• 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: Fairfield Stags
Sorted by date
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 December 21, 2012 The Fairfield-Drexel game begins with a moment of silence for the victims of the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, twenty-five miles up the road. Earlier in the day, my eleven year-old son's game also started with a moment of silence; Ian and his fifth grade teammates stood awkwardly in thei...
S9 December 12, 2012 Game #9-152: Milwaukee Panthers at Fairfield StagsDecember 12, 2012 7:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/Recap BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - One of the surprising breakout stars of TMM Season 8 was the Webster Bank Arena black curtain. It is just so ostentatiously huge and intimidating that people gravita...
S9 December 8, 2012 Game #9-140: Canisius Golden Griffins at Fairfield StagsDecember 7, 2012 7:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/Recap BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - When it was told to me that my JV coaching contract was not going to be renewed last spring, it hurt, not going to lie.It was a part-time gig, and it was probab...
S9 November 13, 2012 Game #9-022: Central Connecticut Blue Devils vs. Fairfield StagsNovember 10, 2012 8:00 pmHartford, CTBBState Stats/Recap I wasn't entirely sure how involved I was going to be with #TMM9, especially after I heard about the team format that would be used. I wanted to contribute, but I didn't want to b...
S9 November 12, 2012 Game #9-018: Central Connecticut Blue Devils vs. Fairfield StagsNovember 10, 2012 8:00 pmHartford, CTBBState Stats/Recap WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - Kyle Vinales drilled a three-pointer and had a few words for the Fairfield bench on the way back down the court, beating his chest and pointing toward the C...
S8 March 28, 2012 Game #8-792: Mercer Bears at Fairfield StagsMarch 24, 2012 8:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/RecapI. And so here came the Mercer Bears from Georgia, of the Atlantic Sun Conference, to play Fairfield in the semi-finals of the Collegeinsider.com Tournament. As fans in the northeast – followers ...
S8 March 22, 2012 Game #8-783: Robert Morris Colonials at Fairfield StagsMarch 21, 2012 8:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/Recap “Just like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” - Benjamin Disraeli The patterns of games get monotonous over time, teams do ...
S8 March 22, 2012 Game #8-783: Robert Morris Colonials at Fairfield StagsMarch 21, 2012 8:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/RecapMAAC tournament champion Loyola was done. NEC conference champion LIU Brooklyn was done.At-large NCAA bid Iona was done. Even Quinnipiac, playing in the CBI, was done. Yet someh...
S8 March 20, 2012 Game #8-777: Manhattan Jaspers at Fairfield StagsMarch 18, 2012 5:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/RecapIt seems in my travels that The Simpsons are either loved or hated, there’s not much in between. But at the risk of offending our loyal readers, the best analogy I could make to how I felt S...
S8 March 11, 2012 Game #8-745: Fairfield Stags vs. Loyola (Md.) GreyhoundsMarch 5, 2012 7:00 pmSpringfield, MABBState Stats/RecapAs the final horn sounded Monday night and Loyola had officially won the MAAC, I half-expected Jimmy Patsos to run to the middle of the court and rip off his suit, revealing a white T-shirt...
S8 March 11, 2012 Game #8-734: Fairfield Stags vs. Iona GaelsMarch 4, 2012 2:00 pmSpringfield, MABBState Stats/Recap“History is written by the victors.” - Winston Churchill In wandering the halls of the MassMutual Center after Fairfield’s 85-75 upset of Iona in the MAAC semifinals, I came across a scene which hurt...
S8 March 9, 2012 Game #8-734: Fairfield Stags vs. Iona GaelsMarch 4, 2012 2:00 pmSpringfield, MABBState Stats/RecapThe cradle of basketball played host to the MAAC conference tournament, although no one in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts seemed to know. As my ten year-old son Ian and I walked around outside the ...
S8 March 6, 2012 Game #8-709: Rider Broncs vs. Fairfield StagsMarch 3, 2012 2:30 pmSpringfield, MABBState Stats/RecapWelcome to Springfield:No, not that Springfield. Springfield, Massachusetts.Other than being the birthplace of basketball, Springfield, Mass. was a curious choice for the MAAC Tournament. Traditional...
