Items Tagged: BracketBusters
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1. BracketBusters Matchups 2010 by Kyle Whelliston S6 February 1, 2010 ...... [more] |
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2. NCAA First Round: Thursday's Games by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 19, 2009 MINNEAPOLIS -- Not to get all Jean Shepherd on you, but when I started as an undergrad at the University of Oregon there were no coffee shops near campus. Then one opened up on the corner near the bookstore, and it had couches and soft music and 50 different ways to drink coffee. It was the hottest ...... [more] |
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3. Go After It, Grab It, Take It by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 18, 2009 INDIANAPOLIS -- The year 2006 wasn't really all that long ago. Sure, we're dealing with problems light years beyond those we faced back then, and anybody would trade in total world financial meltdown for another "bird flu" scare. But Nelly Furtado's "Loose" feels like it just came out yesterday, inn...... [more] |
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4. Tourney Central 3/15/2009 (Day 13) by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 15, 2009 Bullet Points Seven championships were awarded on Saturday. Binghamton won its first-ever America East title; Morgan State is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever out of the MEAC. Temple repeated as Atlantic 14 champions; Akron is on the Big Bracket for the first time since 1986. Alabam...... [more] |
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5. Mid-Majority D.I.Y., Part 2: Travel Planning by Kyle Whelliston S5 March 10, 2009 Some are still under the impression that this is just another blog, that I'm sitting at home and ranting about mid-major basketball from my couch. That is definitely not the case. TMM Mobile HQ is very real, and has already logged over 22,000 miles and over 90 games this season. Put that in your pa...... [more] |
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6. The Future Is Wide Open by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 28, 2009 When somebody pretending to be Tom Petty asked a question 49 minutes into our eight-hour marathon BracketBusters chat, it seemed at the time like any other funny non-sequitur we've encountered in four-plus years of doing those things. But then the Heartbreakers references kept flying for the next s...... [more] |
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7. The State of the Other 22, Week 13 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 27, 2009 The State of College Basketball is a relatively new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of ...... [more] |
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8. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 26 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 26, 2009 ATHENS, Ohio -- As was noted in this kind piece by the newspaper I spent my college career wishing I could work for, next week marks the beginning of what we're really here for, what this is really all about. The conference tourneys mark the third of the four seasons within a season in college baske...... [more] |
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9. Bally Gras (and Other Delights) by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 24, 2009 In honor of Fat Tuesday, here's Bally with a king cake on a recent Louisiana trip to Northwestern State. The plastic baby is usually hidden in the cake somewhere, and whomever gets the piece containing it is the king and has to buy the cake for the next party as proof of his (or her) ultimate Mardi...... [more] |
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10. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 24 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 24, 2009 LYNCHBURG, Va. -- In the late stages of a Sunday flight from Raleigh to Nashville, after the announcement about portable electronic devices, I did what most people in need of an info-fix do: page through the Sky Mall catalog. It's only in those 20 minutes at the end when full-size Lord of the Rings...... [more] |
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11. MMBOW #15: Gordon Hayward, Butler by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 23, 2009 Slumdog Millionaire (a film we saw in Indianapolis hours after penning this paper plane), was easy enough to predict as a Best Picture winner, although others of these supposed lead-pipe locks would have lost you your mortgage money. And so it is with predicting the machinations of another academy. ...... [more] |
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12. Game! Of! The! Night! 2/23/2009: Tennessee-Martin at Murray State by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 23, 2009 Tennessee-Martin at Murray State (Ohio Valley) Regional Special Event Center - Murray, KY 8:30 PM EST With BracketBusters complete, it's time to make the mad dash towards the first tourneys. In just a little over a week, a number of smaller conferences will begin elimination procedures; one of the...... [more] |
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13. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 23 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 23, 2009 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- BracketBusters VII is safely in the history books now. It was more fulfilling than a Dave & Buster's appetizer (six chips do not qualify as "nachos"), and fell somewhere between Buster the crash-test dummy and Buster Bluth on the entertainment scale. Longtime readers will r...... [more] |
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14. BracketBusters Saturday 2009 by Kyle Whelliston 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 ...... [more] |
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15. The State of the Other 22, Week 12 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 20, 2009 The State of College Basketball is a somewhat new ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of th...... [more] |
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16. BracketBusters Marathon Chat by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 19, 2009 BracketBusters Marathon Chat ...... [more] |
