays at 5:30 PM, which is a pretty odd start time even for a weekend game. There would be no...
S9 February 1, 2013 The Game's challenge number eight could not have come at a more opportune time. Over the past couple of weeks, New Mexico State head coach Marvin Menzies has added his voice to a statement that New Mexico head coach Steve Alford has made several times: playing the Rio Grande Rivalry game once a yea...
S9 February 1, 2013 Any Saturday afternoon in the Lowcountry, even during the winter, is one where you can attend many different events. You can go walking on the Ravenel Bridge, the tallest cable-stayed bridge in North America. You can go fishing. You can get on the boat and travel throughout Charleston Harbor and th...
S9 February 1, 2013 "No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."- L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard Of OzBROOKLYN, N.Y. - Perhaps nothing can encapsulate the St. Francis Brooklyn ex...
S9 January 31, 2013 One of my favorite movie quotes comes from Major League and legendary manager Lou Brown: "OK, we won a game yesterday. If we win today, it's called 'two in a row'. And if we win again tomorrow, it's called a 'winning streak'...IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE!". It has been quite some time since VCU fans had...
S9 January 31, 2013 When I think things are going bad with Longwood basketball I just try to think back to 2004-05, my freshman year on campus when my Lancers went 1-30 with their only win coming against Howard. Since then, Longwood only has one winning season under their belt, but things always seemed to be more or l...
S9 January 31, 2013 "I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money." - Pablo PicassoKINGSTON, R.I. - Danny Hurley hasn't had a heck of a lot to smile about in his inaugural season at the University of Rhode Island. Taking over in late March, he pretty much had to play the hand he was dealt this season as far as ...
S9 January 30, 2013 I've seen many games inside UD Arena. It was often the host of the sectional that my high school played in. I've also witnessed several Dayton and NCAA tournament games inside the venue as well. The one thing I hadn't seen is my college alma mater, Butler, play there.For a few years in the late 80s...
S9 January 30, 2013 "In this world, you get what you pay for." - Kurt VonnegutALBANY, N.Y. - I have no general disdain for free stuff, even though free food tends to curtail any diet plan I try to introduce. But I generally don't go too far out of my way when the siren call of "while supplies last" or "no purchas...
S9 January 30, 2013 I arrived at Charleston Southern's CSU Field House just prior to 6 PM. Unlike when I went to see College of Charleston play Old Dominion a month prior, I knew that the game was not until 7:30, and the arena would not open until 6:30 P.M. I considered eating at either the Arby's or Wendy's down th...
S9 January 29, 2013 Most of the writers for this season's Game go simply as fans and pay for their own tickets. They may follow one team predominantly, or take advantage of the many colleges in their area to see as many games and teams as they can. I sometimes wish I lived in an area with more mid-majors, but on the w...
S9 January 29, 2013 For 38 minutes on Saturday, the Dartmouth Big Green thoroughly and comprehensively outplayed Harvard on the road at Lavietes Pavilion. To put that accomplishment in context, you need to know a bit about Dartmouth basketball.To say the Big Green have struggled recently would be an understatement. Da...
S9 January 28, 2013 JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Jersey City is New Jersey's second-biggest municipality, at least in terms of population, probably topping 250,000 by now (it was getting close to that number in the 2010 Census). Like many other urban areas in America, it has enjoyed a slight resurgence in the last couple of de...
S9 January 27, 2013 FAIRFIELD, Conn. - The plan was simple enough Saturday, in fact it gave me a couple of hours to wander around Boston. The Harvard-Dartmouth game was at 2 p.m., Northeastern was playing George Mason at 7. I knew Harvard well enough to find a decent parking spot, knew the T (subway) well enough to ge...
S9 January 27, 2013 Wednesday night's game featuring a visit from the Denver Pioneers to the Pan American Center in Las Cruces to face the New Mexico State Aggies was one of the more important games of the week in the WAC. The Pioneers (before this game 11-7 overall, 7-1 in WAC games) and Aggies (12-8, 6-2) were playi...
S9 January 27, 2013 After watching the leaders of the Big South North Division, VMI, lose to Coastal Carolina, I was on my way to see the leaders of the South Division, Charleston Southern. The Bucs would be facing a cross-divisional opponent in High Point. With the Keydets loss, Charleston Southern was the last team ...
