Talking Hoops with Ted Sarandis – March 11, 2016

Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops with Ted Sarandis. It is our special Championship Week edition, where we talk about a stretch that has not disappointed given the way the regular season went.

In this edition, we touch on action at the Big East Tournament, where Ted has been the past couple of days. He saw the impressive performance by Xavier, as well as Villanova in the second half of their win, while Providence won and gets a third try at the Wildcats after splitting with them during the regular season. We also touch on how a number of teams have managed to beat another team three times this season.

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2016 USBWA awards: one man’s vote

Last week, I shared how I voted for the CAA postseason awards, as I usually do. While I have been a voter there for 11 years now, I have been a USBWA member a bit longer and as such, always vote for their postseason awards as well. In the same spirit as the CAA awards, I will share my vote for the USBWA honors here.

The USBWA selects All-District teams of ten players each, as well as a Player of the Year and Coach of the Year in each district. In addition, writers select a team of ten All-Americans, a National Player of the Year (Oscar Robertson Trophy), a National Freshman of the Year (Wayman Tisdale Award) and a National Coach of the Year (Henry Iba Award).

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The Morning Dish – Monday, March 7, 2016

Three more NCAA Tournament bids went out on Sunday, all to familiar faces. One had a familiar ending, while another nearly had a quirk in the end result.

It was six years ago that Ali Farokhmanesh was one of the newest names born in the month of March, hitting a big three-pointer to sink No. 1 seed Kansas and lift Northern Iowa into the Sweet 16. The Panthers have been a steady program over the years, especially under Ben Jacobson, as they have finished in the top half of the Missouri Valley Conference for 13 straight years. They are headed to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in his tenure now, though it didn’t look like it would happen for much of the season.

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The Morning Dish – Sunday, March 6, 2016

Two NCAA Tournament bids went out on Saturday night, one expected and one not necessarily expected at the beginning of the day. And for different reasons, you can’t blame either coach if they got a little emotional.

We start with the Ohio Valley Championship game, the one certainty when the day began. UT-Martin, who has never been to the NCAA Tournament, took on Austin Peay, the school that’s been there six times and has been among the signature programs in the conference for a long time. Head coach Dave Loos, who for a long time was also the athletic directory, turned 69 on Saturday and has been doing this for a long time. He is the winningest coach in Ohio Valley Conference history, having been at Austin Peay for 26 years; the conference’s other coaches have combined to be at their schools for 33 years. He’s seen a lot, and won a lot, but this one was clearly different for him.

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The Morning Dish – Saturday, March 5, 2016

It hasn’t taken long to be reminded of why March is the best month of basketball (or to me, the best month of the year). In another sense, we’ve been reminded why, as wonderful as the NCAA Tournament is, conference tournaments are college basketball at its finest.

And we’re still only just beginning. Not only that, but there was big news in games outside of conference tournaments as well, making it the biggest Friday night in a while.

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Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis – March 4, 2016

Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops with Ted Sarandis. In it, Ted and I get into the start of the best month of basketball, as Championship Week is now upon us.

We start with a look at some of the postseason awards that came out this week, which was in a number of mid-major conferences. In doing so, we specifically take note of one standout player and team who will be in a conference tournament next week, and they might be a trendy upset pick if they win.

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2016 CAA Postseason Awards – One Man’s Vote

The final CAA Tournament under the only commissioner it has ever known, Tom Yeager, is ahead of us starting on Friday night. If the season to date is any indication, what is also the last tournament in Baltimore – it moves to Charleston for the next three years – should be a great four days.

Before that, we will learn who takes home the conference’s postseason awards. As is always the case at this time of the year, I feel it is worth sharing how I voted for the CAA postseason awards. I have been a voter for the last 11 years, and always feel like this also gives a sense of how I saw the season play out and how things look heading into the conference tournament.

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The Morning Dish – Monday, February 29, 2016

The 2015-16 season will go down as one where you didn’t want to be a highly-ranked team. Sunday was no different, capping a week in which only two teams in the AP top 10 did not lose. On the season, teams ranked in the AP top 10 have now lost a record 73 games in those positions in the poll. There is still one week to go, so that record will probably only grow.

Besides that, ESPN Stats and Info put out another great note later on Sunday, which is that every major conference team has at least four losses on the season. That means we will see just the third time since seeding began that all four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament have four or more losses, with 1990 and 2009 being the others.

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Saturday Notes – February 27, 2016

A number of conference regular seasons are now over, with Saturday providing the last hurrah. More will follow on Sunday, and conference tournaments begin this week. And to put it simply, this Saturday was like so many other days of the season to date in that for every result that might provide further clarity, there was another that provided less.

And all the same, there were many great games and finishes to the standings. Some ended in ties atop the conference, while others came down to the final game and had ties elsewhere near the top of the standings (the CAA had a two-way tie for first and a three-way tie for third place). College basketball fans have arguably never had it better. We have every reason to expect that Championship Week will be full of great games and some unexpected results along the way.

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The Morning Dish – Saturday, February 27, 2016

For the final time this season, Friday night had a light slate with the Ivy League taking center stage along with the MAC, MAAC and Horizon League. At this time next week, we’ll be talking about conference tournaments as the best month of basketball beckons. For now, though, we can focus on a thinning race and one that was finally locked up on Friday night.

The featured matchup on the evening was a showdown between Columbia and host Princeton at Jadwin Gym. Just one game separated Yale and these two teams entering the night, with Columbia being a game back in the loss column and Princeton a game back in the win column. In a game with plenty of offense, Princeton had more of it, as Columbia shot over 53 percent from the field but allowed Princeton to shoot over 63 percent, including 13-24 from long range, as the Tigers beat the Lions 88-83.

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