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17. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 18 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 18, 2009 SAN LUIS OBISPO, Cal. -- Morning really is a relative concept, isn't it? It's always morning somewhere, or 5 p.m., or the night time (a/k/a "the right time"). And it just might be Morning in America all over again, depending on what economic time zone you're in. I write this to you as the a.m. hours...... [more] |
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18. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 17 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 17, 2009 SAN JOSE -- Hundreds of votes have been counted, and Lester Hudson now has a nickname. (Figures it would be the one with the cool poem attached to it.) In this space, all future references to Tennessee-Martin's future NBA star will include "Done Ruthless," which is a fantastic anagram of his name, o...... [more] |
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19. The State of the Other 22, Week 10 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 6, 2009 The State of College Basketball is a gracefully-aging 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 o...... [more] |
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20. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 4 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 4, 2009 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- A bit late, but I just wanted to thank everybody who showed up for our first Mid-Majority chat last Friday. There were over 200 questions, just as many as my final chat over the MLK holiday at the other place. It blows my mind that so much of the regular audience found its way ove...... [more] |
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21. Game! Of! The! Night! 2/3/2009: Northern Iowa at Bradley by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 3, 2009 Northern Iowa at Bradley (Missouri Valley) Carver Arena - Peoria, IL 8:05 PM EST The Great Unknown is a scary thing, isn't it? We pattern-seeking creatures require some sort of assurance that future events will mirror the results we've already seen. Staring into the anti-void of endless possibilit...... [more] |
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22. Good Morning Hoops Nation: February 3 by Kyle Whelliston S5 February 3, 2009 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- BracketBusters pairings are out, and we're temporarily reunited with our own bed and desktop computer, so it's a good time for a game reset. Who am I? Why am I here? Seventy-five percent of what The Mid-Majority is about during the regular season is analysis. There are check-ins o...... [more] |
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23. BracketBusters Matchups 2009 by Kyle Whelliston 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 ...... [more] |
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24. 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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25. The State of the Other 22, Week 9 by Kyle Whelliston S5 January 30, 2009 The State of College Basketball is a sorta-newish ratings system that uses a lot of good basketball sense, per-game team performance ratings and degradation of older results to rank the teams from No. 1 to 344 (here's the long-winded version). In its overall form, it retroactively picked three of th...... [more] |
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26. Open Mic: Readers Strike Back by Kyle Whelliston S5 January 27, 2009 I just wrapped up paying for every single one of my remaining rental cars, plane flights and weekly hotels for the rest of the 2008-09 season, which was a great relief and a testament to the wonderful support you've given the site. So the least I could do is turn the floor over to you for a while, a...... [more] |
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27. Thank You by Kyle Whelliston S5 January 24, 2009 OMAHA -- Every so often, I'll get a long note from one of you detailing exactly when you found The Mid-Majority, the post you first discovered, and occasionally you'll remind me of something that I completely forgot I wrote. I'm always taken aback, floored and flattened by these letters, mostly beca...... [more] |
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28. Game! Of! The! Night! 1/17/2009: Boise State at Utah State by Kyle Whelliston S5 January 16, 2009 Boise State at Utah State (Western Athletic) Dee Glen Smith Spectrum - Logan, UT Saturday, 9:05 PM EST There are a lot of "championship" banners and claims around the Western Athletic Conference right now -- since the conference split its title four ways last year at 12-4, nearly half the gyms and...... [more] |
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29. Game! Of! The! Night! 1/13/2009: Northern Illinois at Ball State by Kyle Whelliston S5 January 13, 2009 Northern Illinois at Ball State (Mid-American) Worthen Arena - Muncie, IN 7:00 PM EST I've probably said this before, but if you're a mid-major conference and you're smart, schedule games on Tuesday nights and Sunday afternoons. (And Friday nights, if your geographic footprint is small enough that...... [more] |
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30. Game! Of! The! Night! 12/30/2008: Cleveland State at Wright State by Kyle Whelliston S5 December 30, 2008 Cleveland State at Wright State (Horizon League) Ervin J. Nutter Center - Dayton, OH 7:00 PM EST Teams in most conferences are just now finishing their city games, guarantees and D-II walkovers. Not the Horizon, it's gone full-bore into league season and has pretty much completed its quest for nat...... [more] |
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31. Game! Of! The! Night! 11/17/2008: Akron at Virginia Commonwealth by Kyle Whelliston S5 December 17, 2008 Akron at Virginia Commonwealth Siegel Center - Richmond, VA 7:30 PM EST The best thing about BracketBusters, in my opinion, is the BracketBusters return game. Sure, the chance for TV exposure in February is nice, but that only affects the handful of teams angling for NCAA consideration. All 100 or...... [more] |
