Dailies

CLEVELAND -- Hundreds of seasons lie in ruins now, but there's never time to properly mourn them. Instead, mid-March is for celebrating mid-major championships and great victories, for getting golden tickets to the other side of the great gate of Selection Sunday. It's a time for Robert Morris' redemption, Morehead State's magic, and North Dakota State's Bison Fever.

But there are some still stuck in limbo, unsure of their fate. There is pain like this every year, the same desperate grasp for any good news, any at all, and we pass along the same advice to Davidson and Saint Mary's and Creighton as we always have to teams that are counting on external events. Forget it, you're out. If salvation comes in the form of an NCAA reprieve, the distance between apathy and ecstasy is greater than that which separates tension and pleasure. Allow yourself the opportunity to feel the rush of being born again, and if it doesn't come at all, the hurt won't hurt as badly. For now, let it go. It's over... unless it isn't.

Good Morning Hoops Nation, on the other hand, is over. This is the final daily weekday post of Season 5, marking the end of the third of four chapters of our beautiful season. This format isn't needed now; things get a little less structured and predictable once the great creaking pipes and tubes of the Big Bracket get wheeled out from the Indianapolis Westin's 15th Floor Sunday evening. And it's another opportunity to thank all of you for following along for the last four months... especially to those who made sure the journey could continue.

You can count on this: over the weekend, there will be another three Tourney Central posts, an update on Bally's travels, and the final State of the Other 22½ ratings for posterity's sake. But for all other intents and purposes, we'll see you on the other side.

KATY, Tex. -- Quick programming note: we've run into some technical difficulties here in Texas, so that marathon chat we promised has to be postponed. Next week seems a better fit anyway, since there will be an actual 65-team bracket to talk about. We'll do a regular chat tomorrow from Cleveland at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, and go for the world wide web record (which now appears to be held by somebody named "Mr. Roboto"... did someone hack the leaderboard?) at a later date.

In a universe without a middle, we humans are always try to carve out centers and capitals where we can be supreme rulers and arbiters. One of the oddest methods of doing this is the awarding of invisible prizes to others. Every American does this to some extent: filling out a fake ballot for the Oscars®, voting on "American Idol," deciding who is and isn't in our own personal Halls of Fame (which are always so much better than the real ones), and creating All-Fill-In-The-Blank teams. Everybody holds little awards shows in their minds, and some are narcissistic enough to think that the actual recipients would be grateful if they knew they were receiving such honors.

Here at The Mid-Majority, we're not immune to this intoxicating, powerful compulsion. And for the second straight season, we're using the second-to-last daily post before Selection Sunday to "hand out" "awards" to those we think were the best in their respective leagues. Here, then, are the TMM Coach and Player of the Year for each of the 23 sub-Red Line conferences and independents -- as well as the "coveted" Mid-Majority National Coach of the Year and Baller of the Year.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- With our third-to-last GMHN of Season 5, we have a very special treat for you, yes we do. The image you see over and over during Championship Fortnight is students running all willy-nilly onto the floor after their beloved teams win mid-major titles. So it's only fitting that we celebrate this with The Mid-Majority's First Annual Floor-Storming Symposium.

The pictures in this post are all by me. I've stormed the floor 11 times, but I leave the true expertise on that subject to others who've put it in their website names. Our panel today contains the illustrious duo that heads up Storming The Floor, Marco Anskis and Eric "Extra P." Angevine. They've literally written the post, if not the book, on court storming: an intricate ruleset of when to do it, and when not to do it. We also have Matt Restivo, a fantastic blogger and floor-rusher in his own right, from the Siena Saints Blog. Matt's reporting from Monday night's Siena win, after which he ran out on the Times Union Center hardwood with everybody else. He and I also rushed together in Albany last March, making us stormin'-bros 4 lyfe.

The four of us, through the magic of the Intertron, sat down this week to discuss such matters as authoritarian killjoys who stop the rush from happening, Cornell's moshpit from last week, court-storming injuries and memories, explaining the feeling to others less fortunate, Bison Fever, the best court storm ever, and the parallels between floor-rushing and sex.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- There are 248 teams in conferences below the Red Line. Only 25 or so will move on to compete for the coveted Division I title next week, have their names known by everybody, reflect in the fleeting glory that's reserved for champions. Most of our favorite teams are already packed up for the summer, or waiting to play out their seasons in hopes of false championships, or in tension-coated limbo. As we did last season, we're taking a moment to recognize eight schools that exceeded their modest expectations and compiled solid seasons, if generally uncelebrated ones.

