• 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: Valparaiso Crusaders
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S9 March 16, 2013 In the Horizon League, March is truly maddening. And the madness only increases with each win. If you are the 1 seed and graduating 6 seniors, 5 of whom start and the other who plays a key role, the spectre of a loss looms large, bringing with it that dreaded R word (rebuilding). It may take a whil...
S9 March 10, 2013 I was this close.This close to returning to St. Louis today and getting some much needed breathing room in my vacation balance account.This close to witnessing first-hand the first ever 1 seed semifinal loss since the Horizon League switched to its current "Protect the top seeds" format.This close ...
S9 February 26, 2013 "There's no real bracket busting in it... It's an extra game on your schedule"-- Billy Donlan, Wright State coach won't miss BracketBusters eventI agree, though there was nothing wrong with the concept. The 4-letter network dreamed it up as a way of giving mid-majors a chance to impress the NCAA To...
S9 February 18, 2013 "The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture." - Alfred HitchcockVALPARAISO, Ind. - Back in the glorious 1980s, 10-year-old me despised the Iron Sheik. When the Sheik would come to the ring and demand everyone stand and be quiet for Nikolai Volkoff's rendition of the Sovie...
S9 February 17, 2013 Last March, after the Horizon League championship game, this happened:Yesterday, during ESPN's Rivalry Week, the team celebrated brashly by denizens of the 313 area code returned to the scene of the crime and were greeted with this:Detroit-Valpo has developed into something that lends itself to eas...
S9 February 17, 2013 I'm here to make a shameful confession as a Butler fan. I miss the Horizon League.While I do enjoy building potential rivalries with new teams in the Atlantic 10, the current sixteen team league allows for a home-and-home series with only one conference opponent. In some respects, it feels like p...
S9 January 21, 2013 8 days ago, Reggie Arceneaux was the hero in Wright State's win at Loyola. Valpo just two days ago erased a 22-point early 2nd half lead at the home of the preseason pick for 2nd place, Detroit. WSU was picked to finish 9th (last) in the preseason poll, but while Detroit inflicted its heart-felt re...
S9 January 10, 2013 I like to take my Dad to home games that I make the trip for, but he's in his 80s and doesn't move very well. Fortunately, Valpo has a small section behind the Valpo basket for wheelchair and similarly disabled clientele, so I was able to take my Dad to this game and he had a heck of a time. Fortun...
S9 January 4, 2013 Loyola and Valpo were prognosticated differently in the preseason. Valpo was picked by some to win the conference, Loyola maybe middle of the pack at best, if not lower. Both Loyola and UIC had surprisingly good non-conference performance. If preseason predictions are definitive, we naturally disco...
S9 January 3, 2013 A member of the Hickory Picket Fences team also attended this game. At first I thought he was here to see their fantasy player Isaiah Canaan rack up points for them. When he stopped by my seat at halftime, he informed me I was mistaken. But still, there will be dueling game recaps, so, as far as #T...
S9 December 30, 2012 "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." - John LennonMURRAY, Ky. - Thinking that a Murray State-Valparaiso game may warrant some attention, I tried to grab a ticket before leaving on my journey/vacation last week.I couldn't find a great way to order them online, so I called the Murra...
S9 December 29, 2012 I left St. Louis at 7am early Monday morning. Ten and a half hours later, via Indianapolis, Toledo, and Detroit, I wound up on the Campus of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan a half hour before tip time. Fortunately there was enough light on campus to illuminate the signs pointing to the O'...
S9 December 26, 2012 A 7-hour Saturday round trip to Springfield, arriving home at 1 am, resting up on Sunday, driving 10.5 hours to Rochester, Michigan for another game on Monday, 4 hour drive to Valpo to sleep over at my Dad's house, early morning drive back to St. Louis on Tuesday - this may be the closest I ever co...
S9 December 5, 2012 Game #9-124: Valparaiso Crusaders at Saint Louis BillikensDecember 2, 2012 4:30 pmChaifetz ArenaBBState Stats/Recap Today's game takes place under the shadow of death. Last night, as I waited to place my dinner order with 20-30 Valpo alumni from the St. Louis area in a private room at Joe Buck's Res...