S8 February 27, 2012 Game #8-636: Fairfield Stags at Rider BroncsFebruary 26, 2012 3:30 pmAlumni GymnasiumBBState Stats/RecapOn a quiet Sunday in New Jersey, another small pilgrimage was made. When I arrived, the chapel was already quite full, the congregation fervent. A torrent of warm humid air hit me as I opened the ...
S8 February 25, 2012 Game #8-619: Fairfield Stags at Iona GaelsFebruary 24, 2012 9:00 pmHynes CenterBBState Stats/RecapLast night was the second day of my four day weekend of hoops. Thursday night, I was at St Joseph's in Patchogue where unfortunately the number one seeded Eagles were shot down by the Purchase Panthers ...
S8 February 7, 2012 Game #8-523: Siena Saints at Fairfield StagsFebruary 5, 2012 3:30 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/Recap “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me -– filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before” - Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven I had no plan to hit the Fairf...
S8 January 28, 2012 Game #8-470: Iona Gaels at Fairfield StagsJanuary 27, 2012 7:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/RecapI went with my ten-year old son Ian to Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, CT where Fairfield hosted Iona. The guest Gaels, at 7-2 in the MAAC, were tied for the conference lead but looking a littl...
S8 January 17, 2012 Game #8-404: Rider Broncs at Fairfield StagsJanuary 16, 2012 7:30 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/RecapAfter three hours of early-morning basketball practice (watching so much mid-major basketball has led me to put in about 40 new plays, at least two of which have actually worked), I had a rare ...
S8 January 14, 2012 Game #8-390: Loyola (Md.) Greyhounds at Fairfield StagsJanuary 13, 2012 9:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/RecapA few days ago I was looking at the empty Friday the 13th on my calendar. I said to myself there has to be a Division I game that I can attend that evening. Then I looked at ESPN's e...
S8 January 2, 2012 Game #8-329: Canisius Golden Griffins at Fairfield StagsJanuary 1, 2012 1:00 pmArena at Harbor YardBBState Stats/RecapThrough sheer happenstance, I was sitting about 20 feet from Princeton’s Doug Davis as he hit one of the most memorable shots of the 2011 college basketball season: a buzzer-beater t...
S8 December 5, 2011 Game #8-188: Fairfield Stags at Canisius Golden GriffinsDecember 4, 2011 5:00 pmKoessler Athletic CenterBBState Stats/RecapThirty seconds into the game, a thunderous one-handed put back dunk by the Fairfield Stags' 7-footer Ryan Olander portends great things for this game Sunday at Canisius College'...
S7 March 16, 2011 [12] Clemson Tigers vs. [12] UAB BlazersMarch 15, 2011 10:00 pmDayton, OHBBState Stats/Recap During a blowout, you need blowout material. In this case, a lot of talk about formal wear, Doctor Who and the All-Bowtie Team would have to suffice. Meanwhile, on the floor, UAB took a long and hard road ...
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 8, 2011 [5] Saint Peter's Peacocks vs. [2] Iona GaelsMarch 7, 2011 7:00 pmBridgeport, CTBBState Stats/Recap It's a title game. Scissors, nets, ladders, and trophies too. Serious ESPN2 airtime for Bally. Memories of MAAC hair: Mike Frensley and the ponytail, and Ricky Soliver Mohawk Night at Iona. The Jour...
S7 March 7, 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 PointsCongratulation...
S7 March 7, 2011 [4] Saint Peter's Peacocks at [1] Fairfield StagsMarch 6, 2011 2:00 pmBBState Stats/Recap [3] Rider Broncs vs. [2] Iona GaelsMarch 6, 2011 4:00 pmBBState Stats/Recap It's the MAAC semifinals. Anthony Kiedis howls in a cavernous arena. It's a day of Tri-State recollection: we remember the Iona 'ha...