S9 January 27, 2013 When Coastal Carolina's schedule was released, I noticed one oddity in the middle of the conference season. CCU's home game against VMI was scheduled for 11 a.m.. I figured this was some sort of mistake, since noon is usually the earliest start time outside of that early season college hoops marath...
S9 January 27, 2013 The College of Charleston and The Citadel have been rivals in the Southern Conference for fourteen years. The two schools have been intertwined with each other for a much longer period, but the rivalry ramped up in 1999 when the College of Charleston joined the SoCon.Before that, The Citadel and th...
S9 January 27, 2013 "I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later." - Mitch HedbergCAMBRIDGE, Mass. - If you take it on its face, there was no good rhyme or reason why Dartmouth was in the position it was Saturday afternoon against Harvard at Lavietes Pavi...
S9 January 26, 2013 Coming into this year, expectations were high for the Lehigh Mountain Hawks. Last year, they upset Bucknell on the road to win their second Patriot League championship, and followed it up with an upset over Duke in the NCAA Tournament. While their journey in a third round loss to Xavier, it was def...
S9 January 26, 2013 For the Towson University Tigers, there was nowhere to go but up. Between December 29, 2010, and January 28 2012, the Tigers lost all 41 games that they played. Last year, their win against UNC-Wilmington was their only victory of the year, as they lost all other 31 games that they played. Then ove...
S9 January 26, 2013 Thursday's Portland Pilots game against the San Francisco Dons came down to the final shot. USF's Cole Dickerson hit a three with 0.1 second left to give the Dons a 75-72 win in a finish that would have been thrilling if you were a USF or neutral fan, and devastating for Pilot fans. From scanning t...
S9 January 26, 2013 I am sure a good majority of the students disagree with me on this, but I am glad winter break is over. Gyms with low turnouts and no bands or excitement are done with, as we are now well into the conference season. What better way to kickstart the last portion of the regular season than with a riv...
S9 January 26, 2013 When Nate Wolters is playing within a 150-mile radius of your home, you drop everything and go. - Daniel SpewakAfter confirming that "The Jungle," IUPUI's on-campus home for basketball and volleyball was 115 miles away from my home, I did indeed drop everything and go. As jungles are concerned, ...
S9 January 26, 2013 I recently decided to rank the 25 best college basketball games I've ever attended in person throughout my lifetime. If your first reaction to that statement is, "that's weird," then you're wrong. It's awesome. I've been thinking lately how fortunate I've been over the past several years to attend ...
S9 January 26, 2013 I like simple things. But while I am content getting a basketball experience that is both cheap and easy, I also like a variety of different basketball experiences. And the same holds true for a lot of what I like to do, and I know others probably have similar motives. TMMer Matt Cayuela has a we...
S9 January 25, 2013 When you arrive on the campus of Northern Kentucky University, you notice that it doesn't have a lot of personality. There's a reason why; it hasn't been there long enough to develop one. NKU wasn't an independent university until 1968, and has only been on its current site since 1972. Most of the ...
S9 January 25, 2013 As anybody is aware from having read my recaps on here before, I like going to basketball games. And I know other people on here like going to basketball games as well. In fact, some people go to more basketball games than I do. Matt Cayuela went to ten more mid-major basketball games than I did ...
S9 January 25, 2013 Coming off Thursday's victory over Utah State, Saturday finds the New Mexico State Aggies facing the San Jose State Spartans. The Spartans, joining the Blue Aggies in moving from the WAC to the Mountain West next year, are the WAC opponent that New Mexico State Aggies' have played the second most t...
S9 January 25, 2013 It's hard not to become a rival with a school that is a mere ten or fifteen minutes away and its certainly something the University of Richmond and VCU haven't avoided. The two schools are nine miles apart but couldn't be more different. While Richmond has a picturesque suburban campus with just ov...
S9 January 25, 2013 When I first moved to Annapolis, I decided I needed to take up a water sport - sailing, boating, and the like are big here, but I was interested in something else: rowing. I found out that during the summer, the U.S. Naval Academy offers a week-long camp for women of all ages to be coached by Navy ...
S9 January 25, 2013 My eleven year-old Ian and I immediately recognize Fairfield's Marcus Gilbert when he ambles to the half court line in Hynes Athletic Center in New Rochelle, New York for the opening tip against Iona. The spider-like limbs and thin mustache can belong to no one else. But we don't trust our eyes. We...