S9 November 21, 2012 Game #9-066: Northern Illinois Huskies at Valparaiso CrusadersNovember 13, 2012 8:00 amAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/Recap Our game writes its own narrative, if we can stand to get out of the way long enough to let it.Long before I usually wake up on a weekday, much less eat breakfast, Va...
S8 March 11, 2012 Game #8-746: Detroit Titans at Valparaiso CrusadersMarch 6, 2012 9:00 pmValparaiso, INBBState Stats/RecapOn the one hand, a championship will be won tonight -- something worth celebrating. Nets will be cut down. Trophies will be handed out. There are even story-lines to be exploited by the World-Wid...
S8 March 5, 2012 Game #8-697: Butler Bulldogs vs. Valparaiso CrusadersMarch 3, 2012 8:30 pmValparaiso, INBBState Stats/RecapThis, of course, is the one game this weekend where court neutrality has been thrown out the window. The #1 seed is tasked with defending their home court on national TV. This is another one of...
S8 March 4, 2012 Game #8-697: Butler Bulldogs vs. Valparaiso CrusadersMarch 3, 2012 8:30 pmValparaiso, INBBState Stats/RecapThe second semi-final of the Horizon League tournament featured the regular season champion Valparaiso Crusaders hosting the Butler Bulldogs. Butler advanced to this round with impressive wins ...
S8 February 29, 2012 Game #8-643: Butler Bulldogs at Valparaiso CrusadersFebruary 24, 2012 7:00 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/RecapIt still feels strange. Butler comes to the Athletics Recreation Center (ARC) to close out the season. That much is not strange, it happened in 2010. But what still feels strang...
S8 February 11, 2012 Game #8-541: Valparaiso Crusaders at Cleveland State VikingsFebruary 9, 2012 7:00 pmH. J. Goodman ArenaBBState Stats/RecapWhen you hear “Vikings” and “Crusaders,” you harken back to the Middle Ages when people like Pope Alexander II, Constantine and Leif Eriksson were famous. The 10th and 11th centu...
S8 January 20, 2012 Game #8-417: Cleveland State Vikings at Valparaiso CrusadersJanuary 15, 2012 2:35 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/RecapIf Green Bay is a team that figures out quickly how much the refs will let them get away with, Cleveland State is the team that knows how to do this AND register loud com...
S8 January 2, 2012 Game #8-330: Green Bay Phoenix at Valparaiso CrusadersDecember 31, 2011 5:05 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/RecapLike their Milwaukee neighbor, the Green Bay Phoenix were original members of the Association of Mid-Continent Universities (AMCU) with Valpo, but bolted for the Horizon Leagu...
S8 December 30, 2011 Game #8-313: Milwaukee Panthers at Valparaiso CrusadersDecember 29, 2011 8:05 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/RecapValpo and Milwaukee (sometimes known as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, but not for this report) were charter members of the Association of Mid-Continent Universities ...
S8 December 25, 2011 Game #8-295: Valparaiso Crusaders at IUPUI JaguarsDecember 23, 2011 1:00 pmThe JungleBBState Stats/RecapConseco Fieldhouse recently hosted the Hoosier Classic on a Saturday, pitting Butler against Purdue and Notre Dame against Indiana in front of a packed house. Yesterday, that same venue was rename...
S8 December 19, 2011 Game #8-255: Oakland Golden Grizzlies at Valparaiso CrusadersDecember 17, 2011 8:05 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/RecapThey say it can't be a rivalry if one team wins all the games. I think that's hogwash. The Golden Grizzlies of Oakland University (Rochester, Michigan, not Oakland, Ca...
S8 November 19, 2011 Game #8-057: Akron Zips at Valparaiso CrusadersNovember 18, 2011 8:30 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/RecapThe message all week on Valparaiso's campus had been, "Stay a Day." Thanksgiving break began for students at the completion of classes on Friday, and students were encouraged to stay...
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 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 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 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 2, 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 PointsThe Big South ...