S7 March 6, 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 PointsCongratulation...
S7 March 6, 2011 [5] Stony Brook Seawolves vs. [4] Albany Great DanesMarch 5, 2011 12:05 pmBBState Stats/Recap [9] Binghamton Bearcats vs. [1] Vermont CatamountsMarch 5, 2011 2:15 pmBBState Stats/Recap [7] New Hampshire Wildcats vs. [2] Boston University TerriersMarch 5, 2011 6:05 pmBBState Stats/Recap [6] Hartford...
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 February 28, 2011 Saint Peter`s Peacocks at Rider BroncsFebruary 27, 2011 1:30 pmAlumni GymnasiumBBState Stats/Recap Bronc Bobbleheads, tiebreakers with coin flips, dirty rafters, scoreboard porn, Coach Bingo, I Hate New York, and an 80-foot shot at the final buzzer that nearly went in. Just another final regular s...
S7 February 26, 2011 Columbia Lions at Pennsylvania QuakersFebruary 25, 2011 7:00 pmThe PalestraBBState Stats/Recap 30fps Palestra home shopping, #omgivydunx, the Good Drinks, Ben & Ed & William, golden pants, and Bally's greatest TV moment. Ever. @midmajority Game Tweets18:35 RT @SethHunt105: @midmajority Ooooo an en...
S7 February 25, 2011 PHILADELPHIA -- Earlier this week, Caltech ended a 26-year, 310-game conference losing streak by beating Occidental 46-45. Last night in Shreveport, previously winless Centenary ended a 33-game skid (one away from the Division I record) by beating Western Illinois at home. It sure is tempting to f...
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 20, 2011 Butler Bulldogs at Illinois-Chicago FlamesFebruary 19, 2011 2:00 pmUIC PavillionBBState Stats/Recap The power, passion and glory of #ALLCAPSGAME 2011. @midmajority Game Tweets14:11 ROBO KREPS HAS SCORED THE FIRST BASKET OF THE #ALLCAPSGAME #BEEP #BOOP14:13 COREY GRAY HITS A #SUPERHOOP AND UIC IS ...
S7 February 17, 2011 INDIANAPOLIS -- Things were different eight years ago. Folks were afraid of SARS. Valerie Plame was still anonymous. People still had AOL e-mail addresses. This website, Bally Basketball, and Willow Smith's recording career weren't even figments of imagination yet. But in 2003, a huge TV sports ne...
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 14, 2011 Fairfield Stags at Saint Peter's PeacocksFebruary 13, 2011 2:00 pmYanitelli CenterBBState Stats/Recap Wall-mounted banners, slow starts, #superhoops and overtime off Exit 14C. @midmajority Game Tweets13:51 Game 7-054: Faifield at Saint Peter's. Do you know where you are? You're in the Peacock Nat...
S7 February 14, 2011 Yale Bulldogs at Harvard CrimsonFebruary 11, 2011 7:00 pmLavietes PavilionBBState Stats/Recap "Ten Thousand Men of Harvard": the original Ivy League smac-rap. @midmajority Game Tweets18:14 #FF @findthelastman. Take *that*, Christmas Creep!18:17 RT @LoyolanSports: @midmajority Happy birthday to the...
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 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 11, 2011 Cleveland State Vikings at Valparaiso CrusadersJanuary 9, 2011 2:35 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/Recap Sometimes Our Game is so difficult to understand. Can you wrap your head around the concept of retractable bleachers? Somehow, with hydraulics and sparklepony magic, a wall transfo...
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 4, 2011 Kyle, I just returned home from my first college basketball double header not involving a conference tournament. I drove for about six hours today to watch UNCG play in front of a couple hundred fans at Greensboro Coliseum against Richmond at noon. Followed a few hours later by a UNCW game against...
S7 December 20, 2010 Kyle, I remember reading your "Lombardi" piece when you first posted it, but since you referenced it, I re-read it. What strikes me now, is what separates the game you talk about, compared to what's covered by the larger sports media. To them wins and losses adds to the entertainment. Basketball (...