James Madison (19-14, 9-9 Colonial) -- As VCU holds aloft its title belt in Richmond, don't forget about the breakthrough season enjoyed by the cross-state Dukes. After the departure of Dean Keener last spring, Matt Brady came in from Marist and reminded JMU what winning basketball felt like after eight straight losing seasons. Nobody benefitted from the improvement more than 6-6 senior Juwann James, an extraordinary and explosive player who got a small and delicious taste of success after playing on some truly bad teams in his first three years. And a good sign for 2009-10: junior guard Pierre Curtis began finding momentum and consistency late in the year. He led the team in scoring in both playoff games.

Long Island (16-14, 12-6 Northeast) -- The Blackbirds, one of the great mid-majors long before anybody had a word for it, have been an ashtray for the NEC for most of the decade, and were more known for their quaint and much-missed arena than anything else. But you likely missed the resurgence, perhaps because LIU ended up on the short end of a three-way tie for second place and had to settle for a No. 4 seed. Seventh-year head coach Jim Ferry piloted the team to 12 conference wins, its best NEC record since 1998, and registered a dozen wins in its relatively new Athletic Center. And since the team returns its top six scorers next season, this is probably just the beginning.

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. -- Our year is a blur of quick-cut transitions: from total silence to Midnight Madness, pre-season to regular season, games outside conferences to games inside parentheses. Standings grids give way to brackets, and before you know it, campaigns are cut short in early elimination rounds. And then more seasons are over. There are champions and runner-ups, could-have-beens and never-wases. About 25 of us make it past the NCAA's gate; some find glory, most are just visiting. Then it's all over.

The inevitable shuttering of certain Mid-Majority segments is a small but subtle reminder that that little dot on the horizon line is in view and getting closer every day. There are no more Games! Of! The! Night!, no more Bally contests, one more Baller of the Week (in advance of the Baller of the Year presentation on Thursday), and only five more Good Mornings. This is the fifth-to-last one of those.

As in previous years, each of the next four days will have a certain purpose. Tomorrow, we'll celebrate some lost seasons by teams that may not have made it all the way, but came farther than last time and could very well go farther in 2009-10. On Wednesday, there will be a special surprise symposium about floor storming with some very special guests. Thursday is awards day, when we'll name a Mid-Majority Player and Coach of the Year for each sub-Red Line conference. And Friday is a special season-ending tribute to the cheerleaders and dance teams that work so hard to entertain us during timeouts. It'll be totally classy.

NASHVILLE -- You might recall that there was a marathon chat announced to be held Friday (tomorrow) from the Valley quarterfinals. Due to a number of factors, that's being postponed. Instead, we'll try for a 12-hour chat next Thursday, and do a regular chat at 3:00 EST tomorrow that will overlap with the Bradley-Southern Illinois game. Come by, won't you?

It's also the final day to submit an entry for the final contest of the 2008-09 season: provide a concept for a four-panel Bally cartoon, which I'll draw up in time for next week. The entries so far have been great, except for one small detail: many outlines are longer than an issue of Watchmen. The winning entry will be one that doesn't make my hand fall off, and will be one that uses the setting-setup-punchline system that's kept the funny pages funny for nearly a century. But still, some of these are so awesome, they may just be presented as text-pictures anyway. As always, use The Form™.

Conference Calls

Southland: Fifteen of the 23 leagues on this side of the Red Line are already seeded and bracketed, and team seasons are ending wherever you look. But conferences like the SLC are still figuring themselves out in a safe, non-elimination format in preparation for the second wave of tourneys next week. Sam Houston State (11-4) still holds a one-game edge in the wild West, the side where all the offense is. Every school in that division scores at least 70 points per game (the Bearkats lead all with 78.3 PA), and the Eastern schools are all below 67. So when SHSU plays a team like, say, Northwestern State, an 84-66 result is just the law of averages playing out. But East leaders Stephen F. Austin can play a little defense: check out this blowout win over Central Arkansas, which ended 61-39 but had the amazing halftime score of 33-7 -- just ahead of the six Samford managed in a half against Ohio State earlier this season. SFA clinched at least a share of the regular season title with the win.

