Items Tagged: Belmont Bruins
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1. The Beautiful Season, Part 2 by Kyle Whelliston S6 December 29, 2009 ...... [more] |
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2. The Mid-Majority Interview: Rick Byrd by Kyle Whelliston S6 December 12, 2009 ...... [more] |
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3. Road Report: December 1 by Kyle Whelliston S6 December 1, 2009 ...... [more] |
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4. Tourney Central 3/16/2009 (Final Brackets) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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5. Good Morning Hoops Nation: March 12 by Kyle Whelliston 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 ...... [more] |
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6. Tourney Central 3/7/2009 (Day 5) by Kyle Whelliston 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....... [more] |
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7. Tourney Central 3/6/2009 (Day 4) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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8. Good Morning Hoops Nation: March 5 by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 5, 2009 NASHVILLE -- You might recall that there was a marathon chat announced to be held Friday (tomorrow) from the Valley quarterfinals. Due to a number of factors, that's being postponed. Instead, we'll try for a 12-hour chat next Thursday, and do a regular chat at 3:00 EST tomorrow that will overlap wit...... [more] |
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9. Tourney Central 3/5/2009 (Day 3) by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 5, 2009 Bullet Points Three of four top seeds moved on in the Patriot League, including No. 1 American. Atlantic Sun No. 2 East Tennessee State advanced. Two small upsets occurred in last night's action. Patriot No. 6 Colgate upended No. 3 Navy on its own floor, and No. 9 Florida International squeake...... [more] |
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10. Tourney Central 3/4/2009 (Day 2) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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11. Mid-Majority D.I.Y., Part 1: Scheduling by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 2, 2009 Those datelines you see on this site's posts aren't just a collection of random cities we like, or an indication where we are on our fantasy trip in our dreams, or where the magic teevee is taking us that evening. The city in all-caps is actually where we are, this is not done from home. Getting to ...... [more] |
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12. MMBOW #16: Adnan Hodzic, Lipscomb by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 2, 2009 Our first conference tourney will be the Atlantic Sun event in Nashville, a league we took you behind the scenes for last year. This year's seen a fantastic race between three strong teams: three-time champs Belmont, revenge-minded Jacksonville, and an ETSU squad that hasn't quite made it over the t...... [more] |
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13. Good Morning Hoops Nation: March 2 by Kyle Whelliston 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 ...... [more] |
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14. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 25 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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15. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 10 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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16. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 2 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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17. Good Morning Hoops Nation: January 20 by Kyle Whelliston S5 January 20, 2009 WASHINGTON -- In the next several days, you're likely to read many accounts of these days by special columnists (even some sportswriters) who have spent the last few days being whisked from inaugural ball to celebrity gala, who've worn tuxedos to fine restaurants and will sit in special boxes watchi...... [more] |
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18. Good Morning Hoops Nation: January 6 by Kyle Whelliston S5 January 6, 2009 NASHVILLE -- A lot's happened in the past 48 hours. I've driven 1,450 miles through high Colorado mountain passes, endless Kansas, Oklahoma hailstorms. I've watched Southwest Airlines' careful domino-stack of hourly gate departures collapse under the weight of a weather delay, into a maelstrom of sc...... [more] |
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19. Game! Of! The! Night! 12/22/2008: Belmont at Austin Peay by Kyle Whelliston S5 December 22, 2008 Belmont at Austin Peay Winfield Dunn Center - Clarksville, TN 8:00 PM EST One crisp spring Saturday in Nashville, we shuttled between two Music City arenas to watch two conference champions crowned -- first, the Austin Peay hoopsters took out Tennessee State to win the OVC crown, then two hours la...... [more] |
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20. Good Morning Hoops Nation: December 22 by Kyle Whelliston S5 December 22, 2008 NATCHITOCHES, La. -- I can't prove this, because it came out of one of those directionless garbage-time conversations amongst us proud folks who refuse to leave any game early. But one of my most brilliant ideas ever was The Sportswriter's Thesaurus, which would give sportswriters all the material t...... [more] |