S7 March 1, 2011 Bullet Points The calendar says March 1. Repeat: March 1. Elimination games begin this evening on the first day of Championship Fortnight. For the fourth straight year, we will be providing daily updates to the tourney brackets, an avalanche of Basketball State information, and links to resources fr...
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 22, 2011 CHICAGO -- BracketBusters 2011 can be summed up tidily in one paragraph. Utah State came back from 10 down at Saint Mary's to earn a résumé win. As the Missouri Valley -- the most successful conference in the short and strange history of BracketBusters -- bombed out with a 3-7 showing, three top t...
S7 February 20, 2011 Missouri State Bears at Valparaiso CrusadersFebruary 19, 2011 5:00 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/Recap Dickie V visits Valpo, BracketBusters balloon madness, lime green accents, and Horizon League dick jokes. @midmajority Game Tweets17:21 Game No. 7-061: Missouri State at Valparaiso....
S7 February 18, 2011 Southern Utah Thunderbirds at IUPUI JaguarsFebruary 17, 2011 7:00 pmThe JungleBBState Stats/Recap Bally goes college, the most Caucasian And 1 Mixtape Tour stop ever, Badlands swimming and diving, Mid-Con Appreciation Night, and a return to the scene of an old temp job. @midmajority Game Tweets18...
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 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 6, 2011 It's become an annual Mid-Majority tradition. I try to be the last man in America to know who won the Super Bowl, and the last man in America to know the score of the game. Together, these two pieces of data combine to form The Knowledge. There's no game like this: a race against yourself, a game pl...
S7 February 4, 2011 To truly understand American-Style Football and our reasons for it, you have to go back to the deep roots. It's a sport that took its original cues from the Rugby School game (more so than association footy), a violent and chaotic pursuit that found its shape in England's 1700s. Consider the timing....
S7 February 4, 2011 Friday mornings have become extra-enjoyable, because these game reports that are coming in are really great. While there's a lot of Season 7 left, I'm excited about Season 8, and the prospect of having well-written, well-executed student and passionate fan accounts of games across Hoops Nation to re...
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 24, 2011 CHICAGO -- American higher learning dates back to before the whole "United States" thing. But until the Civil War was over, no college had a fight song. That idea coincided with the idea of college athletics, and school-specific tunes were written for the purposes of intimidation and inspiration. Ma...
S7 January 21, 2011 If you're just joining us, or re-joining us, 2011-12 at The Mid-Majority (a/k/a Season 8) will feature an experiment in college basketball crowdsourcing. We're calling it the 800 Game Project, and we're going to try to put together the biggest cross-referenced national spectator game report database...
S7 January 18, 2011 CHICAGO -- What if the shot went in? BUTLER 62, DUKE 6104/05/2010DUKE 34-5 (13-3) -- K. Singler 7-13 2-2 19; N. Smith 5-15 2-5 13; J. Scheyer 5-12 4-5 15; L. Thomas 3-5 0-0 6; B. Zoubek 3-4 2-4 8; M. Plumlee 0-2 0-0 0; A. Dawkins 0-1 0-0 0; M. Plumlee 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-52 10-16 61.BUTLER 34-4...
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 December 23, 2010 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- This is the last Stardate until 52-20101229 (a Wednesday), at which time we'll turn our attention away from Red Line Upsets to conference play. There will be a Chat Block on Christmas Eve at 4 pm Eastern, and if there's anybody around, we'll talk about whatever you want to talk ...
S7 December 21, 2010 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- When do Red Line Upsets happen? Well, one timeframe when they don't is January and February. That's when everybody's playing conference games. So that means we are closing in on the end of rooting for the little guys, surprise @RedLineUpsets alerts on Twitter, and all of the oth...
S7 December 15, 2010 Trinity International (NAIA) at Chicago State CougarsDecember 14, 2010 8:00 pmDickens CenterBBState Stats/Recap Chicago State is one of the weirdest ongoing stories in Division I, much less higher education. And while framing a New York Times story by using a nearly-empty basketball arena as a meta...
