• Season 9 SuperTicker presented by BLAPP
#TMM9
Having recently completed its 9th season, The Mid-Majority is a community chronicle of the smaller Division I college basketball conferences. Last year, the theme was Team. Six groups of five (plus a fantasy mid-major player) were engaged in friendly Amazing Race-style competition, criss-crossing Hoops Nation to provide awesome college basketball content. Season X (2013-14) will be our final one.

Recent Game Recaps

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

Tag: Evansville Aces
Sorted by date
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 December 26, 2012 Saturday was "Hoosier Hysteria Day at Hinkle", honoring the legacy of Indiana High School Basketball, particularly those events held at the old fieldhouse. When Butler Fieldhouse was built in 1928, it was partially funded by the Indiana High School Athletic Association to serve as the home site for...
S8 April 2, 2012 Game #8-806: Evansville Aces at Creighton BluejaysFebruary 21, 2012 8:00 pmQwest CenterBBState Stats/RecapI don’t arrive at games late. Well, not really, really late. Quite often my wife and I arrive just before or just at tip-off, but I’m basically on time, not missing more than a few moments. Also...
S8 March 27, 2012 Game #8-686: Evansville Aces vs. Creighton BluejaysMarch 3, 2012 5:05 pmSt. Louis, MOBBState Stats/RecapFor 10 years, I have attended Arch Madness in St. Louis and learned something about new about the Missouri Valley Conference. For example, I learned two years ago that if I was going to criticize ...
S8 March 24, 2012 Game #8-684: Missouri State Bears vs. Evansville AcesMarch 2, 2012 9:35 pmSt. Louis, MOBBState Stats/RecapEven though his Missouri State team trailed the frustratingly meticulous Evansville Aces from the opening tip, you had the sense Kyle Weems would not lose this game.As the second half wore on an...
S8 March 4, 2012 Game #8-686: Evansville Aces vs. Creighton BluejaysMarch 3, 2012 5:05 pmSt. Louis, MOBBState Stats/RecapIt seems like a pretty standard line in a play-by-play scoring account when you first look at it: 02:34 GOOD! 3 PTR by Dorwart,Matthew 96-66 Dorwart had checked into the game with 3:04 left, his C...
S8 March 4, 2012 Game #8-684: Missouri State Bears vs. Evansville AcesMarch 2, 2012 9:35 pmSt. Louis, MOBBState Stats/RecapMy MVC mole friend paid me another visit in the sparsely populated upper deck during the second half of the last game of the night. He has paid me regular visits during the tournament, providing...
S8 February 10, 2012 Game #8-539: Creighton Bluejays at Evansville AcesFebruary 7, 2012 8:05 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapConference play is a beast. Season after season, somewhere along the way you'll see a score that just makes you scratch your head and ask 'How did they lose to them?' In the Missouri...
S8 February 7, 2012 Game #8-527: Evansville Aces at Southern Illinois SalukisFebruary 4, 2012 3:05 pmThe SIU ArenaBBState Stats/RecapThere is one topic that is the butt of many jokes, the place to turn to when there is nothing left to be said, the weather. Here in the Midwest we like to tell people if you don't like th...
S8 January 31, 2012 Game #8-488: Indiana State Sycamores at Evansville AcesJanuary 29, 2012 8:00 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapTime for a confession, and with this being a Sunday night tilt, it is rather fitting. I was running a bit later than normal. Didn't miss any of the game but had to hustle to get...
S8 January 24, 2012 Game #8-453: Illinois State Redbirds at Evansville AcesJanuary 21, 2012 8:05 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapIt seems almost surreal to think we are at the midpoint of conference play in the Missouri Valley, yet on Saturday night at the Ford Center in downtown Evansville, the Purple Ac...
S8 December 30, 2011 Game #8-311: Southern Illinois Salukis at Evansville AcesDecember 29, 2011 8:00 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapAfter spending time with family in Ohio and Illinois, it was back to the 800 Games Project on Thursday night in Evansville to see the Purple Aces face Southern Illinois. This...
S8 December 30, 2011 Game #8-311: Southern Illinois Salukis at Evansville AcesDecember 29, 2011 8:00 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapEvansville hosted Southern Illinois tonight, opening conference play in The Valley while renewing a rivalry that spans decades. The Purple Aces and Salukis have quite a histo...
S8 December 6, 2011 Game #8-190: Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Evansville AcesDecember 3, 2011 8:05 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapChallenge. It's a word thrown about in college sports as a result of two leagues above the red line playing one another in a series of games that were made for TV. It has b...
S8 November 30, 2011 Game #8-153: Alabama State Hornets at Evansville AcesNovember 29, 2011 8:35 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapPreviously, we discussed Resistance, the ugly voice inside everyone’s head that keeps them from chasing after what they really want to do. It’s the enemy of our hopes and dreams....