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21. The State of the Other 22, Week 1 by Kyle Whelliston 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 ...... [more] |
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22. Good Morning Hoops Nation: November 20 by Kyle Whelliston S5 November 20, 2008 NEW YORK CITY -- I didn't get a chance yesterday, but I wanted to thank all the folks who stopped by during the ESPN SportsNation chat component of the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. I ran the anchor leg and I held it down mid-major style for two hours, and I noticed a couple of things. First, havi...... [more] |
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23. Fearlessness and Failure (Epilogue, The Fourth) by Kyle Whelliston S4 April 1, 2008 Seriously, what's the big deal about fearlessness? It's made out to be this incredible and rare trait that only a select few possess. People forget that it's our natural, default state of being. We enter the world too naive to fear anything; over time, we develop a profile of all that scares us. Som...... [more] |
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24. Sh*tballed and Shortchanged by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 21, 2008 BIRMINGHAM -- On mornings like this, after days like that, I'm envious of people who can simply move on with their brackets and think about the next round's matchups. For those of us who cover the mid-major schools, we'll be reliving this day over and over again for the next year. The true underdo...... [more] |
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25. NCAA Money Matters: First Round by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 19, 2008 We had quite a few mail inquiries and chat questions yesterday about the chat that was published in my weekly blog for the Worldwide Leader. For those of you who are ESPN OutSiders, I listed the top five largest financial disparities in both overall athletic expenses and men's basketball budgets. Pe...... [more] |
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26. Tourney Central (Completed Brackets) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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27. The Boubacar 3/14/2008 (The Final Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 14, 2008 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- It's fitting that we're here in Jersey -- just as there were 86 episodes of The Sopranos, there were exactly that many daily weekday posts this year. This right here is the final edition of the season -- this 86th Boubacar, too, was "Made in America." Not that this is the end...... [more] |
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28. The Boubacar 3/13/2008 (Awards Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 13, 2008 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- I don't know if I'm ripping the cover off some secret clandestine something, or exposing some horrible underbelly of The Business here. But one of the best things about Championship Fortnight is the media gifts. Yes, many conferences bestow presents upon us ink- and pixel-sta...... [more] |
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29. The Boubacar 3/12/2008 (Lost Seasons Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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. ...... [more] |
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30. The Boubacar 3/11/2008 (Court-Storming Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 11, 2008 ALBANY, N.Y. -- The thing that people don't get from television is how hot it is inside a court-storming. I mean, it's sweltering and blistering (and a little humid) in there with all the body heat and kinetic energy. Oh, and loud too. Inside a court-storming, you'll find a sound that can never be...... [more] |
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31. Tourney Central 3/9/2008 (Day 6) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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32. Tourney Central 3/8/2008 (Day 5) by Kyle Whelliston 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, ...... [more] |
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33. The Boubacar 3/7/2008 (Fun in the A-Sun Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 7, 2008 NASHVILLE -- There is nothing in the world more fun that this fortnight, this extended Championship Week. Days full of games, wave after wave of cheerleaders, pep bands, student sections and players' moms. Every two hours new ones come along come, a blurry time-smear of orange, red, green, blue, gol...... [more] |
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34. Tourney Central 3/7/2008 (Day 4) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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35. The Boubacar 3/6/2008 (Dromedary Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 6, 2008 NASHVILLE -- There's a little Fighting Camel in all of us -- that piece of our soul that's tragically misunderstood, a little out of place. It's the part of you that's told you'll never make it, never achieve your dreams. Silly camel, you aren't supposed to fight for or win anything... you're suppos...... [more] |
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36. Tourney Central 3/6/2008 (Day 3) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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37. The State Of The Other 22, Week 16 by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 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...... [more] |