S9 January 24, 2013 "I've seen you guys can shoot, but there's more to the game than shooting." - Norman DaleFAIRFIELD, Conn. - Michael Carter-Williams, D.J. Cooper, Jason Brickman, Larry Drew II, Phil Gaetano.As of the writing of this, those are the top five in the nation in assists. If you watch a lot of college ...
S9 January 24, 2013 "You may never know what becomes of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results." - GandhiHEMPSTEAD, N.Y. - One of the things that made the Mid-majority is the fact that at its core, it was always about going to the games. In 2013, that may seem like a superfluous concept, and in ...
S9 January 24, 2013 In recent seasons, Wofford has been better at basketball than Appalachian State. As I wrote about last year, Appalachian State has been a school mostly focused on football. The basketball team has struggled most of the year, having lost by over 20 at home to High Point. The Mountaineers did come ...
S9 January 24, 2013 So when I found out this week's challenge was about women's basketball I was thrilled. Totally and absolutely thrilled. You see I'm that guy in your group of friends who actually loves watching women's basketball. I know... I know... you're confused. I'm being honest with you. I really truly do enj...
S9 January 23, 2013 Sometimes it appears men's and women's basketball operate in completely different worlds. No doubt many readers of this site only see passing glimpses of women's basketball when coming for the second, men's game of a doubleheader, or flipping through television channels looking for a game. In my ca...
S9 January 23, 2013 The primary rivalries, at least to the fan base, of the New Mexico State University Aggies (for today, let's call them the Crimson Aggies) are with the New Mexico Lobos and the UTEP Miners. By far the nearest other Division I schools, it is only natural that these would remain important, despite s...
S9 January 23, 2013 I ventured out Tuesday on a familiar trip, but a trip I had not taken in quite some time. Liberty University and Longwood University have a basketball rivalry dating back to the late 70s but the two schools, which are 50 miles apart from each other, had not clashed in nearly five years. In 2008 Lib...
S9 January 22, 2013 Like South Carolina had a month prior, the South Carolina State Bulldogs were also holding a women's/men's doubleheader at 5:30 P.M. at the SHM Memorial Center. But this time it was like most other occasions where the women play before the men. During MEAC play, nearly all conference games have t...
S9 January 22, 2013 Going into Portland's game with Saint Mary's Saturday, I was feeling hopeful about the Pilots' chances. Portland had been beaten by Gonzaga two nights earlier, but they had also played well for stretches.I was wrong. Very wrong.The Pilots' 60-38 loss to the Gaels is about the worst college game I c...
S9 January 22, 2013 There was a great deal of excitement this past summer around the Butler community when rumors started to fly that ESPN's College GameDay was considering a visit to Hinkle Fieldhouse for the upcoming basketball season. When it was confirmed that they'd be doing so for the Gonzaga game on January 19,...
S9 January 21, 2013 "The same is who you are and where you come from. The same will always find you, no matter how far you run, however long you think you can last. The patterns that define you are inescapable and will outlast the temporarily different. Even through resolutions and diets, third weddings and fifth reli...
S9 January 21, 2013 There's a website that came to my attention a few months ago called "Philly Love Notes," that collects essays and stories, with photos, of things that Philadelphians love about their city. It's the kind of website I love - using the internet to connect people to their surroundings and each other. I...
S9 January 21, 2013 People seem to forget that Charlotte is in the Atlantic 10. While most of the conferences power is in the northeast, Charlotte sits in the south quietly going about their business. I became familiar with Charlotte (or UNC Charlotte back in the day) as a kid because they matched up annually with VCU...
S9 January 21, 2013 LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. - Here's an interesting geographical fact about Rider University. It is about a half-mile from Interstate 95. My house in New Haven is a couple of miles from I-95 as well. Yet you can't take I-95 directly from New Haven to Lawrenceville, N.J.The bizarre quirk has to do with the ...
S9 January 21, 2013 PHILADELPHIA - "Everyone is disappointing the more you know someone."I watched Synecdoche, New York after I read that prologue from Kyle. As the quote would probably lead to you believe if you didn't know better, it was pretty depressing, which is likely the reason it tanked at the box office. No o...
S9 January 21, 2013 For some, it may be hard to find a reason to go see Old Dominion against UNC-Wilmington. Both schools are ineligible for the Colonial Athletic Association tournament with UNCW banned for APR reasons and ODU not allowed because of their impending move to Conference USA. Even if both teams were eligi...