S6 March 9, 2010 Bullet Points A might victory whoop! for our four newest Hoops Nation champions. Old Dominion dropped William & Mary in the Colonial, to return to the Dance after three years away. Siena won the Metro Atlantic for the third straight year, but the Saints needed overtime to fight off brave Fairfield....
S6 March 8, 2010 Bullet Points All hail Northern Iowa, repeat winners of the Missouri Valley Conference's Arch Madness. The top-seeded Panthers put on a strong second-half burst to defeat No. 2 Wichita State, 67-52. Four of Sunday's semifinals set up Monday championship games. The Colonial title comes down to a m...
S6 February 27, 2010 Big Games Ivy League: at Cornell 50, Princeton 47 CORN - 24-4 (10-1) [RPI: 48, State: 52] PRIN - 16-8 (7-3) [RPI: 161, State: 120] Star of the Game: Jeff Foote 19 Pts (6-7 FG, 7-8 FT) Men's Basketball Tops Princeton, 50-47 - Cornell fought off a feisty Princeton team to claim its fourth stra...
S6 February 2, 2010 Rider figured to be one of the teams that would step up challenge Siena's two-year stranglehold on the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference -- heck, a single first-place vote for the Broncs was what kept the Saints from being a full-consensus top pick on media day back in October. And Rider, not Siena...
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 9, 2009 Bullet Points Northern Iowa has qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning the Missouri Valley championship. Davidson was eliminated in the Southern Conference semifinals by the College of Charleston. After semifinal rounds yesterday, finals are set in seven leagues: the CAA (George Mason...
S5 March 8, 2009 Bullet Points Radford (Big South), East Tennessee State (Atlantic Sun) and Morehead State (Ohio Valley) have qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Cleveland State, the Horizon No. 3, eliminated No. 2 Green Bay in that conference's semis, and Illinois State upended Creighton in the Missouri Valley...
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 3, 2009 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 downto...
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 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 13, 2009 Thursday, 1:05 PM -- I don't know what made me think this, but I went to the Hyatt Regency first and looked for anything that said "Mock Selection." There was an NCAA Life Skills conference on the second and third floor, so I asked somebody at the ballroom reception where it was. "Who are you, and ...
S5 February 10, 2009 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 NC...
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 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 December 15, 2008 CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Let's get this out of the way first: the Atlantic 14 owned this weekend. Pwned it. The A-14 was in yr weekend, steelin yr basketballz. This conference put such a stamp on the last two days that the second weekend in December should be a three-day hoops holiday, by proclamation of...
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 12, 2008 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- As we promised earlier this week, we're going to take one last look at some seasons that may not have resulted in a Dance card or a lot of national headlines, but were breakthroughs or returns to form. Here, then, are eight teams that few saw coming... in alphabetical order. ...
S4 March 9, 2008 Bullet Points Three autobids were given out yesterday. All hail mighty Winthrop of the Big South, Austin Peay of the Ohio Valley Conference, and the Atlantic Sun's Belmont. All are off to the Big Dance! One final today -- the championship of the Missouri Valley Conference. Drake and Illinois State...
S4 March 8, 2008 Bullet Points Today, three autobids to the NCAA Tournament will be awarded! The Big South, Ohio Valley and Atlantic Sun will crown champions. The No. 6 was a lucky number yesterday -- surprising Tennessee State moved to the finals of the OVC, Northern Iowa upset No. 3 Southern Illinois in the MVC, ...
S4 February 21, 2008 JACKSONVILLE -- Lots and lots to get to today with a full slate of red-hot mid-major action, but first I wanted to pimp n' plug tomorrow's Gigantic BracketBusters Marathon Chat on ESPN.com. There are always hundreds of people who don't get their questions attended to during the regular Wednesday dea...
S4 February 19, 2008 DELAND, Fla. -- Last night on press row at Florida A&M in Tallahassee, my inbox full of nasty notes from Penn fans (more about that later on), I was reminded once again about the key differences between Ivy League and MEAC basketball. And there are differences, even though both conferences would...