HOUSTON -- Think of it this way: this is the only time when team rankings are based in reality. It's all posturing and conjecture in November, it's a popularity contest every Monday afternoon, and it's not necessary to hash over the imperfection of a convoluted process that will take place in downtown Indianapolis, once again, in just over a week. When a league's regular season is complete, teams have played an equal number of games in conference context, and are sorted by winning percentage and logical tiebreakers. This is where you stand among your peers, right now, and your position is indisputable. Upsets are real and true upsets here: underdogs in league tourneys, when they defeat favorites, are eliminating teams with superior accomplishments.

The regular season and conference tourney are both necessary, because they provide two separate and important measurements of quality. (It's not the difference between a "marathon" and a "sprint," because those comparisons are an insult to marathon runners.) The first two months of the calendar year test the endurance and structural integrity of a team, placing demands on its ability to remain consistent, resilient and uninjured. In March, the team organism enters a world of harsh, cruel Darwinism, life and death. The name of the game is survival and survival only, advancement follows naturally.

To a follower and fan of the game, the latter is much more interesting and thrilling. That's why, as happens every March, thousands of new and different folks will enter this general area. We've upped the bandwidth on the site in preparation... so, welcome back.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Every day we get just a little more physically vulnerable, every day another step closer to the inevitable finish line of life. The positive trade-off is that whether we've cheated the reaper by strengthening our bodies or not, our minds are always increasing in power. Every day, we learn, we pick up something we didn't know before. Here are some truths that have revealed themselves over the weekend.

Bally has a street value. For the record, it's $43.00. That's how much Bally went for in this weekend's first-ever eBay auction, which is a lot more than the 26 clams Marvelous Malia and Sweet Sasha are priced at. Think about that for a moment. Thanks to everybody who bid Bally up, and if you're not one of the four finalists in the Tom Petty song-off, you'll have one last chance to win your own orange buddy tomorrow. That's right, one last chance... this will be the last weekly contest for Season 5.

Bally is severely delicious. This is what was waiting for me at press row before the Horizon League clincher at Hinkle Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Though nobody has time to read them anymore, and the economy's so bad that folks are burning them for heat, writers aren't really considered "writers" until there's a stack of dead tree scrapings covered with their scribblings available for general purchase. Especially since writing has moved increasingly online, and into real-time, being able to string 80,000 words together is more a test and a feat of mental strength than a profitable exercise. It's the ultimate marathon experience for people who sit around a lot.

A standard greeting colleagues have offered this season is, "How's the book coming?" or "Can't wait to see that book!" It's been a project with its ups and downs, dating back to the smug initial announcement last May and winding through a summer during which is became obvious that my publisher was careening towards Chapter 11. Even though I had a restrictive contract, I vowed that I would continue the effort, to chronicle the seasons of three squads as they attempted to return to the NCAA Tournament after at least a year away. I was granted locker-room access and everything I needed to tell the stories correctly.

The "November" section was going to be hopeful and promising: everyone starts 0-0, the beautiful season, etc. etc. Each of the three teams had some early success, building momentum and announcing their intention to build something special. Each fell off in "December," which I initially saw as an easy way to build dramatic tension. Sure, they were being blown out by 30 on national television now, but could they turn it around after Christmas break? Stay tuned, keep reading!

ATHENS, Ohio -- As was noted in this kind piece by the newspaper I spent my college career wishing I could work for, next week marks the beginning of what we're really here for, what this is really all about. The conference tourneys mark the third of the four seasons within a season in college basketball, and by far the most wonderful. The NCAA Tournament is okay enough, if ultimate glory is your thing -- but this will be the last time we'll all be together, when each and every team in Hoops Nation still has a chance to be champions (well, except for Harvard, Brown and the other laggards of the Ivy).

To emerge victorious from the Ohio Valley, or America East, or Big Sky, to carry the league's flag to the national bracket, that is a remarkable accomplishment. To emerge from the long grind of 16 or 20 games, then play lossless and near-perfect basketball in a tense single-elimination event, that is what we celebrate here. These are the titles we reference continually on The Mid-Majority, the "league champion" tags that are afforded winners of banners that may not achieve the proper respect outside these digital walls. A week later, to most, they'll just be double-digit seeds.

