college-basketball
by Trevor Freeman
I am writing this article because every March I plug Hank Gathers’ name into the Yahoo search engine to see what articles come up. And every time I open up an old article, I cannot believe it has really been seventeen years since arguably the biggest tragedy in the history of college sports spawned one of its most remarkable stories.
It’s almost March, and that means the college basketball world is about to be shaken like a dropped can of soda. I’m talking about BUBBLES, and lots of them.
Never have I seen a college basketball game in which one team thoroughly outcoached, outplayed, and outmanaged the other so totally– and lost. Never.
Despite the fact that Florida seemingly had the game locked up with 35 seconds to go, up by nine; despite the fact that Kentucky had started only 1 out of 19 from three-point range, tying the worst start to a game in school history; despite the fact that Florida led the entire way, including by as much as 16 during the first half; despite the fact that Ramel Bradley, who entered the game hitting better than 86% of his free throws, went 3-8 from the line, Kentucky had a shot at the buzzer to force overtime. And it comes down to coaching.
Saturday was a bad day for the Tar Heels. Every defeat stings, but the way the loss to N.C. State unfolded was especially painful. This has to be the last “wake up” game of the season for UNC. Teams with title aspirations – and surely the Heels would be in this group – don’t go down the stretch still looking for toughness, passion, intelligence and “want-to”. Had Saturday’s game been against a better team, the margin of defeat would have been much, much larger.
by Trevor Freeman
There are two sets of college basketball fans. There are the diehards who tune in for the full season and there are those who jump in feet first immediately after football season ends so they can get their love of the game back…….or so they can do an ample amount of research before filling out their NCAA Tournament brackets. Many purists dislike this second group, but I for one think they provide the NCAA Tournament with the gusto it needs to remain with the Super Bowl as one of the two greatest sporting events on the planet (for those of you who just said, “Wait a second what about the World Cup”…feel free to board a Concorde and fly back to France).
The month of March is coming up soon. You know what that means. March Madness is waiting for us, along with many cinderella sleepers. George Mason went dancing last year, and many will follow in their footsteps. Let’s find out who will be dancing when it comes tourney time and who will get ousted quickly.
by Trevor Freeman
So I was sitting at my holiday party conversing with my colleagues on a variety of important issues ranging from the NFL playoffs to Jenn Sterger’s ta-tas to “Rocky Balboa”. It was at the end of the conversation when the debate between the NBA and college hoops began. Of course I led the majority in putting forth reasons as to why the NBA is Selma Blair to the NCAA’s Salma Hayek. It was midway through my argument when I realized, “Trevor….the 25 reasons you listed two years ago just isn’t good enough…..you need to up the ante”. Up the ante I have as we updated our list and extended it to a full 37 reasons. That’s right. Buckle your seat belts and enjoy yourselves as we are about to breakdown why the NCAA trumps the NBA.
You know you love ’em. Somewhere deep inside yourself, in places you don’t like to talk about, there grows a strong and profound love of Duke basketball. I know, I know. There was a time when I too shared this shameful secret. I joined the groans that came with every Blue Devil win, year after year. I feigned disgust every time I saw Christian Laettner drop in that famous fade away. I cursed Coach K and made wild accusations of referee tampering and tournament committee bias with the rest of the Duke haters. Then, on one fine March evening, I realized that I liked the Dukies because of the way they focus on team basketball, the way they hustle on defense, and the way they always, always, ALWAYS win. It was that day that I stood up and embraced my inner Blue Devil, that little voice inside my head telling me what I already knew—I am a Duke fan.
Five starters return to the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team this season. These are five starters from a 14-16 team, but in a rare example of life intruding into sports, this team has an excuse and a reason to expect more.
Every year, there is a mid-major conference that everyone says will pull at least one upset in the big dance. This year, that conference is the Big South. Teams like Winthrop and Coastal Carolina are almost dead locks to make the tournament. The Eagles came within one shot of sending Tennessee home last year, and Torrell Martin has already stated that it won’t happen again. How do these teams stack up?