BOSTON – The Hoopville Spring Finale saw over 50 teams compete in six age groups. The high school divisions brought out some competitive games, and while just two programs won championships, it was a good weekend for some other teams and programs as well. We take a look back at some of what happened outside of the championship games.
BOSTON – The 2011 Hoopville Spring Finale is in the books. In terms of the end results, it mirrored last year’s tournament in that two programs dominated the championships. What was also similar is that a number of under-the-radar teams and players took advantage of the opportunity they had and played well.
The Expressions Elite program had a big weekend, taking home four of the six championships and being the runners-up in another. It started with their 12-Under team, which went 3-0 in a four-team round robin, while the 13-Under team defeated Prodigy Basketball 61-49 in the final to tip off Sunday morning.
The ACC didn’t return to glory this past season.
After a disappointing 2009-10 season, in which Duke’s championship run and the great play of Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez were the highlights, optimists figured this season had to be better. Surely the conference would return to putting multiple teams in the polls each week.
Nope. And don’t call me Shirley.
We’ll never know how special this season could have been for Coastal Carolina and the Big South.
In mid-February, the Chanticleers were 24-2 overall and 15-0 in the conference, and they were crushing just about everyone. The team had caught the attention of pollsters, who had Coastal Carolina just outside the top 25 in the Associated Press’ and coaches’ polls. Based on votes, Coastal Carolina was the No. 27 or 28 team in the nation, depending on whether you prefer to trust writers or coaches.
And then everything fell apart.
Some quick hitters about Boston University’s rebounding, a transfer helping Marquette, an improving Husky guard and a couple of key road wins among others as we head into another weekend.
Quinnipiac can now head home with the hope that their last game in the current road stretch does more for them than add one into the left-hand column. The Bobcats had a few tough games recently, and had another one in which they managed to pull out a 78-71 win in overtime at Bryant on Saturday.
We have a few quick hitters on a streaking America East team, another whose star had his first rough night, two inconsistent Patriot League teams and a couple of teams who have lost a player for the season but for different reasons.
Ron Hunter knew he had a culture to change at Georgia State, and he knew he was in a different place. Now he has a different issue on his hands with his team, which stands 5-2 in CAA play after a loss at Northeastern on Wednesday night.
There’s a big surprise near the top of the ACC standings. With only Duke sporting an undefeated record, one team in the logjam at 2-1 is the very young Boston College Eagles after two straight home wins.
Just over a month ago, Boston University looked ready go on a good run. But a six-game losing streak resulted instead, and the Terriers hope to regain confidence after ending it on Sunday.
Harvard improved to 13-2 on Saturday by winning the first Ivy League game of the season. While the bottom line is all positive, the Crimson also lived dangerously for a while, more so than the 16-point final margin of victory might lead one to believe.
With conference play, a bad non-conference run with one loss after another doesn’t matter on the bottom line. One example of that is UMBC, a team that won one game in non-conference play but is tied atop America East after an 82-76 win at New Hampshire on Monday night.
Boston College has come back from the Christmas break in a better place than they were before it. In fact, it’s better than where they were over a week before their last game, as their 83-73 win over Sacred Heart last Wednesday was their third straight.
Stony Brook probably welcomed the relative break in the action they are coming up on the end of. This stretch, with a lot of practice time, followed by three straight at home, gives this team a chance to gain some momentum.
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One team stands alone atop the standings for now, with another a little behind them and a logjam near the middle of the pack.
The Cleveland State Vikings started 2012 off on a winning note with a 69-48 victory at home on Saturday afternoon over the visiting Loyola Ramblers. In his pregame radio comments, Vikings coach Gary Waters stated that the Ramblers’ 5-10 record heading into Saturday’s matchup was deceiving and that the Ramblers were …
Opening weekend in the Big Sky Eastern Washington Record: 7-7, 1-1 Weekend: 1-1 Major superlatives: Won by 16, lost by 8; 76.5 ppg for, 72.5 against; plus-4 scoring margin; 52-112 FG; 20-53 3pt; 29-43 FT. Summary: One night, the lead stuck. The other, it didn’t. The Eagles made an early …
The Big Sky is about to dive in to conference play, and so far, the season has unfolded pretty much as expected, with Sacramento State looking like the one surprise.
Like the rest of the country, the Horizon League teams have been enjoying the holiday season and taking it easy on the hardwood. Here’s a roundup of the action that did go down during the past week.
Cleveland State had plenty of Christmas cheer to share in the Vikings’ easy win against Sam Houston State, though they didn’t exactly give the Bearkats a festive feeling.
Butler Bulldogs (5-7): Butler began the week with a matchup against the Purdue Boilermakers at Conseco Fieldhouse. Having struggled in the early part of the season, the Bulldogs probably weren’t given much of a chance by most observers against the Boilermakers. Summing up some of the magic that has helped …
Butler Bulldogs (4-6): Butler has continued to struggle in the early stages of the 2011-12 college basketball season. However, don’t start writing Butler’s obituary just yet. Horizon League fans shouldn’t forget that Butler began last season slowly and bottomed out with a loss to Youngstown State before turning their season …
We take a quick run through the results from the past week in the Big Sky Conference, giving a little love to each team in the conference.
Missouri and Baylor are looking great, but we love the improvement of one of Lon Kruger’s guards.
Longtime Cleveland sports fans are familiar with the “Kardiac Kids,” which was the nickname bestowed on the 1980 Cleveland Browns team that won multiple games in the waning seconds of the game. Although the 2011-12 college basketball season is still somewhat young, the Cleveland State Vikings have already given that …
The Vikings keep rolling as they take out Detroit in an early battle for positioning at the top of the Horizon League.
Yes, a few Big East teams have faltered early in the season. No, that’s not a reason to panic, as it is still November.
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