S4 February 7, 2008 Chains of Love The Donner Party, those westbound settlers who were looking for gold to pan and ended up as each other's dinner, was a contingent cut in half by the towering gateway that separates two areas that came to be Nevada and California. Donner Pass is named for the group that was 87 stron...
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 January 25, 2008   Quinnipiac at Sacred Heart (NEC) William Pitt Center - Fairfield, CT 4:05 PM EST There are a lot of great games this weekend, but precious few mindbendingly awesome ones that will set tones for weeks to come. We're going to be tracking the Cleveland State at Wisconsin-Milwaukee clash in th...
S4 January 9, 2008 ELON, N.C. -- Late start today due to delayed air travel. A whole bunch of people in suits wielding Blackberries and Blackjacks, talking about internal voter metrics or somesuch, seem to suddenly be travelling from New England to the mid-South today, all at once. Couldn't figure out why. Let's go! ...
S4 December 11, 2007 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...
S3 March 28, 2007 PAWTUCKET, R.I., Mar. 28 -- All animate organisms, from the globbiest amoeba to the most intricate human machine, share one thing in common: life. Life is what keeps you going, it's the light before the beginning of the tunnel. The meaning of life is simply this: it means so much that nobody can sur...
S3 March 4, 2007 Bullet Points We have four champions on the busiest day of Championship Fortnight: all hail Winthrop of the Big South and Davidson of the SoCon, double champions both. Second seeds who rose up to claim tourney championships and dance tickets: Eastern Kentucky of the Ohio Valley and Belmont of the At...
S3 March 3, 2007 Bullet Points In the first real shocker of Championship Fortnight, Appalachian State was upset by College of Charleston in the SoCon semifinals. Four leagues crown champions today on the ESPN family of networks. The Big South, Ohio Valley, SoCon and Atlantic Sun seasons will conclude with autobids b...
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 9, 2007 DALLAS -- Big, big weekend in Hoops Nation. Huge. Make sure to check out these six big showdown/throwdown/hoedowns at the top of league tables this weekend. As a bonus, we're offering some sample pregame warmup music for your iPod, so you can truly get pumped up for these hot matchups. Holy Cross (...
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 15, 2007 LORMAN, Miss. -- BracketBusters season starts in just under two weeks, and that's why we here at the Mid-Majority have put together this little map, so you can start scouting out the home teams (orange) and away teams (grey) and dream about matchups leading into the pairing announcement on Jan. 28. ...
S2 April 9, 2006 INDIANAPOLIS, Apr. 2 -- There are huge signs all over town -- on airport walls, strung over streetlights, over the main gate to the RCA Dome. They all read, "The Road Ends Here." There's also a giant logo on the side of the 45,000-seat venue, a green and gold star with zag-zigging trailers that has...
S2 January 18, 2006 When Iona lost three of four in the wraparound week between 2005 and 2006, there was no mystery why they were tanking. Sure, the Gaels have a great backcourt, but they were being murdered inside. After spending a couple weeks on the back of an egg nog carton, their quint-captain and sturdy post pre...
S2 January 11, 2006 It takes a special breed of player to be mentioned in the G!O!T!N! preview, then go out and have a BOTD-worthy performance. The Fairfield Stags hit a team-record 16 three-pointers last night in a victory at Rider, two of which were directly made by the sweet and streaky Mr. Todd, and many were creat...
S2 January 10, 2006 After every Manic Monday is a Tragic Tuesday. Last season, I'd often conveniently forget to tab a G!O!T!N! on Tuesdays, and only one or two of the 25 regular readers cared. But now that The Mid-Majority is the number one site with D1 assistant coaches and sports information directors, godda do it da...
S2 December 9, 2005 To put the Loyola Greyhounds and their 4-0 record in perspective, they've won as many games as they did all of 2002-03, and four times as many as they did the next season. As they enter conference play tonight, they may get within one of last year's total, continuing the turnaround we've been foreca...