S8 November 17, 2011 Game #8-047: Indiana Hoosiers at Evansville AcesNovember 16, 2011 8:05 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapThere is a certain way native Hoosiers believe the game should be played. It involves a motion offense, man-to-man defense along with a team concept with the sum being greater than th...
S8 November 13, 2011 Game #8-011: Butler Bulldogs at Evansville AcesNovember 12, 2011 3:05 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/RecapChange. Change is a constant in our game.  Each season a new group of incoming freshman become the next great hope to lead the program to one shining moment come March.  As t...
S7 March 19, 2011 [14] Indiana State Sycamores vs. [3] Syracuse OrangeMarch 18, 2011 9:57 pmCleveland, OHBBState Stats/Recap Thousands of Big Blue fans -- the real Big Blue -- made the trip up from Terre Haute to spend all night in Quicken Loans Arena and watch their Valley champs go down to Big Orange. And they all...
S7 March 13, 2011 If college basketball has taught us anything, it's that there's nothing that becomes irrelevant more suddenly than Championship Fortnight. Once the NCAA Tournament bracket is released, the previous two weeks slip into history... very quickly. But one thing that has to be remembered: the teams that w...
S7 March 5, 2011 h2 {margin-bottom:10px;font-size:13px;font-family:Droid Sans, arial;line-height:17px;} #droid {font-size:11px;font-family:Droid Sans, arial;line-height:13px;margin-bottom:8px;} #droid a:link, #droid a:visited {font-size:11px;font-family:Droid Sans, arial;line-height:13px;}Bullet PointsNow it's mad, ...
S7 March 5, 2011 Marist Red Foxes vs. Niagara Purple EaglesMarch 4, 2011 7:30 pmBridgeport, CTBBState Stats/RecapManhattan Jaspers vs. Siena SaintsMarch 4, 2011 9:30 pmBridgeport, CTBBState Stats/Recap The time-honored tradition of the MAAC's #PFF, the two games that bring a 10-team league into a more manageable, ...
S7 March 4, 2011 h2 {margin-bottom:10px;font-size:13px;font-family:Droid Sans, arial;line-height:17px;} #droid {font-size:11px;font-family:Droid Sans, arial;line-height:13px;margin-bottom:8px;} #droid a:link, #droid a:visited {font-size:11px;font-family:Droid Sans, arial;line-height:13px;}Bullet PointsOn the third d...
S7 March 1, 2011 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- First of all, a great big thank you to every single person who got in on the Team Ballz promotion yesterday. They sold out in just under eight hours, and there are going to be some awesome new Ballz births in Hoops Nation in April. There were some folks who ended up late and hea...
S7 February 23, 2011 CHICAGO -- Every single one of the conference games going on tonight, and tomorrow, and Friday and Saturday too, were scheduled months in advance by a league office (or, in some cases, years ago). Some were circled rivalry games worth driving a day for, others were just-anothers. In early March, t...
S7 February 16, 2011 HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- March really is here before we know it, because there's half a week missing out of February. This month wasn't designed that way -- and nothing was adjusted for our benefit or anything -- but it's still disorienting and disruptive to look at a calendar and realize that in two ...
S7 February 16, 2011 George Mason Patriots at Virginia Commonwealth RamsFebruary 15, 2011 7:00 pmSiegel CenterBBState Stats/Recap VCU hadn't lost two consecutive games at the Siegel Center since it opened. Broken streak, broken hearts, broken signboard. @midmajority Game Tweets18:50 Game No. 7-057: George Mason at VC...
S7 February 15, 2011 RICHMOND, Va. -- For most of recorded history, things that weren't paid for didn't happen. Take the Old West, for instance. You think saloons allowed tabs? As long as there were four-legged vehicles tied to the post out front, every customer represented a potential flight risk. Plus, there was alw...
S7 February 10, 2011 Your Last Man Live entries were quite enjoyable to read. I also got a kick out of trying to figure out who the Conduit was and following the #LastMan and #FindLastMan twitter hashtags. Congrats on making it past day two anyways.- FrankPROVIDENCE, R.I. -- And so after two days, 11 hours, 23 minutes...
S7 February 9, 2011 ??????, ?.?. -- The game continues into its third day; full coverage can be found on the Last Man Live page. Normally on Wednesday, we have a mailbag feature. At the moment, the mailbag is sitting in the corner, tied up. We're not reading The Form™ or e-mail or Twitter or anything outside th...
S7 February 7, 2011 ?????, ?.?. -- Hello from back here on Sunday evening. As for the future present, we are playing our annual game of Last Man, and avoiding The Knowledge as best as possible. But we must always attend to our regular duties, which is sharing the good kind of knowledge with Hoops Nation. What a crazy...
S7 February 3, 2011 Today is National Pixelvision Day, and the festivities will last from 7 pm ET to after midnight. If you'd like to get involved, shuttle down. PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- An old hippie once proclaimed that information wants to be free. He was a publisher whose bound publication eventually folded. Me, I thi...