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32. Good Morning Hoops Nation: December 17 by Kyle Whelliston S5 December 17, 2008 CLINTON, S.C. -- What's the value of a score? The market has it much less than the 1/1000th of a cent that manufacturer's coupons are worth -- interested parties expect to get them for free, that a score should cost the same over a computer network as it does transmitted from mouth to ear. Is "Tenne...... [more] |
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33. Good Morning Hoops Nation: December 9 by Kyle Whelliston S5 December 9, 2008 LEXINGTON, Va. -- I think we can chalk up the weekend voting on the Ultimate Project contest an unqualified, unmitigated disaster. There were more complaints about the voting mechanism (clicking through either brought up a "please log in" screen or a full-screen ad to start your own poll) than actua...... [more] |
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34. Good Morning Hoops Nation: December 1 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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35. Good Morning Hoops Nation: November 17 by Kyle Whelliston S5 November 17, 2008 PITTSBURGH -- When something like this happens, when 111-103 happens, when a little military school from western Virginia marches into venerable old Rupp Arena and runs the home team off its own floor, it's never about the victor. That's just the way these things work. The tale, as it's commonly bei...... [more] |
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36. Good Morning Hoops Nation: November 14 by Kyle Whelliston S5 November 14, 2008 PEORIA, Ill. -- Remember back when you were a kid, it was a hot summer day out in your backyard... you had your 1980's NBA-style short-shorts on with no shirt, just hanging out in the grass your daddy just mowed fresh that morning. Not a care in the world. Then you got really thirsty, and you were t...... [more] |
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37. The Big Picture by Kyle Whelliston S5 November 1, 2008 First in a series of nine daily essays leading up to the 2008-09 college basketball season. It's not supposed to work out for the best, and the system is designed to anticipate failure. On March 21 in Birmingham, the four lower seeds wore their extra digits like anchors, eliminated one after another...... [more] |
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38. More Than "Just Balls": The Legend of the Ralph Marlin Tie by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 29, 2008 When ESPN.com brought me on in the summer of 2005, my good friend Sarah bought me a Ralph Marlin "Just Balls" tie. It was one of those nice timely things that good friends do -- they buy you things having to do with what you're celebrating just as you're celebrating them. Little did I know that it w...... [more] |
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39. The State Of The Other 22, Final Edition 2008 by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 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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40. Taking What Doesn't Belong To Us by Kyle Whelliston S4 March 17, 2008 I can't think of anything that captures the essence of modern corporate America better than Selection Sunday. Four and a half months of sweat and blood spilled by on-court workers is distilled into numbers and charts, spreadsheets and presentations. Merits are debated by people in suits in a locked ...... [more] |
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41. The Boubacar 3/3/2008 (Big Red Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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42. Game! Of! The! Night! 3/1/2008: North Carolina-Asheville at Winthrop by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 29, 2008 North Carolina-Asheville at Winthrop (Big South) Winthrop Coliseum - Rock Hill, SC 7:00 PM EST Nine teams and fourteen conference games make for a lot of floating variables; it's mathematically unlikely that a league title could come down to any single game, especially the last one of the ...... [more] |
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43. 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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44. Game! Of! The! Night! 2/26/2008: Southern Illinois at Bradley by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 26, 2008 Southern Illinois at Bradley (Missouri Valley) Carver Arena - Peoria, IL 7:00 PM EST Drake's Des Moines miracle notwithstanding, it's been a tough year for the 101-year-old Valley. Five new coaches, half the returning starters lost, and a lack of the signature nonconference wins that marke...... [more] |
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45. 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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46. The Boubacar 2/25/2008 (U Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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47. Game! Of! The! Night! 2/23/2008: Drake at Butler by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 23, 2008 Drake at Butler Hinkle Fieldhouse - Indianapolis, IN (ESPN BracketBusters) 5:00 PM EST If you've been reading along this year, this game needs no introduction. It's the two best chances we here at the mid-major level have for deep NCAA runs, No. 1 (Drake) and No. 2 (Butler) in our . They a...... [more] |
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48. The Boubacar 2/23/2008 (BracketBusters Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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49. The Boubacar 2/22/2008 (Chat Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 22, 2008 CHARLOTTE -- Just a reminder from myself, Bally and Dunk'n Dolphin that there will be a Marathon BracketBusters Chat today at ESPN.com starting at 12 noon Eastern. I'll also likely be talking about that huge South Alabama win at Western Kentucky, and the Stephen F. Austin blowout of Sam Houston t...... [more] |