S7 December 8, 2010 Purdue Boilermakers at Valparaiso CrusadersDecember 7, 2010 9:00 pmAthletics-Recreation CenterBBState Stats/Recap Hope. (via 30fps) @midmajority Game Tweets 20:54 Game 7-021: Purdue at Valparaiso. Hail Crusaders who rise to glory.20:57 RT @cmlrun: @midmajority Our colors are unfurled.21:00 Awes...
S7 December 8, 2010 FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- The Athletics-Recreation Center at Valparaiso is a brick multipurpose sports facility, and at its heart is a fieldhouse-style gymnasium where the hooping Crusaders play. Most of the time, when Horizon League teams like Youngstown State and Green Bay visit, the place might fill ...
S7 December 7, 2010 @midmajority there have been 59 red line upsets, @TempleUniv has three of them. What is the single-school single-season record?- @clivedaddy (via Twitter)CHICAGO -- That's a fantastic question, Mr. Daddy! We've gone into our six-year archive of RLU history and discovered that the two seasons with th...
S7 December 6, 2010 Valparaiso Crusaders at Loyola (Ill.) RamblersDecember 4, 2010 4:00 pmJoseph Gentile CenterBBState Stats/Recap Think of Chicago. Cold city. Dark. Dark in the winter. But not cold and dark enough for a dude in the LU Wolf suit not to walk around slapping high fives with fans arriving for an early ...
S6 March 19, 2010 PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- I have a bobblehead doll of Bryce Drew releasing The Shot that beat Ole Miss in 1998, and a picture on my wall of Northwestern State's Jermaine Wallace uncorking the three-pointer that eliminated Iowa in 2006. I'll admit that I have to think for a minute to remember the names o...
S6 March 3, 2010 Bullet Points Ten of 12 higher seeds won on the first evening of Championship Fortnight. The Big South semifinals will feature the four top teams in that league, and seeds Nos. 3 through 5 are through to the Horizon League second round. In the OVC quarterfinals, No. 6 Tennessee Tech upset No. 3 Aus...
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 8, 2010 Big Games Atlantic 14: at Richmond 71, Temple 54 RICH - 18-6 (7-2) [RPI: 31, State: 41] TU - 19-5 (7-2) [RPI: 17, State: 35] Star of the Game: Kevin Anderson 29 Pts (11-17 FG, 5-5 FT) Richmond Topples Temple, 71-54 (via Richmond) Atlantic 14: at Dayton 90, Xavier 65 UD - 16-6 (5-3) [RPI: 33, S...
S6 December 10, 2009 Game No. 024 - Dayton at Miami Wednesday, December 2, 2009 OXFORD, Oh. -- Treble does not exist in Millett Hall; the building is literally made of pure bass. When the public address announcer calls out the name of a player who's scored a basket, you feel the announcement deep in your stomach. Eve...
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 4, 2009 Bullet Points Championship Fortnight is under way, as the top seeds won in the Big South and Ohio Valley. The first minor upset occurred in the Horizon League, where No. 7 Illinois-Chicago outhooped No. 6 Youngstown State. Both finished the conference slate at 7-11 and were separated by tiebre...
S5 March 3, 2009 Bullet Points Here we go again: it's Championship Fortnight. Three leagues kick off with campus-site first rounds: the Horizon League, Ohio Valley, and Big South. There are 12 games on tap this evening. On Tap Tonight Big South Radford will begin its quest for its first championship since 19...
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 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 February 2, 2009 CHICAGO -- So much of modern life is blocking, filtering, limiting. There is so much information coming at us every day that we must become fighters of information, lest it overwhelm and submerge us completely. We battle back with fast-forward buttons, delete keys, spam-guards, RSS newsreaders, trus...
S5 January 23, 2009 "Like many Web sites that traffic partly in gossip, The Big Lead's information is not always correct." - SI.com, March 2008 CLEVELAND -- What is the truth? The truth is one part fact, one part perspective, and zero parts perspiration. The truth is the vessel, the conduit that carries it, and it cann...
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 2, 2008 Valparaiso at Cleveland State (Horizon League) H. J. Goodman Arena - Cleveland, OH 7:00 PM EST If you were to pick a better way to open the conference season (you know, by "random draw" and everything), you could do worse than the Horizon League. Tonight, the slate of parenthetical games begins wi...