S7 February 1, 2011 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- So much has changed in a single calendar year. On February 1, 2010, the iPad had just been announced, and no mere civilian had touched one yet. Now, they're on press row at college basketball games. The Robot has grown a soul, exhibited feelings, taken a name. (It's "Doctor Thun...
S7 January 31, 2011 As is annual tradition here at TMM, we've put together a full rundown of all the announced BracketBusters matchups, and this will likely be the most clicked-on page of the season once again. It's incredibly difficult to find a complete list of all the non-TV games, which are quietly announced by the...
S7 January 31, 2011 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- What is madness? Back up, let's start this way: the reason and order necessary for understanding and mastery of one's surroundings has no room or space for such anarchic disruption. Madness is the danger where once things were safe, displacing sense and destroying sensibilities....
S7 January 29, 2011 Binghamton Bearcats at Boston University TerriersJanuary 26, 2011 9:00 pmCase GymBBState Stats/Recap New England has had a tough winter. Snowstorm after blizzard after Nor'Easter has dumped feet and feet of snow on the upper right-hand corner of Hoops Nation; it's piled high along the sides of roa...
S7 January 27, 2011 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- The real state of the Union is that it's changing faster than ever. When you're away from the place you live for an entire month, don't expect it to be the same when you return. Here in Providence's baseball suburb, there are more "for sale" signs on frozen front lawns than ever...
S7 January 10, 2011 VALPARAISO, Ind. -- Now that January has reached double-digits, the slow transition is, in full essence, complete. It's conference season, and even the teams in the Ivy League are starting to play each other. This is definitely the second part of the beautiful season, the third best of the four. N...
S7 January 5, 2011 I felt like I ought to write in about the end of the 100GP, since I have to admit I felt a pretty big sense of disappointment (though not surprise) when you said it wasn't going to happen in the future...I think the road is an important part of the site. In general, I think a good outcome would b...
S7 December 21, 2010 Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders at Evansville AcesDecember 18, 2010 3:05 pmRoberts Municipal StadiumBBState Stats/Recap Roberts Municipal Stadium was built in 1956, back when indoor arenas were called "stadiums" and it didn't sound kind of awkward. It has seen a lot of Evansville Purple Aces basket...
S7 December 9, 2010 Toledo Rockets at IPFW MastodonsDecember 8, 2010 6:00 pmAllen County War Memorial ColiseumBBState Stats/Recap Fort Wayne, Indiana is one of hundreds of far-inland American cities struggling to find an identity in the post-crash New Economy. For now, "sports tourism" will do. And we are sports tour...
S7 December 9, 2010 CINCINNATI -- Recently, at a game, I sat next to a "national columnist" as I tapped away at my keyboard, scribbling notes in a notebook, wearing my suit with sneakers, accompanied by my stuffed basketball companion. Afterwards, as I was packing up, he extended his hand tentatively. "Kyle, right?" he...
S7 November 29, 2010 PHILADELPHIA - The holidays, then. In the distant past, this was a time to gather around fires, which was important enough for physical and psychological survival that people would rearrange birthdays just for the excuse to do so. Over the centuries, this time of year became a giant magnet that pu...
S6 March 25, 2010 What's a mid-major? What isn't? Have you had enough of this crap? Yeah, we have too, since Season 3 or so. It's an impossible discussion to have, especially when one-third of the people in the debate think it's a snapshot measure of basketball quality, another third insist it's about intangibles l...
S6 March 22, 2010 In a lot of ways, Northern Iowa feels like the Missouri Valley's far outpost, all the way up there at the tip of the conference. There's no sizable metropolitan area or skyline, like the western points of Omaha and Wichita, and Cedar Falls doesn't jump up on you on the highway -- you have to choose ...
S6 February 24, 2010 Big Games Missouri Valley: at Evansville 55, Northern Iowa 54 EVAN - 8-20 (2-15) [RPI: 275, State: 289] UNI - 24-4 (14-3) [RPI: 16, State: 15] Star of the Game: James Haarsma 12 Pts (4-4 FG, 4-5 FT), 8 Reb Total Team Effort Gives UE Win Over #22 UNI - A "total team effort" in the words of Head ...
S6 February 16, 2010 Driving Eastward on interstate 255 from St. Louis there's large billboard with the simple phrase "Cougars rising," and each time I see it I inevitably crack a smile, because the Cougars are my work, education and my life. I'm rising too. A short 20 minute drive from that billboard lies our den; a q...
S6 February 9, 2010 Big Games Western Athletic: at New Mexico State 70, Louisiana Tech 68 NMSU - 15-8 (8-2) [RPI: 78, State: 94] LTU - 19-5 (7-3) [RPI: 71, State: 67] Star of the Game: Troy Gillenwater 19 Pts (7-12 FG, 4-4 FT), 8 Reb, 2 Stl Laroche Hits Game Winner over LA Tech, 70-68 - New Mexico State sophomore ...