S1 March 11, 2005 Game 086: (W3) Dayton [-14.5] 78, (E5) St. Bonaventure 48 Atlantic 10 First Round Wednesday, March 9, 2005 U.S. Bank Arena - Cincinnati, OH It's really difficult to get folks excited about what initially appears to be generic, no-name hoops. Few know that better than I. If I had my way, every mi...
S1 March 7, 2005 Bullet Points No finals yesterday, four tonight. The Missouri Valley, as expected since the beginning of the season, was no cookie-cutter cakewalk for top seeds. Both 1 Southern Illinois and 2 Wichita State went down, but the Salukis remain bulletproof on Selection Sunday. Two defending conference ...
S1 March 6, 2005 Bullet Points Four Dance tickets were punched: Winthrop, Eastern Kentucky, Central Florida and Chattanooga. Despite the two-digit numbers that the Selection Committee will hand them one week from today, all are champions. One-seeds fell like mighty trees. Arkansas-Little Rock, the E1 in the Sun Bel...
S1 February 28, 2005 Mid-American: Bowling Green 57, Miami (Oh.) 56 (story) - Despite the fact that the game's telecast was cancelled after an hour's delay because BGSU's Mawel Soler shattered a backboard during pregame warmups, Falcon senior forward Josh Almanson's jumper with six seconds remaining was a shot heard 'ro...
S1 February 3, 2005 Game 049: at Manhattan 69, Fairfield 61 Sunday, January 30, 2005 Draddy Gymnasium - Bronx, NY Draddy Gymnasium is a proud old barn on top of a hill in the Bronx, nestled alongside the other gold-hued brick buildings of Manhattan College's campus. Inside, just about everything has the same medium gr...
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 20, 2005 Colonial: Old Dominion 67, Hofstra 66 (story) - As was the case in their recent squeaker against Drexel, Old Dominion raced out to a big lead and then hit the cruise control button too early. The second half was filled with streaky back-and-forth runs, and the homestanding Pride grabbed a 66-64 lead...
S1 January 4, 2005 Mid-Continent: Missouri-Kansas City 77, IUPUI 61 (story) - If anyone's going to catch Oral Roberts in the Mid-Con this year it's IUPUI, who made a name for themselves (errr, make that an acronym for themselves) by going to the Tournament in 2003, then coming five points short last year. UMKC, whose ...
S1 December 30, 2004 Southeast Missouri 65, Saint Louis 49 (story) - When you have a defensive club that has trouble scoring points, you'll still end up beating a few teams. When your defense goes missing and you still can't score points, everyone will beat you. This is the story of the Billikens, whose lost season (2-9...
S1 December 17, 2004 No recap-worthy games or newsworthy news in the college hoops world on Thursday, so we're really "faking the funk" today. In August 2003, the Connecticut Post printed a story based on an anonymous letter that charged that Fairfield's basketball program was a cesspool of cash, third-party schoolwork...
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...
S1 November 19, 2004 Game 004: Syracuse 71, Mississippi State 58 Thursday, November 18, 2004 Madison Square Garden - New York, NY It's one of the more common getting-to-really-know-you questions there is. "What's the worst movie you've ever seen?" Most will give a stock answer. It'll usually be some low-budget sci-fi ...
S1 November 12, 2004 When you see your first game of the year on the TV, do not adjust your set. All "exempted tournaments" and some exhibition games will be played under experimental rules, which include a 20'6" 3-point line (9 inches farther out), a wider lane with weird angles, and an NBA-style no-charge zone under t...
S1 November 11, 2004 To the baseball fan, a long winter of hot stove leagues and hibernation is rendered tolerable by that most optimistic of sporting phrases, those two words that warm the soul like sunshine on the coldest of January mornings: "Opening Day." The football fan can summon the bracing chill of September w...
S1 November 9, 2004 One Sunday afternoon in early February, I found myself sitting in a cold, half-empty gymnasium in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. I was watching Rider and Loyola - two of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's perennial doormats - fall all over each other. It was halftime, and the two squads had barely...
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