Conference tourneys have always been the centerpiece of this mission, even before there was a website to promote it. A decade ago, I would spend long March weekday afternoons in Philadelphia's Spectrum, watching the Atlantic 12 field winnow itself down to one, then started making road trips to the MAAC event in Albany and Trenton when just one wasn't enough. In 2004, the "exploratory" year for what you currently see here, I drove to the MAAC, NEC, Patriot, MEAC, Colonial, A-12, C-USA, Big Ten and MAC tourneys: a total of 25 games in 10 days. It was the most fun week of my life up to that point.

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- Still trying to figure out what all this means. So you're saying that if I had just auctioned off a crate full of Ballys last month, we wouldn't have had to do that whole bailout thing? But seriously, it's amazing to see that we've touched off the hottest plushie trend since Peace Bear. Thanks to all.

And after the strained response to last week's contest that triggered the first-ever Bally auction, this week's version is shaping up to be a classic-rock classic. The rules are simple: submit a plea to the Selection Committee to the tune of a Tom Petty song, use The Form™, and we'll put the best handful up to a vote over the weekend. "Free Fallin'" is by far the most popular appropriation so far, we're looking for a few more from Wildflowers or Echo to balance things out.

Next Tuesday, we'll roll out our always-popular Tourney Central daily feature, with updated conference tournament brackets and quickie game previews all the way to Selection Sunday. Over the next week or so, we'll look at the conference races as they draw to a close, and take them a few at a time.

Conference Calls

Big South (begins Tue., Mar. 3): Radford (14-2) captured the No. 1 seed last Saturday with a 97-90 win at VMI, which turned around and thrashed Liberty last night 109-72 (the Keydets' largest road victory margin in a half-century) to clinch No. 2. Liberty (12-5) is in No. 3 position, and split with current No. 4 and 2008 regular season champions UNC Asheville (11-6) in the season series. The way the Big South has operated since last year is that the top seed is guaranteed to host the semifinal and final rounds, but if Radford is upset in the quarters, the hosting duties would fall to the highest surviving seed. As the tourney has not gone completely according to seed since 1999, it's not outside possibility's realm.

LYNCHBURG, Va. -- In the late stages of a Sunday flight from Raleigh to Nashville, after the announcement about portable electronic devices, I did what most people in need of an info-fix do: page through the Sky Mall catalog. It's only in those 20 minutes at the end when full-size Lord of the Rings swords and adult footed pajamas make 100 percent perfect sense, and I'm sure they'd sell a lot more if phone calls were allowed before the thud of the landing. It always breaks the spell.

One item I noticed, and lingered on, was an expensive framed shadow-box print featuring a speech by Vince Lombardi. He was a famous coach of American-style football before having his name placed on the best service area on the New Jersey Turnpike. It's a famous speech, delivered to his team one time, and historians and marketers have given it the title, "What It Takes to be Number One." It ends like this:

I believe in God, and I believe in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

Seriously? Are there people out there who believe this garbage to be true, relevant or inspirational? The part that's missing here is that time doesn't stop, and there's no happily-ever-after or The End with a great victory. Nowadays, as Lombardi's battle-man lies expended, agents will pick his pocket, and sportswriters will demand endless repeats of the performance for the sake of "validity." Then, some guy's liable to come long, pull down the hero's pants, and take a picture of his schwanz for Deadspin.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- BracketBusters VII is safely in the history books now. It was more fulfilling than a Dave & Buster's appetizer (six chips do not qualify as "nachos"), and fell somewhere between Buster the crash-test dummy and Buster Bluth on the entertainment scale. Longtime readers will recognize the wrapup format here, and might know that I've already used this reference twice in previous years.

BracketBusted: As a pall descended over Belk Arena at the final media timeout on Saturday on the way to a 12-point Butler road win, there came the sad realization in the stands that Davidson 2009 isn't exactly Davidson 2008. Stephen Curry's jello-wristed 6-for-23 shooting performance notwithstanding (the result of not practicing for a week, and his status as a game-time decision in the wake of his week-old ankle injury), the Wildcats were just plain manhandled by Butler. When the Bulldogs wanted better floor positioning on offense, they took it. When the white-clads stood in their way, the black and blue crew pushed them out. They didn't even ask nicely.