S6 February 3, 2010 I'll never forget Christmas 1987. The anticipation made my little underdeveloped heart jackrabbit in its bony cage. I recall bounding down the old toasty staircase, pushing my little sister aside, my eyes wide as canned hams. And there, 'neath the tinsel-topped tree, was the box I'd longed for so ...
S6 January 25, 2010 We've spent most of the last week in the Missouri Valley Conference, an annual trip of ours since The Mid-Majority's second season. People often ask me, "Why do you always say that the Valley is the best mid-major conference in the country?" It's a harder sell nowadays, as the MVC will, most likel...
S6 December 18, 2009 INDIANAPOLIS -- If you were a young boy once, or just a 1990's sitcom character, you probably passed odd hours engaging in the classic game of playground speculation -- who would win? Who'd prevail in a fight between Superman and Spiderman? The Incredible Hulk of the Green Giant? My dad or your dad?...
S5 March 19, 2009 MINNEAPOLIS -- Not to get all Jean Shepherd on you, but when I started as an undergrad at the University of Oregon there were no coffee shops near campus. Then one opened up on the corner near the bookstore, and it had couches and soft music and 50 different ways to drink coffee. It was the hottest ...
S5 March 16, 2009 Bullet Points Stephen F. Austin punched Hoops Nation's final NCAA Tournament ticket Sunday afternoon, its first appearance ever. Championship Fortnight is over, and the national postseason is just ahead. Completed brackets and scores for all 23 TMM leagues are included below. Southland Texas...
S5 March 12, 2009 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 ...
S5 March 7, 2009 Bullet Points Cornell became the first school to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament. For the second straight year, the Big Red claimed the Ivy League title, beating Penn 83-59. The upsets began in earnest on Friday. Ohio Valley No. 4 Morehead State took out No. 1 Tennessee-Martin. CAA No....
S5 March 6, 2009 Bullet Points Four-time Atlantic Sun champion Belmont barely escaped Mercer, and Big South top seed Radford fought off a strong challenge from No. 4 UNC Asheville in that league's semifinals. The Big South final on Saturday is set: VMI at Radford. The three top seeds in the Northeast Confer...
S5 March 2, 2009 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 ...
S5 February 25, 2009 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 Pea...
S5 February 24, 2009 Northern Iowa at Illinois State (Missouri Valley) Redbird Arena - Normal, IL 8:05 PM EST And so we approach the end of one of the most strange, random, Bizarro MVC regular seasons in memory. Hopefully next year at this time, we'll be discussing two, three and four bid possibilities -- or rather, t...
S5 February 23, 2009 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 r...
S5 February 21, 2009 So here we are again, it's late February and it's time for Mid-Major Christmas... BracketBusters VII, brought to you locally by Flying J Travel Plazas and Ballito's Powdered Horchata. Here's a handy clip-n'-save list of all Saturday's televised games, with links to handy print-n'-collect Basketball ...
S5 February 17, 2009 Evansville at Creighton (Missouri Valley) Qwest Center - Omaha, NE 8:05 PM EST The Bizarro Valley race is, and I think we can all agree on this, mercifully about to end. There are only three regular-season games to go, and then we can get to the important business of sticking all these teams into ...
S5 February 3, 2009 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- BracketBusters pairings are out, and we're temporarily reunited with our own bed and desktop computer, so it's a good time for a game reset. Who am I? Why am I here? Seventy-five percent of what The Mid-Majority is about during the regular season is analysis. There are check-ins o...
S5 February 3, 2009 As is annual tradition here at TMM, we've put together a full rundown of all 51 announced BracketBusters matchups, and this will likely be the most clicked-on page of the season once again. It's incredibly difficult to find a complete list of all the non-TV games, which are quietly announced by the ...
S5 January 30, 2009 INDIANAPOLIS -- Every once in a while, I receive a hit through the feedback form, written in a language I don't understand. Sometimes these are in French, or German, cast in a Cyrillic alphabet or rendered in simplified Chinese. I'd like to think these are messages of support, and they indicate to ...
S5 January 29, 2009 CHARLESTON, Ill. -- Being an East Coaster with a family tree that only extends thin branches into the midwest, freezing fog is definitely a new experience. Yesterday morning, driving the long straight Interstates of Iowa headlong into the sun, the sky was thick and golden, just like heaven would pro...
S5 January 28, 2009 Silver Jews - "People" CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- Since 2004, I've gone through a lot of different bags, pens, cell phones, cameras, iPods and Moleskines. The only item that I currently carry around the country that came with me on trips four years ago is a taped-together copy of "Actual Air" by poet and...
S5 January 22, 2009 The State of College Basketball is a sorta newish ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of th...
S5 January 15, 2009 The State of College Basketball is a new-esque ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the F...