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38. Tourney Central 3/5/2008 (Day 2) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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39. The Boubacar 2/29/2008 (Clincher Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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40. The State Of The Other 22, Week 15 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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41. The Boubacar 2/26/2008 (Legal Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 26, 2008 DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- We're all just getting over the thrills of BracketBuster weekend, but there's plenty to get to as the regular season winds down to its electrifying conclusion. Just 19 days until Selection Sunday... Saint Mary's. In last night's G!O!T!N!, the Gaels proved that yes, they can ...... [more] |
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42. The Boubacar 2/20/2008 (Gus Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 20, 2008 BOCA RATON, Fla. -- We've been mentioning the Atlantic Sun prominently this season, what with all the early upsets and Belmont's run at a third straight title and all, but we haven't talked much about its most improved team. Stetson has never achieved the NCAA Tournament since Glenn Wilkes (552 wins...... [more] |
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43. The State Of The Other 22, Week 14 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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44. MMBOW #15: Shane Dansby, Belmont by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 19, 2008 The two-time Atlantic Sun champion Belmont Bruins were a bit undersold last summer, as they lost two 6-10 seniors who earned the lion's share of the team's rebounds last season. The Bruins have suffered a bit on the boards, but they're getting a lot of them from a player that last year would have s...... [more] |
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45. The Boubacar 2/18/2008 (Network Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 18, 2008 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Plenty of folks have the day off for the holiday today, but we have a patriotic duty to provide you with a Supersized Boubacar that takes into account all the action from the weekend that was. We'll get to that in a second, but I wanted to share with you my most recent fantastic...... [more] |
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46. The Boubacar 2/15/2008 (Pantz Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 15, 2008 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Admittedly a little nervous this morning, we were thinking of just shutting the site down and ending with this, because there's never going to be a better post here than that one. So how do we follow up the most sublime moment in Mid-Majority history? Photoshop-manipulated pictur...... [more] |
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47. The Boubacar 2/11/2008 (No Fun Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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48. The Boubacar 2/8/2008 (LOLBally Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 8, 2008 CHICAGO -- We're holding off on announcing the winner of our Hunan: Return of the Phoenix movie contest, because there are two sterling entries that we're having trouble choosing between. Right now, we're in the process of sending them to friends and asking them to tell us which one makes them laugh...... [more] |
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49. The Mid-Majority Interview: Rick Scruggs by Kyle Whelliston S4 January 18, 2008 Until the night of Nov. 7, 2007, most college basketball fans didn't know Gardner-Webb from a weed whacker. But with a 84-68 thumping of Kentucky at Rupp Arena, the little school in Boiling Springs, N.C. was thrust into the national spotlight. It was the first major story of the 2007-08 season, the ...... [more] |
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50. The Boubacar 12/28/2007 (Post-Holiday Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 28, 2007 CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The end of the holiday season means the end of holiday music, and thank gosh for that. The world doesn't need another imaginative reinterpretation of Irving Berlin (much less a hip-hop one), and I've long held that the sound of recorded sleigh bells sounds just like fingernails a...... [more] |
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51. Game! Of! The! Night! 12/5/2007: Creighton at Xavier by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 5, 2007 Creighton (MVC) at Xavier (Atlantic 10) Cintas Center - Cincinnati, OH 8:00 PM EST Another day, another great mid-matchup. Here are two teams that made the 2007 NCAA Tournament, both with issues of production replacement, but both are putting up solid numbers in the early going. Creighton...... [more] |
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52. The State Of The Other 22, Week 3 by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 4, 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...... [more] |