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...
S5 November 19, 2008 PHILADELPHIA -- This blog has been involved in several pet causes... heck, this entire thing is a pet cause. But TMM is getting involved in a new charitable campaign that strikes to the heart of what's important in Our Game. This is all about getting Drexel students to adopt proper rollout procedure...
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 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 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 5, 2008 Bullet Points The first two upsets of Championship Fortnight occurred yesterday. The OVC's No. 6 Tennessee State won at No. 3 Morehead State, while Horizon No. 8 Loyola (Ill.) shocked No. 5 Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The Big South's four top seeds won to set up Thursday's semifinals. OVC No. 4 Tenness...
S4 March 4, 2008 Bullet Points Championship Week, which is technically 13 days long, begins tonight. You can call it Championship Fortnight if you prefer. The OVC and Big South will hold campus-site quarterfinals, while the Horizon League will stage four low-seed qualifiers for this weekend's rounds at regular-seas...
S4 March 3, 2008 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- The calendar does not deceive you, it's been March for two-plus days now and we haven't seen one conference tournament game. We'll take care of that tomorrow (the Big South, OVC and Horizon get underway), but this in-between day gives us a chance to catch our collective breath and...
S4 February 29, 2008 LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. -- Last night was a great evening for regular-season champions, all of which have now clinched at least a spot in the National Invitation Tournament. In addition to five crownings last night, Belmont took a share of the Atlantic Sun title with an 11-point win over Campbell. We ha...
S4 February 25, 2008 FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Sometimes I just have to pinch myself (even though dreams can be complicated enough that I wouldn't wake up if I did). Three years ago, I was just another computer programmer with a college basketball blog, and the next thing I know I'm talking over BracketBusters highlights wit...
S4 February 23, 2008 CHARLOTTE -- That was fun. Yesterday, we proved conclusively that you can talk about mid-major basketball for six hours and that the topic will attract a couple thousand questions, not the six or seven most people would expect. There were a lot of awesome questions about everything from hoops to the...
S4 February 13, 2008 As you've probably gathered, we were in MAC and Horizon League country last week. There was a lot of snow, but Bally lives in my bookbag on the road and is generally unaffected by weather. It's warm in there. Bally's Midwestern adventure began at Valparaiso last Tuesday, where he got to meet the...
S4 February 12, 2008 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- We'll get to all the Bally ephemera tomorrow, promise, but we're mulling over the BracketBusters TV announcement from yesterday. We wanted to share it with you if you didn't get the memo or are on the wrong mailing list. So here, then, is the final lineup for Mid-Majorpalooza 2008...
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 6, 2008 KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- At 7:48 p.m. Central Standard Time on Tuesday night, I became infected with The Knowledge. After nearly 48 hours of conscientious objection, of no TV or radio or websites other than Google Maps, of looking the other way when passing by USA Today newsboxes, I now know who won t...
S4 February 5, 2008 VALPARAISO, Ind. -- We're in Day Two of the annual Super Bowl info-moratorium, the first time in seven years we've made it through until Tuesday without knowing any details of the "big game" or who won. It's a combination of old-fashioned obliviousness and modern technology that's making this happen...
S4 February 4, 2008 MEADVILLE, Pa. -- It's a lot of effort trying to live a life free of American-style football, the lengths you have to go to in order to pretend it doesn't exist. It's come to this, it really has, and I can't believe it myself. But I made it through the night, Hoops Nation. I'm shacked out in a litt...
S4 January 22, 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 16, 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 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 7, 2008 INDIANAPOLIS -- Making the transition from nonconference to conference season is always a little rough. Not that we're getting dragged into something we don't want to be dragged into -- they just require such different mindsets. For two months, it's all rah-rah beat the power conferences, and then i...
S4 January 4, 2008   Valparaiso at Butler (Horizon League) Hinkle Fieldhouse - Indianapolis, IN 2:00 PM EST January means snow, overwhelming holiday-related credit card bills, the active avoidance of NFL scores and conference basketball. And we have a real March-quality matchup already on the 5th of the month,...
S4 January 2, 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 December 27, 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...
S4 December 18, 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...