S5 January 7, 2009 The State of College Basketball is a new-ish ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the Fin...
S5 January 2, 2009 Creighton at Illinois State (Missouri Valley) Redbird Arena - Normal, IL Saturday, 8:05 PM EST We don't often keep the G!O!T!N! camera crew in one place for any significant time, but after the events of New Year's Eve afternoon, we have a situation in the Valley that requires additional monitoring...
S5 January 2, 2009 POCATELLO, Id. -- First of all, we have a chat today over at ESPN SportsNation at 4 p.m. Eastern, or 2 p.m. Mountain Standard. Don't forget! One last blast of mid-major mystery before we turn our attention solely to conference races, and forget that the top eight conferences exist -- a luxury we'll ...
S5 December 31, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the Final F...
S5 December 31, 2008 Evansville at Illinois State (Missouri Valley) Redbird Arena - Normal, IL 3:05 PM EST Much of today's action is of the afternoon variety, because Americans are conditioned to party like rock stars on New Year's Eve. And as 2008 comes to a close with a full slate of Valley games, here's one game th...
S5 December 31, 2008 LOGAN, Utah -- It's the final day of the year, the end of the holidays, and a bad day to buy a calendar (they'll be 50 percent off tomorrow). Here in college basketball world, the ringing out of the old has more to do with crossing the bridge between nonconference and league play -- happily so -- an...
S5 December 29, 2008 LOGAN, Utah -- Whenever I travel to this part of the country, the Tetris-stack of states that makes up the intermountain west, I feel a great sense of unease. This goes back to when I lived in western Oregon for seven years, and would occasionally come further inland, but my advancing age allows me ...
S5 December 18, 2008 Western Kentucky at South Alabama (Sun Belt) Mitchell Center - Mobile, AL 8:05 PM EST The teams in the Sun Belt may not have scheduled well (coming off a two-bid year, the conference RPI is 22 and the noncon record is 49-55), but the league office sure did. Nothing like a mid-December matchup of t...
S5 December 17, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the F...
S5 December 10, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the F...
S5 December 4, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the Final Four ...
S5 December 1, 2008 TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- It's the first of December. Do you know where your college basketball team is? (Arkansas State, by the way, is here in town.) More importantly, do you know what it is? So much of this right now, at this point of the season, is involved in figuring our what is real and what is tr...
S4 March 17, 2008 Bullet Points In the final final in mid-majordom, Texas-Arlington emerged as surprise Southland champs. All hail! We had 78 entries into our "guess-the-play-in-matchup" contest on Saturday, and not a single correct answer. The correct pairing, as we all know now, is Coppin State (MEAC) against Moun...
S4 March 7, 2008 Bullet Points There was an upset in the Atlantic Sun quarters, as No. 6 Gardner-Webb routed No. 3 Stetson. The Big South final is set: UNC Asheville and Winthrop, the league's top two seeds. The game will be played Saturday. In the MVC first round, No. 8 Indiana State and No. 7 Missouri State adva...
S4 March 6, 2008 Bullet Points All four Patriot League quarters were decided by three points or less, and the round featured two upsets as No. 7 Bucknell and No. 5 Army advanced. Bucknell beat No. 2 Navy 87-86 on a John Griffin 40-foot buzzer-beater in triple overtime. In the Sun Belt, the campus-site first roun...
S4 February 26, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the F...
S4 February 19, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the F...
S4 February 14, 2008 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- If you're an eagle-eyed reader, or just someone who can see things that are orange against a tan background, you have likely noticed the new Welmer-Whelliston Widget™ on the right side of the page. I can't believe the response to this since I announced it a couple weeks ago...
S4 February 11, 2008 HAMDEN, Conn. -- We have been, and we stand, accused. Accused! Of having too much fun around here, of shifting the focus off basketball and running too many contests, pictures of pretty girls, cartoons and snapshots of pet basketballs. So we're going to put on our super-serious faces, talk in our su...
S4 February 7, 2008 CLEVELAND -- There are a lot of subtle differences between higher-strata conferences and the leagues at our level. For instance, when a team in the ACC or Pac 10 is having a bad year, the media is still going to write about it, no matter what. The stories usually come with the angle of, "what's goin...
S4 February 6, 2008 As is tradition here at TMM, we've put together a full rundown of all 50 announced BracketBusters matchups. Mostly because we know that it's incredibly difficult to find a complete list of all the non-TV games, which are quietly announced by the schools after ESPN unleashes the televised matchups. T...
S4 February 5, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the F...
S4 January 20, 2008 Fool People always seem so disappointed when the story isn't as simple as they apparently thought it was. In the eyes of some folks, I don't stand up to certain ideas of pure and perfect vagrancy. "You never stay in hotels? You just sleep in the car?" Actually, I stay in hotels on days off betw...