A lot's been made of how much the Wildcats miss playmaking point guard Jason Richards. And that's true, they do. But I'd have to say that the team probably misses Boris Meno and Thomas Sander more, two post players who steadfastly disallowed NCAA Tournament opponents to use them as doormats. A year from now, Frank Ben-Eze will have the control to match his power, and Ben Allison will better know what to do with his physical tools. For now, they're freshman bit players, full of promise, and Davidson has lost three straight home games.

MORAGA, Cal. -- I've come to avidly dislike "bracketology" in all its forms, I don't make any bones or excuses about that. I can't stand bubble watching or seed projecting. I respect Joe Lunardi for combining computer power and over-the-top braggadocio to single-handedly ignite a cottage industry, and I think Cort Basham's approach is great -- he gathers a group of friends every March to create an actual mock committee to hash out a bracket. Everybody else is masturbating into a washcloth.

I don't think that characterization is too far out of line, especially since we're talking about "fantasy sports" here. Bracketology and tournament pools are part of a larger trend that includes fake baseball and pretend football. This fantasy is a dream of executive force and power over an uncertain future. I'm not so sure what any of that has to do with sports.

Fantasy sports seem like a response to a secret powerlessness. Average Fan, priced out of the arena and forced to watch through a TV filter that adds its own value-added storylines, wants his precious control back. Doughy and unathletic from the products hawked during the commercial breaks, Average Fan seeks to commoditize the very entities that alienated him. Overwhelmed with choices and cable channels, recasting the sports universe in his own image must seem like the only remaining option; the others are boredom, dissatisfaction and ADD.

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Cal. -- Morning really is a relative concept, isn't it? It's always morning somewhere, or 5 p.m., or the night time (a/k/a "the right time"). And it just might be Morning in America all over again, depending on what economic time zone you're in. I write this to you as the a.m. hours disappear in a land of high sun, terra cotta roofs and gently swaying palms -- it's certainly easy to lose track of time here. But trust me, you'll get your lunch money's worth today. We've got mail, announcements, toys, and a cast of characters ranging from world leaders to Division I's shortest player.

First of all, don't forget about our Bally contest this week. If you attend a school taking part in this weekend's BracketBusters extravaganza, you're invited to drop some science on your opponent in the form of devastating slam poetry through The Form™. The responses so far are excellent, although a bit scant. Hoping to put this to a vote on Friday and crown a championship belt winner while the action is going on Saturday.

Secondly, we're having a massive BracketBusters chat on Thursday (tomorrow) starting at 11 a.m. Eastern. We're going to go as long as there are questions to answer, which is hopefully six hours or more. Please do come by, won't you?

On to the real meat. I'm working on a short column about last week's NCAA mock selection for Basketball Times. I had the opportunity to follow up with NCAA Tournament czar Greg Shaheen, likely the only man who's been in each War Room in the past decade. The article won't be published until next month, but I wanted to share a part of our e-convo with you today in its original Q&A format.

SAN JOSE -- Hundreds of votes have been counted, and Lester Hudson now has a nickname. (Figures it would be the one with the cool poem attached to it.) In this space, all future references to Tennessee-Martin's future NBA star will include "Done Ruthless," which is a fantastic anagram of his name, or just "D.R.", which is an indication of how he surgically dismantles opponents.

Chris is our winner, and he's earned himself a Bally. If you'll just use The Form™ to pass along your mailing info, make sure you use the same e-mail address you used with your original submission -- so we know it's you. We just received a new shipment of Ballys at TMM Mobile HQ, so you'll get it within a week. (All Bally winners of the last month or so should be receiving theirs in the next few days, so make sure you take him to games and snap some pix!)

OK, on to our next contest, but first a plug. Since we're flying back east on Friday to the Butler-Davidson BracketBuster (thanks, voting donator people!), our massive BracketBusters marathon chat will occur on Thursday starting at 11 a.m. ET, live from Saint Mary's College in Moraga, Cal.. Last year, when we were working for Those Guys, we went over six hours and were temporarily the third-longest chat in that site's history behind two long ones by That Guy. (Neyer, Opening Day, we don't want to talk about it.) Let's see how long we can go this time now that we're indie rock again.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Well, here we are. Today is Mock Selection III, and I still have no idea what I did to deserve an invitation -- or why I've been listed as representing Basketball State all along. It's a real thrill, even though we've had to detour from our regularly scheduled travel and will be going five days without live basketball as a result.