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50. The Boubacar 2/21/2008 (Marathon Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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51. 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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52. 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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53. The Boubacar 2/12/2008 (TV Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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54. Game! Of! The! Night! 2/9/2008: Western Michigan at Ohio by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 8, 2008 Western Michigan at Ohio (Mid-American) Convocation Center - Athens, OH 7:00 PM EST You might think the East-West thing in the Mid-American Conference is just some random divisional fabrication of convenience. You're forgetting something -- this is Ohio on one side, and Michigan on the oth...... [more] |
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55. BracketBusters Matchups 2008 by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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56. The Boubacar 2/5/2008 (St. Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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57. Game! Of! The! Night! 2/4/2008: Gonzaga at Saint Mary's by Kyle Whelliston S4 February 4, 2008 Gonzaga at Saint Mary's (West Coast) McKeon Pavilion - Moraga, CA 11:00 PM EST We get a lot of questions as to why we actually mention Gonzaga by its actual school title now, as we got a full two years out of the "Unnamed Major Program From the Northwest" title and its associated UMPFN acr...... [more] |
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58. The Boubacar 2/4/2008 (Paranoia Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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59. The Mid-Majority Interview: Elton Alexander by Kyle Whelliston S4 January 30, 2008 The grand old Mid-American Conference has been tragically misunderstood this decade. A league that's produced some of the most competitive, exciting and thrilling hoops at the mid-major level has had a lot of trouble with respect on the national scene, not having received a second bid to the NCAA To...... [more] |
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60. The Boubacar 1/30/2008 (Badlands Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 January 30, 2008 HUNTSVILLE, Tex. -- We promised you a Badlands Conference logo winner, and by gosh, we are going to deliver. Finally. After three weeks. We were looking for a logo to replace the up-arrow that the former Mid-Continent Conference chose when it changed its name over the summer. We don't particularly ...... [more] |
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61. The State Of The Other 22, Week 11 by Kyle Whelliston S4 January 29, 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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62. The Boubacar 1/21/2008 (Metadata Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 January 21, 2008 MORAGA, Ca. -- One of the most-asked question types I get is in regards to these datelines. Where am I? Where have I been? How many games am I up to? I know it's all pleasant small-talk, and folks are just trying to make conversation, but I've been meaning to put together a one-webpage answer to ans...... [more] |
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63. The Boubacar 1/18/2008 (West Coast Bias Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 January 18, 2008 RENO, Nev. -- I'm sorry, what was that? This post is late somehow, not nearly early enough, making me tardy, irresponsible, untrustworthy? Well, from where I'm sitting, it's still morning, all bright and bushy-tailed like a Tahoe snow-bunny. TMM Mobile HQ is on Pacific time, b#%*&s! Sure, inte...... [more] |
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64. The Mid-Majority Interview: Doug Elgin by Kyle Whelliston S4 January 9, 2008 After a week-long break (nobody wants to talk during the holidays), TMMI is back. And to kick off the new year, we have one of the most powerful men in all of Hoops Nation, Missouri Valley Conference commissioner Doug Elgin. He's led the toughest mid-major conference in the land since 1988, spent fo...... [more] |
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65. The Travelogue, Chapter 9 by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 31, 2007 Comfort, Enemy of Progress When folks find out I sleep in truck stops and live out of my suitcase during college basketball season, I can't blame them if they're not impressed. If my life was a Richard Dawson survey-says, the number one reaction would be horror, followed closely on points by the ki...... [more] |
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66. Game! Of! The! Night! 12/28/2007: Butler at Southern Illinois by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 28, 2007 Butler (Horizon) at Southern Illinois (Missouri Valley) The SIU Arena - Carbondale, IL 9:00 PM EST This weekend is the official start of the Valley season, but we've got a little bit of nonconference business to take care of. We have the ESPN-mandated return game of last season's premier B...... [more] |
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67. The Boubacar 12/21/2007 (Upset Island Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 21, 2007 NEW YORK -- A quick few words about mid-major upsets, followed by a lot of words about mid-major upsets. I go on the electronic sports talk radio some. The hosts usually don't know who I am, don't read this site or realize that "oh, you wrote that ESPN.com story?" I don't mind any of that. What I ...... [more] |
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68. Finals Week: The Answer Key by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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69. The Boubacar 12/12/2007 (Art Appreciation Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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70. The Boubacar 12/5/2007 (Purple Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 5, 2007 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- First of all this morning, a big hello-and-thank-you to the 213 members of the Upset Club. We got you one (a result, surely, of all the Northern Illinois love from yesterday) or two last night, but those e-mail boxes should be lighting up soon with lots more Upset Alerts. Maybe ev...... [more] |