S4 January 16, 2008 ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- I'm really all atwitter today. I've been to 52 games so far this year, but none has been as eagerly anticipated as tonight's. For the finale of my weeklong tour of the Carolinas, I'm going to see UNC Asheville square off against High Point for first-place bragging rights in the Bi...
S4 January 14, 2008 CHARLESTON, S.C. -- It's Monday, which means no cutesy-cutesy, no how-do-ya-do, no warm-up act jokes. Nearly every one of the 245 teams in Hoops Nation played over the weekend, and we're totally committed to mention at least two percent of those. It's all basketball today. Drake. No leading score...
S4 January 13, 2008 This One's For The Valley This one's for the Valley, the Missouri Valley. This is a tribute to that switch of strong and landlocked America that only sees the sun an hour after the right coast does, whether Indiana saves daylight or not. Let the light shine from Lincoln's boyhood home to his lic...
S4 January 9, 2008 After a week-long break (nobody wants to talk during the holidays), TMMI is back. And to kick off the new year, we have one of the most powerful men in all of Hoops Nation, Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Doug Elgin. He's led the toughest mid-major conference in the land since 1988, spent fo...
S4 January 8, 2008 The State of College Basketball is a brand-new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 341 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of the F...
S4 January 8, 2008   Northern Iowa at Illinois State (Missouri Valley) Redbird Arena - Normal, IL 8:00 PM EST Tuesday night is the night that we usually go to your mother’s place, and it's also Valley night. In a topsy-turvy MVC where everything formerly down (Illinois State, Indiana State and Drak...
S4 January 7, 2008 Give a live-action cartoon basketball an all-access pass to Hoops Nation's toughest conference, an unlimited expense account and all the press room pizza he can eat... what kind of trouble will he get himself into? Hello from Carbondale. At Wichita's famous Roundhouse, he was enjoying the mys...
S4 January 1, 2008 We're not worried about Dayton's Brian Roberts getting recognition anymore, so we're going to go deeper than his dominant 31-point performance in an upset win over Pitt. Much deeper. Peyton Stovall, star guard for the Ball State Cardinals, is our eighth Mid-Majority Baller of the Week. On New Year'...
S4 December 17, 2007 This was a close one... we had one major-beating, hyper-efficient performance by a Sun Belt baller with Demetric Bennett's 34-point, 14-for-19 performance in South Alabama's 71-67 win over Mississippi State. But he was edged out by two great performances by a hot Horizon League shooter. Samuel Haanp...
S4 December 12, 2007 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Here's the mail, it never fails... it makes me want to wag my tail. Remember me? Im the guy from the espn.com chat that was talking about why and how Rhode Island would go into the Dome and take care of Syracuse on Saturday night. After laughing in my face and down talking a ver...
S3 March 2, 2007 Bullet Points No. 6 seed Virginia Military Institute has advanced to the Big South final after defeating the tourney's Nos. 2 and 3 seeds. Furman, the No. 5 seed in the SoCon, advanced to the semifinals by defeating No. 4#North Carolina-Greensboro. The Atlantic Sun quarterfinals played according to ...
S3 February 20, 2007 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- We all love BracketBusters, and there's no denying that the event had a gigantic impact on the college basketball-o-sphere over the weekend. Southern Illinois was able to make a big road statement in a showcase game (a win at Butler that would have been 44-41 without all the fr...
S3 February 16, 2007 INDIANAPOLIS -- It's the eve of mid-majordom's national holiday, and for this fifth edition of the event we're getting the whole family involved. Yo dad, those repairs on the car can wait. There are 14 great televised mid-major matchups to watch! It's the perfect time to bring Junior onto the couc...
S3 February 8, 2007 ARLINGTON, Tex. -- It's true what they say, everything's bigger in Texas. The hats, the Cadillacs, the stars at night, people's butts, the food. I went into a convenience store this morning and saw an 84-ounce fountain soda for sale, I couldn't even get my hand around it much less fit it in a cuphol...
S3 January 31, 2007 Here, then, are all the pairings for BracketBusters 2007. You can click on a matchup to learn more about the two teams and how they, well, match up. Albany at Boise State (TV) Appalachian State at Wichita State (TV) http://bbstate.com/games/66467>Austin Peay at Akron http://bbstate.com/games/664...
S3 January 30, 2007 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Before we begin our supersized DP, I just want to share with you something I wrote yesterday. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (fourth edition, 2004, published by Houghton Mifflin) defines the word "champion" as "One that wins first place or first prize in...
S3 January 23, 2007 COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- Over the past 20 days or so, the vast majority of my incoming hoops-related mail (and Friday chat questions) have had to do with the mid-major conference selections that I submitted to the Worldwide Leader the other week. It's great that they get people talking about mid-majors ...
S3 January 22, 2007 CULLOWHEE, N.C. -- Lots to get to today, just like every Monday. And if you haven't signed up to play Bally's BracketBusters Racket yet, you have a lot more to get to than I do. Roll the HTML! The Big Games! at Virginia Commonwealth 80, Old Dominion 75 (Colonial) (box) -- The VCU Rams are the only...
S3 January 19, 2007 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- No mailbag this week, because quite frankly most of the letters this week were way too personal. Look, I'm a basketball writer, when did my mortgage, my stock portfolio and my "size" suddenly become fair game? Oops, wrong mail folder. Anyway... Every year around this time, we sta...
S3 January 11, 2007 NATCHITOCHES, La. -- Let's begin today with dispatches from television's hottest mid-season replacement, "How Weird Was My Valley." Kyle, are the Sycamores really this good? This was a team that I thought would be with Illinois State at the bottom of The Valley, but they have a great RPI, and some ...
S3 January 5, 2007 I REALLY HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THIS IS, Ala. -- Travelling the highways and byways (mostly byways) of SWAC country is always a strange adventure. One of the most odd things about Alabama is that everywhere you look, there are references to the three American Idol stars the state has produced. This morn...
S3 January 4, 2007 HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- Just a reminder: make sure you get in on the action as The Mid-Majority expands its feature list in 2007 in return for warm, soft cash. We're halfway to unlocking mobile boxscores, a quarter of the way towards the team mileage maps, and we've also a chunk into the Tournament Geni...
S3 December 22, 2006 BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- First, a few noteworthy results from the past couple of days, and after that a couple of quick mailbags. Delaware State 65, at Buffalo 62 Yo, Andy! A win at Buffalo is good, especially if you're from the MEAC! The Hornets shot 63%, and won despite the fact that Buffalo outrebo...
S2 February 22, 2006 The Five-Bid Valley: wonderful idea in theory, but it proved to be a complicated Rube Goldberg device with far too many moving parts. Last night, the spoon-lever designed to move the golden egg from the mini-seesaw to the hamster wheel was smashed to pieces.Much like Wichita State's thunderous colla...
S2 November 19, 2005 When you're playing an inexperienced team that still thinks "winning basketball" involves fouling a lot to get the ball back, make them pay for their youthful ignorance. Purple Ace upperclassman Matt Webster sank all 14 of his attempts from the line, and matched a career high in points with 24, as E...
S1 March 21, 2005 Game 100: (5) Michigan State 72, (13) Vermont 61 NCAA Tournament, Second Round (Austin Bracket) Sunday, March 20, 2005 DCU Center - Worcester, MA Fitting then, that this is the final chapter: the Vermont Catamounts, the feel-good story of the year, fell to the Michigan State Spartans. It's a happy ...
S1 March 16, 2005 Why trust those Johnny-come-latelies? We've been covering these guys all season. Here, then, is the first of four capsule sets of the mid-major teams who will appear on your television screens starting on Thursday, along with a few clips of their TMM appearances. Montana Seed: 16 1st Round Opponen...
S1 March 5, 2005 Bullet Points Two one-seeds went down: Tennessee Tech lost in the OVC semifinals, and Davidson was eliminated in the Southern Conference semis. Four automatic bids will be handed out today, as the ESPN networks begin a schedule of court-stormings every two hours or so. We have the Big South's matc...
S1 March 1, 2005 Missouri Valley: Northern Iowa 67, Wichita State 66 (story) - It's painful watching them keep losing, because it heightens the twin possibilities that the Valley will only get a single bid and the Big East will get (shudder) eight. Six-three Panther guard Ben Jacobsen lit up the scoreboard with 24 p...
S1 February 17, 2005 Game 062: at Evansville 76, Bradley 66 Wednesday, February 16, 2005 Roberts Stadium - Evansville, IN The press box at Roberts Municipal Stadium really is a place called vertigo. It's a series of skyboxes high above the floor, attached to the rafters, accessible only by a secret unmarked staircase. ...
S1 February 15, 2005 Rich man step on my poor head, When you get back you better butter my bread. Well, do you know it's like I said, You better head back to Tennessee, Jed. ANTIOCH, TENNESSEE - Nobody knows who the first person was who led a piece of journalism with a musical quotation. The question isn't even worth ...
S1 February 3, 2005 Colonial: North Carolina-Wilmington 71, George Mason 67 (story) - The Seahawks won a rock-'em-sock-'em game of runs, and as the announcers like to say, the last run was theirs. On a night when UNCW retired Brett Blizzard's jersey, sophomore guard T.J. Carter pulled a "Blizz" and scored 12 points in ...
S1 February 1, 2005 Southern: Davidson 67, Chattanooga 53 (story) - Davidson built a fourteen-point lead going into halftime, and both teams treaded water for the second half. Despite outrebounding their hosts, the Mocs shot themselves in the foot by shooting just 30% from the floor. Davidson (14-7, 10-0 SoCon) tighten...