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53. Game! Of! The! Night! 11/20/2007: Austin Peay at Utah State by Kyle Whelliston S4 November 20, 2007 Austin Peay (OVC) at Utah State (WAC) Dee Glen Smith Spectrum -- Logan, UT (South Padre Island Tournament) 9:05 PM EST For reasons unbeknownst, the last few days of The Mid-Majority have been brought to you by Office Depot. Office Depot: do you have your "easy button?" If anybody understan...... [more] |
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54. The Boubacar 11/20/2007 (Justin Credulous Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 November 20, 2007 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- It's a snowy Tuesday here at the office home, but that won't depress us, not in the least. Here, for the first time ever, a 100% positive Boubacar... Belmont. "They" said it wasn't a "real" upset. Oh, it's just Cincinnati. Never mind that UC has five times more money to spend on...... [more] |
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55. The Boubacar 11/12/2007 (First Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 November 12, 2007 COLUMBUS, Oh. -- Daily roundups have been a Mid-Majority staple over the past three-plus years. They were known as "Daily Dribblings" during the first season, weren't given titles in Year Two -- an open pander to the surrealist Samuel Beckett fans who make up a good portion of my audience. Finally, ...... [more] |
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56. Specialness by Kyle Whelliston S4 November 2, 2007 There's an annual event -- if that's a phrase suitable and grey enough to describe something that doesn't cut it as a tradition -- here in our household. Every year around this time, the satellite television company beams in a solid week of unlimited American professional basketball in a free previe...... [more] |
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57. Matters of Life and Death (Epilogue, The Third) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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58. How Far Did They Go? by Kyle Whelliston S3 March 19, 2007 In light of this great WaPo article about relative quality of hotels in the NCAA tournament's first weekend, might as well bring out the dist-o-meter again. How far from home did the committee send teams? (Distances are from campus to city center) (East 11) George Washington -- 2372 mi. to Sacramen...... [more] |
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59. NCAA First Round 2007 by the Number$ by Kyle Whelliston S3 March 14, 2007 So what are the real upsets? When it comes to college sports, it's all about the Benjamins. Here, then, are the first round matchups with the participating schools' 2005-06 athletic budgets. "Differences" are based on the high seed's budget. As always, expense data from the Office of Postsecondary E...... [more] |
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60. Tourney Central 3/12/07 by Kyle Whelliston S3 March 12, 2007 Bullet Points http://schools.basketballstate.com/TAMCC class=optn>Texas A&M-Corpus Christi won the Southland final, and Championship Fortnight has come to a close. It's Tournament Time! The Last Bracket All brackets on the Bracket City page have been replaced with the completed versions. ...... [more] |
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61. Tourney Central 3/4/07 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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62. Tourney Central 3/3/07 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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63. Tourney Central 3/2/07 by Kyle Whelliston 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 ...... [more] |
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64. The Daily Paragraph 2/22/2007 (Tribute Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 February 22, 2007 CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. -- Before we get too wrapped up in Championship Week this and NCAA Tournament that, in seeding whichever and Billy Packer whatever, I'd like to take time out to offer a small tribute to some special people. This is a tribute to the 508 fans who attended last night's Division I ga...... [more] |
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65. The Daily Paragraph 2/12/2007 (Magic Mushroom Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 February 12, 2007 BALTIMORE -- OK, OK, OK, OK. I've read your e-mails, I've received your calls and media inquiries. The big question of the weekend is not what happened in the huge mid-major games these past few days, but what are we to do about this? And this? Let's get the easy punchline out of the way first: Ther...... [more] |
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66. The Daily Paragraph 2/6/2007 (Physical Pain Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 February 6, 2007 LOS ANGELES -- I'm not going to get all weird on you and tell you that covering basketball is tantamount to some kind of athletic event, but boy-oh-boy can it take a physical toll. Last night, I ventured out to Gersten Pavilion (a/k/a "Hank's House") to take some notes on theUnnamed Program From t...... [more] |
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67. The Daily Paragraph 2/2/2007 (Layover Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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68. The Daily Paragraph 1/30/2007 (BarbaroBusters Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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69. The Daily Paragraph 1/26/2007 (Ego Trip Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 January 26, 2007 CHARLOTTE -- A couple of quick housekeeping things up front: my ESPN.com chat today is at a special this-week-only time of 2 pm ET; I'm switching timeslots with Joe Lunardi. Come on by! As of Friday morning, we've had 82 entries in Bally's BracketBusters Racket, the fun game where you can win valua...... [more] |