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71. The Boubacar 12/4/2007 (Club Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S4 December 4, 2007 PAWTUCKET, R.I. -- Less than a month into this, and the whole Boubacar concept is taking hold. I'm getting tons of e-mails describing players, plays, teams and performances as "Boubacar-worthy," "Boubacar material," "Boub-tastic." One even used the term -- I kid you not -- "Boubalicious." Surely, in...... [more] |
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72. The Travelogue: Chapter 4 by Kyle Whelliston S4 November 25, 2007 The Long One Steel-colored first light above a lengthwise highway, rolling gun-metal hills beyond, a scene set off by a row of spindly and barren trees in crisp black focus. There's something comforting, regular about the standard tableau that I usually wake up to on the road, a simple chalk draw...... [more] |
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73. 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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74. The Daily Paragraph 2/23/2007 (Hallucination Hoops Nation Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 February 23, 2007 NASHVILLE -- Look, nobody has to tell me about how long the season is. I've been out on the road for all but two weeks since November 10, and it's taking its toll mentally. Two nights ago, I had a dream that I was organizing Oprah's music collection; she was telling me she couldn't decide whether to...... [more] |
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75. The Daily Paragraph 2/20/2007 (BracketBetter Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 February 20, 2007 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- We all love BracketBusters, and there's no denying that the event had a gigantic impact on the college basketball-o-sphere over the weekend. Southern Illinois was able to make a big road statement in a showcase game (a win at Butler that would have been 44-41 without all the fr...... [more] |
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76. The Daily Paragraph 2/16/2007 (BracketBoosters Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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77. The Daily Paragraph 2/9/2007 (iPod Edition) by Kyle Whelliston 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 (...... [more] |
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78. 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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79. The Daily Paragraph 2/5/2007 (Football Independence Day Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 February 5, 2007 LOS ANGELES -- There are three important national holidays on the official calendar of Hoops Nation™. First and foremost in importance, of course, is Selection Sunday in March -- the day that the entire college basketball year leads up to. A second is coming up in a couple weeks: that glorious...... [more] |
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80. BracketBusters Selection Aftermath (plus contest winners) by Kyle Whelliston 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...... [more] |
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81. 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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82. The Daily Paragraph 1/29/2007 (No Show Edition) by Kyle Whelliston S3 January 29, 2007 I'm bogged down with BracketBusters stuff today in advance of the pairing announcement tonight (at 6 pm ET), but I'll be back tomorrow with the weekend recap, the announcement of the BB contest winners, and a special Top Five Tuesday about the Busters. See you then! ...... [more] |
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83. 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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84. 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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85. 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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86. 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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87. MMBOD Feb 17: Nick Fazekas - Nevada by Kyle Whelliston S2 February 18, 2006 One of the strengths of the Joint Photographic Experts' Group (JPEG) compression format is that pictures can be displayed over and over in web browsers, with no degradation of image quality over time. That's why we can put Nick Fazekas here in this space over and over, and not have to worry about ev...... [more] |
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88. Game! Of! The! Night! Feb 17: Akron at Nevada by Kyle Whelliston S2 February 17, 2006 Here is is... it's BracketBusters time, and while we'll stop short of encouraging signal theft, do whatever you need to do to be in front of one of the 39 U.S. television sets that can pick up ESPNU tonight. Because you're going to get to see two teams that will likely have NCAA seed numbers attache...... [more] |
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89. MMBOD Feb 05: Jared Jordan - Marist by Kyle Whelliston S2 February 6, 2006 When Old Dominion drew Marist in the BracketBusters Presented by The Mid-Majority event, it seemed like a slap in the face, an insult, a punishment for not living up to the hype. Now there's a real possibility they might lose that game. Why? The Red Foxes are starting to ramp it up, winning nine of ...... [more] |
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90. MMBOD Jan 21: Ben Woodside - North Dakota State by Kyle Whelliston S2 January 22, 2006 Chant it with me now: "Chaminade, Valpo, North Dakota State." The independent Bison (RPI No. 187) and their nine freshmen lost on a buzzer-beating tip-in against Utah Valley State on Thursday, and the Wisconsin Badgers (RPI No. 3) had the extreme misfortune of being next on the schedule. Despite tur...... [more] |
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91. MMBOD Nov 22: Chris McNaughton - Bucknell by Kyle Whelliston S2 November 23, 2005 Sure, cute-n-furry Jack White and his buddies had their fun last night in Hawaii. But they're power-conference imposters. The real small-town feel-good story is Bucknell, who continues to topple national powers. Last night, the team with eight scholarships went into Syracuse and came out with a guar...... [more] |