S9 January 21, 2013 "Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about sports as a profession." - Apollo CreedPHILADELPHIA - The Broad Street Bullies was one of the great nicknames in all of sports history, just as the building they played in - The Spectrum - was ...
S9 January 21, 2013 Here on this side of the Red Line there's not many chances to see one of the top 10 teams in the nation, much less in your home arena. Gonzaga comes to Portland every season and it's sold out every season, but this time the Bulldogs were ranked 8th in the polls. Now I'm one of those fans who thinks...
S9 January 21, 2013 8 days ago, Reggie Arceneaux was the hero in Wright State's win at Loyola. Valpo just two days ago erased a 22-point early 2nd half lead at the home of the preseason pick for 2nd place, Detroit. WSU was picked to finish 9th (last) in the preseason poll, but while Detroit inflicted its heart-felt re...
S9 January 21, 2013 The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.In a recent essay, The Hopping Cats captain, Ian McCormick, provided a two paragraph justification for his selection of USC Upstate's Torrey Craig as the second overall pick in the TMM9 fantasy player draft. As a Ballyfest Destiny member who definitel...
S9 January 20, 2013 Monday's matchup between the Houston Baptist Huskies and the UTEP Miners was my fourth visit to the Don Haskins Center this season. I previously saw the Miners take down Oral Roberts, New Mexico State and Idaho, the latter two of which were pretty close games. As someone who sees a lot of games in ...
S9 January 20, 2013 It seems like its been a season of firsts for VCU on their inaugural voyage through the Atlantic 10. Every time you open the paper you hear about some record being broken or what not. This past week was the story of VCU being ranked in both polls for the first time since 1985. Personally, I think p...
S9 January 20, 2013 When I decided to go to the Butler-Vanderbilt game, I knew that I wanted to check out at least one more game during the trip. I really wanted to check out Belmont, but they didn't have a game at home during the time I was down there. Tennessee State had a game, but it was at the same time as the Bu...
S9 January 20, 2013 The frigid bike ride to Portland State's gym made me nostalgic. Not for my recently concluded college career - oh no, Not as a player...are you kidding?! But for high school basketball in my hometown.Because although my hometown is just 6,000 people strong, our gym seats more people than Portland S...
S9 January 20, 2013 Women's basketball is recognizable to followers of the men's game as mostly the same game, but there are significant differences. The pace is somewhat different; since the players are not usually as quick, the ball seems to move much more slowly up and around the court. However, the shot clock is o...
S9 January 20, 2013 On the second stop of my Big South Virginia trip, I headed to Lynchburg, Virginia to see Liberty face off against Coastal Carolina. I had some intrigue seeing Liberty since it is no secret that the school not only wants to be out of the Big South, but make a move to the FBS ranks in football as wel...
S9 January 20, 2013 Trying to figure out where I want to travel to on any given Saturday during hoops season can be tricky. Since I have the weekends off, I have the flexibility to go wherever I please. When Coastal Carolina has a home game it usually means I will not be traveling too far away since I will have to fit...
S9 January 20, 2013 NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. - Like a lot of the conferences in Our Game, the MAAC does what it can to promote itself, and so unfortunately, when someone like ESPN tells them to jump, they just respond "standing or broad, sir?".And so, here I was at the Hynes Athletic Center for a 9 p.m. Friday night tip-off...
S9 January 20, 2013 The College of Charleston and The Citadel are two schools which are both icons in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. There are huge differences between them, which are especially prevalent when you see the two school's campuses.The Citadel's campus is large, open, and fits the military school's prof...
S9 January 20, 2013 The road to Oxford, Ohio has many different routes, none of which are ideal. Each path is more or less equidistant from my residence in Dayton, but the time varies wildly. Instead of a rigorous plan of action, the GPS acts as more of a guide, illuminating a potential path that will be entirely re...
S9 January 19, 2013 "He who laughs best today will also laugh last." - Friedrich NietzscheSMITHFIELD, R.I. - It didn't occur to me until I was about to depart that this was not my first trip to watch a basketball game at Bryant. I really don't remember the year, but it was definitely more than a decade ago that my fri...
S9 January 19, 2013 The start of conference play is something that always gets me excited. Out are the guarantee games and games against Black Line schools, and in are games against your conference rivals that determine your seeding in the conference tournament. Every game suddenly has a new meaning. In the MAAC, this...