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70. The Daily Paragraph 1/25/2007 (Ball Control Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 January 25, 2007 BOONE, N.C. -- As of press time, 63 of the available 100 entries in Bally's BracketBusters Racket, the only contest in the world that lets you choose all 51 BB matchups, have been snapped up (the limit is in place 'cause I'll be hand-validating the entries, but call it a "soft cap"). Remember: the d...... [more] |
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71. The Daily Paragraph 1/22/2007 (Bandwagoneering Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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72. The Daily Paragraph 1/19/2007 (Surprise Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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73. The Daily Paragraph 1/15/2007 (King Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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. ...... [more] |
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74. The Daily Paragraph 1/11/2007 (Free to Be, U. of Tree Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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 ...... [more] |
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75. The Daily Paragraph 1/9/2007 (World Container Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 January 9, 2007 NASHVILLE -- I guess it's basic human nature that we try to build fences and walls, to divide the included from the excluded, to protect what's inside from what's outside. There's nothing worse than the idea that the world doesn't make sense -- that's the fundamental building block of organized reli...... [more] |
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76. The Daily Paragraph 1/8/2007 (Weekend Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 January 8, 2007 JACKSON, Miss. -- Mondays from here on out will be busy times as we continue to track all the hot hot conference action, so let's all take a deep breath and let's get to it. Conference Shootaround! Missouri Valley: Yesterday in lovely Springfield, Missouri State broke both an eight-game losing str...... [more] |
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77. The Daily Paragraph 1/5/2007 (American Idol Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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78. The Daily Paragraph 1/4/2007 (Return Of Tha Krazy Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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79. The Daily Paragraph 12/29/2006 (Travel Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 December 29, 2006 POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- I'll tell you what holiday hell is. Last Saturday, heading back home to Providence from another mid-major excursion, I was stuck at New York's Kennedy airport on a scheduled three-hour layover, which suddenly became a seven-hour layover when the schedule started backing up. T...... [more] |
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80. The Daily Paragraph 12/8/2006 (Conference-licious Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 December 8, 2006 WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. -- Let's go straight to the mailbag, no delay, no bullpoop. Kyle, all these heroic recaps of "mid-over-major" results are great and everything, but what about the December games that really matter, the early conference stuff? Stan K. You're right, Stan. It's easy to get caug...... [more] |
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81. Epilogue, The Second by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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82. MMBOD Feb 16: Rodney Webb - Florida Atlantic by Kyle Whelliston S2 February 17, 2006 No, not Gardner-Webb (although they did get a big win over Belmont last night), Rodney Webb. In an 83-78 win that likely saved their season, Florida Atlantic's hot guard scored 21 of his 30 in the first half and banged out jumpers at a 75% clip, all of which helped Matt Doherty's boys take down a bi...... [more] |
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83. Game! Of! The! Night! Feb 16: Belmont at Gardner-Webb by Kyle Whelliston S2 February 16, 2006 The Atlantic Sun race looks just like the Missouri Valley's: five teams with guady league records battling it out for conference supremacy. Well, at least until you look at the RPI numbers. Tonight is Thrill-A-Minute Thursday, as the A-Fun hosts two meaningful separation games among its elite. East ...... [more] |
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84. MMBOD Jan 27: Justin Hare - Belmont by Kyle Whelliston S2 January 28, 2006 Astyle=font-weight:bold HREF=http://schools.basketballstate.com/KENN>Kennesaw State may be reigning over the A-Sun right now, but they can't go to the conference tournament as a transitional D1. Last night on regional television, Belmont knocked Matt Doherty's FAU Owls out of "first," and did so ...... [more] |
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85. MMBOD Jan 20: Eddie Ard - Lipscomb by Kyle Whelliston S2 January 21, 2006 Memo to the airlines: do not put Lipscomb and Belmont on the same plane. When Music City's hottest basketball rivalry touched down at BNA lst night, a 6'5" junior swingman rose above. Air Ard kept hitting shots and threes and free throws, and 11-6 (7-2) Lipscomb broke open the city pair in a blowout...... [more] |