S1 January 30, 2005 Results from Shakedown Saturday are in! And here they are! Mid-Continent: Missouri-Kansas City 88, Oral Roberts 74 (story) - Okay, UMKC Kangaroos, here's your "for real" tag. Wear it proudly. With four minutes left, they were up by only four and had lost their entire two-man backcourt to foul disqu...
S1 January 26, 2005 Missouri Valley: Illinois State 77, Evansville 58 (story) - The Redbirds have overachieved this season with explosive offense and discipline - they used a 50-point second half and extreme ball control to sink the Aces. Three-point specialist Trey Guidry scored 25 points in just 21 minutes. So what n...
S1 January 25, 2005 Missouri Valley: Wichita State 65, Northern Iowa 57 (story) - The Shockers went on an early game-breaker of a run, but UNI fought back to take the lead just after halftime. Big Paul Miller hit a shot to make it 31-30, and WSU never looked back. Wichita State (14-2, 7-1 MVC) takes a half-game lead ov...
S1 January 16, 2005 Metro Atlantic: Marist 88, Niagara 87 (story) - The half-asleep Purple Eagles (9-6, 4-3 MAAC) were spent emotionally and physically after their tough loss at Manhattan the other night, and almost had enough to sleepwalk through this one. But the upstart Red Foxes (who are now a surprising 5-1 in con...
S1 January 16, 2005 Game 033: at Bucknell 63, Army 46 Sojka Pavilion - Lewisburg, PA Saturday, January 15, 2005 Last month, Spc. Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team surprised U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with a tough question during an event that was supposed to be a pep rally. "Why do we sold...
S1 January 14, 2005 There is no question that that this is a deeply divided nation, this America. The election last November showed a country split between Republicans and Democrats, retro and metro, blue states and red. And across those thin black battle lines flew the arrows of misunderstanding, hate and prejudice. J...
S1 January 13, 2005 Western Athletic: Texas-El Paso 83, Nevada 80 (OT) (story) - UTEP (11-2, 4-0 WAC) has passed its early tests against Rice and Nevada, and have established themselves as the true team to beat in the conference. But it wasn't easy on this night, against the team with whom they shared last year's regul...
S1 January 5, 2005 Hoops Nation rejoice! College football season is finally over! Mid-Continent: Oral Roberts 73, Southern Utah 67 (story) - It was a ho-hum night for the Golden Eagles' wonder twin powers: pocket-sized guard Ken Tutt dropped 22 points, and Caleb Green dub-dubbed with 14 points and 11 rebounds. ORU al...
S1 December 23, 2004 Missouri Valley: Evansville 63, Creighton 61 (story) - The first Valley game for both teams offered a glimpse of the red-hot action this ten-deep league will offer. A seesaw second half culminated in a buzzer-beating jumper by Evansville guard Kyle Anslinger, the only Ace starter who didn't post dou...
S1 December 19, 2004 The West Coast Conference and Missouri Valley have a lot in common these days: both are inspiring mid-major geeks almost to the point of bad poetry, both have decent records against power leagues (MVC: 3-7, WCC: 8-10), and both can say that every team but one has a winning non-conference record so f...
S1 December 18, 2004 Winthrop 70, East Carolina 55 (story) - With embarrassing losses to D2 teams and potential school-poaching by the Atlantic Sun, it hasn't been the Big South's day, their week, their month, or even their year. But Winthrop has been a big bright spot, running out to a 7-2 record that includes two wins...
S1 December 13, 2004 Florida International 65, Florida State 60 (story) - This is not the site you go to if you want thoughtful analysis of the ACC, but people who run those sites are saying that the conference might get seven Tournament bids this season. Team number eight is FSU, whose only convincing win so far is ove...
S1 December 12, 2004 UPSETS Southern 67, Southeastern Louisiana 65 (story) - They say "SWAC" stands for "Southern Wins Another Championship," but their hoopsters haven't Danced in 11 years. A squeaker over a SELU team that won 20 games last year will likely stoke the high hopes in Baton Rouge, and help Jaguars fans for...
S1 December 5, 2004 Virginia Military Institute 72, Virginia Tech 68 (story) - Perennial Big South basement dwellers VMI had been blown out by Old Dominion 86-38 three days previous, so stopping an ACC team they hadn't beaten since 1964 was a bit, umm, unexpected. The Keydets kept the Hokies even on the boards, but sho...
S1 December 1, 2004 Winthrop 60, Providence 54 (story) - The once-mighty Eagles of the Big South are rebuilding (only one upperclassman on the roster) but put in a respectable performance at the Paradise Jam, beating Troy State and Austin Peay after being thrashed by Arkansas. The Friars gift-wrapped this one, going co...
S1 November 30, 2004 Georgia State 85, Louisiana-Lafayette 78 (story) - A good Atlantic Sun club beat a bigger and stronger Ragin' Cajun team - one picked by many to storm through the Sun Belt Conference this year - by making their free throws down the stretch. It was the front end of a rare non-conference home-and-home...
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