S9 January 19, 2013 I try not to attend games when a team below the black-line is playing. My experience with these games is that they typically are blowouts, and that outside of getting to see the end of the bench play, there is not much excitement. However, I did not want to pass up the opportunity to go to a game a...
S9 January 18, 2013 After High Point's big win at Winthrop, I was not yet done with Big South basketball for the day. I would head to Winthrop's old travel partner Presbyterian for another Big South showdown between the new North and South divisions. While Presbyterian and Winthrop are not too far apart in South Car...
S9 January 18, 2013 My original plan for the first Saturday of 2013 was to see High Point play at Winthrop before seeing Presbyterian later that evening. But yet it seemed tempting to go back to the Colonial Life Arena and see my other school South Carolina play instead. The Gamecocks were playing a mid-major team I...
S9 January 17, 2013 College basketball is a game which is followed all throughout the nation. The sport is one which is popular in many facets. In the mid-major realm, the Missouri Valley Conference schools are probably the most popular. Their games air on television; several schools average over 10,000 per game; seve...
S9 January 16, 2013 STONY BROOK, N.Y. - I don't often like making blanket statements with absolutely no empirical data to back it up, which probably disqualifies me from many government jobs and positions on television.However, Long Island traffic is the absolute worst.I've lived in Dallas, and that could be tough. Ne...
S9 January 15, 2013 Once I became a team captain for the Hopping Cats, one of the first things I had to figure out was who to take as my fantasy player. Unlike in the past where we had guys celebrated on this site like Stephen "Flash" Curry and Lester "Done Ruthless" Hudson, there was no name that jumped out at me. ...
S9 January 15, 2013 What new can be said about an arena so mystical, it is called a cathedral; so important it inspired a book and documentary; and so influential it is emulated hundreds of miles away?This was the challenge facing me in recapping my first game at the Palestra, and the answer is: nothing, or at least n...
S9 January 14, 2013 "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."― Friedrich NietzscheBRIDGEPORT, Conn. - It's much easier to ridicule than to praise, especially from the distance of a key...
S9 January 14, 2013 New Year's Day for the most part is not very friendly to Our Game. It's not quite like December 24 through December 26, which has almost no games. But just like Christmas is dominated by the NBA (a tradition that is fairly new), New Year's Day is dominated by college football being played at neutra...
S9 January 14, 2013 This non-conference season has seen its fair share of highlights with some great games and a good amount of Red Line Upsets. The good moments are what really stick with us the most, but in reality they can come few and far between. The amount of RLUs is just over 16 percent this year, so like it is...
S9 January 13, 2013 "Genius is eternal patience." - MichelangeloLEWISBURG, Pa. - It's not exactly Murray, Ky., but Lewisburg does not exactly rank among the top metropolitan areas in America. Or the Northeast. Or Pennsylvania.In a previous life, I's be much more inclined to get off the exit for Interstate 80 and go no...
S9 January 13, 2013 "Too hyped to do school work so I will keep reading the nonsense on Sudanese diaspora list serve."Not your usual college-athlete-Twitter-feed fare."In my opinion - in the end - the university will have benefited more from having him than he will from having attended Penn."Not your usual coach-speak...
S9 January 13, 2013 The beautiful thing about mid-major college basketball is that everyone starts the season with excitement and hope. You get to see how new pieces will begin to come together and everyone feels as if they have a shot heading into conference play. In their first year of conference play things were in...
S9 January 13, 2013 This season, the College of Charleston have been in a lot of very close games. Except for about 3 or 4 games (the opening win over Towson, the blowout loss to Louisville, and a couple of others), CofC has been in the game in the final minutes, as their average margin has been around a point and a h...
S9 January 13, 2013 "Baseball is ninety percent mental, and the rest is physical." - Yogi BerraBETHLEHEM, Pa. - C.J. McCollum was not walking through the Stabler Arena door Saturday afternoon for Lehigh's Saturday afternoon Patriot League opener against Holy Cross.Well, yea, he did walk through the door. But he was on...
S9 January 13, 2013 You know those nights when you glance up at the scoreboard, notice somebody's scored an absurd amount of points and then ask the dude next to you, "when the hell did he score all those points?"Friday night was not one of those nights.Doug McDermott had 11 points at halftime, right on pace for his 2...
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