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86. Game! Of! The! Night! Jan 20: Belmont at Lipscomb by Kyle Whelliston S2 January 20, 2006 Here's an alternative way to look at tonight's Battle of Music City, an enticing matchup of 6-2 Atlantic Sun squads. Belmont is the new school, Nashville 2.0, slickly-produced CMT twang. The Bruins get a lot of hits (league-leading 50.2% FG, 9th nationally), but they're disposable and quickly forgot...... [more] |
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87. Game! Of! The! Night! Dec 02: North Florida at Jacksonville by Kyle Whelliston S2 December 2, 2005 The Atlantic Sun season, just two days old, has provided plenty of chills and spills. Last night, Kennesaw State came from behind to claim its first-ever Division I conference win; Belmont outlasted East Tennessee in last night's G!O!T!N!; and Campbell, who was 0-20 last year in conference, beat the...... [more] |
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88. Game! Of! The! Night! Dec 01: Belmont at East Tennessee State by Kyle Whelliston S2 December 1, 2005 Some would say that starting the conference schedule early is like skipping the December holidays and going straight to the January post-holiday depression. Ridiculous, I say! Meaningful basketball should know no season.The Atlantic Sun slate got underway last night (welcome, Matt Doherty, and North...... [more] |
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89. Tourney Central 3/5/2005 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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90. Tourney Central 3/4/2005 by Kyle Whelliston S1 March 4, 2005 Bracket Wrap Southern: The favorites prevailed, but all their SoCon South division-mates have been wiped out. (recaps) (S1) Davidson 67, (N4) Elon 53 (N2) North Carolina-Greensboro 73, (S3) Georgia Southern 71 (N1) Chattanooga 77, (N5) East Tennessee State 70 (N3) Appalachian State 63, (S2) Charle...... [more] |
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91. Dribblings 2/28/2005 (February Fever Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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92. Dribblings 2/18/2005 (Busted Stuff Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S1 February 18, 2005 Atlantic Sun: Gardner-Webb 67, Belmont 58 (OT) (story) - G-Webb (15-9, 12-5 ASun) used a five-minute rally to storm back from a 12-point deficit late in the second. The homestanding Bruins controlled the flow for 35 minutes, and that included a 12-0 run midway through the second half to break the ga...... [more] |
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93. Dribblings 2/17/2005 (Poetry Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S1 February 17, 2005 Colonial: George Mason 74, Old Dominion 58 (story) - Shall I compare last night's performance by the Old Dominion Monarchs to a summer day? Hell, no. The CAA leaders shot just 33 percent from the floor, because their hosts did a lot of spear-shaking on the defensive end. By handing ODU their second ...... [more] |
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94. Dribblings 2/4/2005 (Geek Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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95. Dribblings 2/1/2005 (Keep Bustin' Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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96. Dribblings 1/24/2005 (Stupor Bowl Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S1 January 24, 2005 Patriot: Army 63, Navy 43 (story) - I've been talking so much about the Academies lately, might as well share the biggest upset of the day. Having observed the wide gulf of talent between Army (3-14, 1-4 PL) and Navy (3-15, 0-5 PL) within the past week, I'm in slackjawed disbelief at a result that s...... [more] |
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97. Dribblings 1/6/2005 (Mad Scramble Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S1 January 6, 2005 Colonial: Old Dominion 60, Drexel 59 (story) - You can't tell much about this game from the boxscore - both teams shot around 40%, were even on rebounds, and neither club turned the ball over that much. But ask one of the 2,000 or so who showed up at Drexel's DAC, and they'll tell you how truly ugly...... [more] |
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98. Dribblings 12/3/2004 (Coach's Corner Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S1 December 3, 2004 Indiana State 62, Birmingham Southern 55 (story) - The prohibitive favorites in the Big South - and champions of the recent Marist Classic - went to Indiana and got beat by the worst team in the Valley. The Sycamores (or the "Trees" if you're cool) did the Panthers in with stingy perimeter defense, ...... [more] |
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99. MMBOW #1: Jonathan Sanders, St. Mary's by Kyle Whelliston S1 November 15, 2004 The inaugural anything is tough - there's all that pressure, all those questions. What will the public think? Will this new thing be embraced, accepted? Will it become an iconic institution, or will it join the ranks of such outright flops as Crystal Pepsi, Cop Rock and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays? So...... [more] |
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100. The Mid-Majority vs. Cancer by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |