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 15, 2007 Thanks to the 168(!) people who played along with our second non-annual Mid-Majority Finals Week. That's so many people, they'd have to hold this class in one of those auditoriums where the professor doesn't know you from Samuel Haanpaa, where you have to spend five minutes of your six-minutes durin...
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...
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...
S4 December 6, 2007   Valparaiso at Wright State (Horizon) Ervin J. Nutter Center - Dayton, OH 7:00 PM EST An embarrassment of small-conference league-game riches tonight. Among other contests, we've got Sacred Heart at CCSU in the NEC, ambitious Morehead State will take on league champs Austin Peay in the OVC...
S4 November 8, 2007 It was an easygoing, unassuming late-summer Saturday in Rhode Island. I had completed my weekend house-husband chores (saving the stinky litter boxes for last, as usual), then prepared for a long, languid afternoon of relaxation on the patio. I contemplated the birdfeeder, turning out a few chamber-...
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 5, 2007 Bullet Points In Sunday's only championship game, Creighton beat Southern Illinois to win the Missouri Valley autobid. Cinderella 2: Electric Boogaloo... George Mason upset Old Dominion in the CAA semis out of the No. 6 seed. Siena upset Marist in a No.5-over-1 job in the Metro Atlantic semis, and S...
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 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 2, 2007 PHOENIX - O, layover... Haven of annoying cell-phone talk, home of heavily made-up airline employees yet unhelpful gate agents (that'll be seventy-five bucks to fly standby, please), opportunity to gorge oneself on 3,000-calorie Cinnabons, chance to catch up with increasingly irrelevant color period...
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 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 November 28, 2006 VALPARAISO, Ind. -- For every upset of a major program by a mid-major (and there have been 44 so far this season, as compared to 36 at this time a year ago), there's a tantalizing near-miss. Like last night at the venerable old Athletics and Recreation Center, where the Brown and Gold of Valpo nearl...
S1 March 16, 2005 Fairleigh Dickinson Seed: 16 1st Round Opponent: Illinois Record: 20-12 (16-5 Northeast Conference) Big Nonconference Wins: December 9 at eventual MAAC two-seed Rider (76-74) 100 Games Project Appearances: #65 Key Players: Big Gordon Klaiber and little Tamien Trent are the inside-outside mechanism ...
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 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 4, 2005 Western Athletic: Tulsa 65, Texas-El Paso 54 (story) - The Golden Hurricane (5-14, 2-8 WAC), playing for nothing but pride, had this one in hand early on, leading by as many as 17 in the first half. UTEP made their run, but the knife-twist was delivered with two minutes to go and Tulsa leading 56-53...
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 14, 2005 Big West: Pacific 73, Utah State 66 (2OT) (story|box) - If only this game was televised, so I could pass out burned DVD copies to all the people who blather on at me about how boring mid-major basketball is. This battle between last year's co-regular season champions had it all: lead changes, scorin...
S1 January 8, 2005 West Coast: Loyola Marymount 68, San Francisco 65 (story) - It does indeed rain in Southern California - man, it pours. While the water came down outside Hank's House, two up-and-coming WCC teams played soggy ball in the first conference tilt for both. Both teams traded baskets and shot poorly, and ...
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 13, 2004 Kids sometimes ask me what it takes to be Mid-Majority Baller Of The Week. "Eat your vegetables," I tell them. "And always listen to your parents." After they tell me to go "F" myself, I bemoan the general coarsening of the Great American Dialogue. Then I say that they might achieve their dreams if ...
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 10, 2004 Massachusetts 61, Connecticut 59 (story) - There were "Fire Lappas" T-shirts here in Philly too, back when Steve coached Villanova... but the folks in Amherst can put theirs in the closet for a while. Last night saw the best thing to happen to UMass since the Pixies reunion - a squeak win over the d...
S1 November 13, 2004 The Official Wife Of The Mid-Majority™ was held up at the Boston airport due to the inclement weather, so I was able to surreptitiously grab some beer and pizza and fire up the internet radio for two mirror-image games: Syracuse vs. Princeton and Birmingham Southern vs. Mississippi State. Both...
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