I've received a few notes from web bracketology wizards in the past 24 hours, some defending themselves against yesterday's comments about location, but most wanting more information out of this binder we were given. How about this, for example: Supplement No. 11 details the hard-and-fast rules about hosting conflicts, the teams that are not allowed to be seeded in a particular region. Teams are not to be placed or aimed towards a pod where their own institution or conference is hosting (duh), but the tricky part is keeping schools out of sites where they've played at least three games, as specified in Principle No. 4 of the "bracketing safety net" section. Thankfully, the NCAA has compiled a nice cheatsheet.

LITTLE ROCK -- Just one more day until that whole Mock Selection thing, and we're still chewing over this wonderful binder full of information. After decades of hearing this or that from NCAA representatives every March, it's nice to see this stuff printed in black and white.

From a 7,000-foot perspective, there are three primary phases in bracket selection, and they're done in strict order. First, selection of the 34 best at-large teams, seeding of the 65 schools, then placement of the teams into the championship bracket. There are four general principles of this process: the first is that committee members "shall not be present during discussions regarding the selection or seeding of a team the individual represents as an athletics director or commissioner." Having heard this stated for years, I'm looking forward to seeing how this is handled. Committee members can't vote for those teams, but are "permitted to answer general, factual questions" about them. Finally, everything is done by secret ballot.

Here's a segment from the section on RPI (emphasis included): "The RPI is intended to be used as one of many resources/tools available to the committee in the selection, seeding and bracketing process. Computer models cannot accurately evaluate qualitative factors such as games missed by key players or coaches, travel difficulties, a team's performance in the last 12 games, the emotional effects of specific games, etc."

This is an interesting paragraph to me. For one thing, I know of a computer model that weights recent results and local conference games, so SkyNet is ahead of the humans on that one. But using the word "emotional" is a gateway into the wonderful world of subjectivity and the "gut factor." Besides, if school and conference representatives can only respond factually about their teams, how are committee members informed about these emotions? Do they imagine them?

NATCHITOCHES, La. -- Tomorrow I'll drive the four hours back up to Little Rock, jump on a jetliner and return to the hub-and-spoke center of Hoops Nation, the city of Indianapolis. On Thursday at 1:30 p.m., I'll walk into the Hyatt Regency with 19 other journalists and engage in the third annual NCAA mock bracket selection.

After a few weeks of wondering what came next, I received my binder yesterday and I couldn't be more excited. The binder is chock full of policies and procedures, as well as a supplement full of the real actual directions the selection committee members will follow next month. They'll meet on Tuesday, March 10 (at the Westin, not the Hyatt Regency) and use Wednesday to get used to the computer system and study stats. Sequestered in the north wing of the 15th floor, guarded from other hotel guests by security, they'll think over the bracket and begin making their decisions. Anybody who calls their rooms will have to give a special password, and hotel staff cannot enter the area without NCAA chaperones.

Of course, we only get one day, not five. We have to get back on the road and cover basketball, so we're getting a 14-hour crash course in the system. As I've mentioned before, the whole thrust of this exercise is transparency, so I'll attempt to share as much of it as I can with you.

BATON ROUGE -- When the ax started falling in the SEC last month with midseason firings, the thought around here was that it was kinda cute. Four such severances in four years seemed like another indication that the pressures of BCS basketball were getting to be more in line with those of the pros, where seven coaches have been fired so far in 2008-09. The power conferences were getting increasingly like the NBA, we thought, and the next logical step would be 48-minute games or shoe deals for individual players. Didn't figure that this bad idea would hit our level so soon.

On Friday, Tennessee State embarrassed Cy Alexander by firing him 12 games into the OVC season. The reason given was the need for a "new direction," the same phrase we've been hearing for years at the higher levels when an NBA team gets out to a poor start. From everything we saw and heard at the OVC tournament last March, this would have been done last summer if the Tigers hadn't come out of a seven-seed to make the title game against Austin Peay. The school was just waiting for the right excuse, and a 6-16 overall record was good enough.

Alexander, who's coached for 24 years, deserves better treatment and more respect than this. He took South Carolina State to five NCAA tournaments, won three coach of the year titles in the MEAC, and is still spoken of as a living legend around that league. In the OVC, which honestly isn't a much higher level of basketball (and plays almost just as many guarantee games), Alexander was eight games under .500 in league games since 2003. The very least TSU could have done was let him coach until the end of the season.