The Morning Dish – Saturday, March 21, 2015

If it was possible to have a day that was the opposite of Thursday, we pretty much had it on Friday. Whereas Thursday was a wild day with historic upsets – three double-digits seeds won by a point on the same day for the first time in NCAA Tournament history – Friday was, well, ho-hum. In fact, it was almost a historic day in just about the opposite fashion.

The first 15 games of the day saw every higher seed win. Since the NCAA Tournament field expanded to 64 teams, there has never been a day in the round of 64 where all 16 higher seeds won. Then we had the last game of the day. It was one that was full of ridiculousness, quite frankly, but the most important thing is that the game kept the day from being historic. No. 11 Dayton beat No. 6 Providence 66-53, providing the lone upset of the day.

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Rhode Island has grown up right before our eyes

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – A year after a lot of growing pains, Rhode Island has, quite simply, grown up a lot. You could see it over the course of the season, and on Tuesday night, it was even clearer as the Rams took care of Iona in the first round of the NIT.

And along the way, we may have gotten a glimpse of the future in more ways than one for this team.

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2015 NCAA Tournament Players to Watch – Part 2

March has a way of bringing people out of the shadows. Whether it’s the causal sports fan who suddenly tunes in to college basketball in time for the NCAA Tournament or the unknown player who becomes a household name even for a day, March is the best month of basketball in part because of this.

Every year in the NCAA Tournament, players who have been outside the spotlight make a name for themselves under the bright lights of March. This year will surely be no different, especially considering how competitive the landscape is. With that, here’s a look at some players you may not have heard about yet, but will as the NCAA Tournament goes on.

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2015 NCAA Tournament Players to Watch – Part 1

March has a way of bringing people out of the shadows. Whether it’s the causal sports fan who suddenly tunes in to college basketball in time for the NCAA Tournament or the unknown player who becomes a household name even for a day, March is the best month of basketball in part because of this.

Every year in the NCAA Tournament, players who have been outside the spotlight make a name for themselves under the bright lights of March. This year will surely be no different, especially considering how competitive the landscape is. Stars are important, and are part of what draws fans, but hidden stars and complementary players make a big difference as well.

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The Morning Dish – Monday, March 16, 2015

Selection Sunday has come and gone, and as usual, there is much to talk about. As much as ever, though, bubble teams are the center of the conversation, and understandably so.

By 7 p.m. Eastern time every year on this day, there are programs that are excited and ones that are sad, upset, even angry. Nowadays, where the bubble always seems more even and perhaps weaker than in the past, you get the feeling that there are more teams in the latter category. And one thing that is true more than ever is that any team that doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large certainly had their chances to play their way in, and not just by winning their conference tournament.

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A tough missed opportunity for Tulsa

HARTFORD, Conn. – Saturday was a missed opportunity for Tulsa. They let it get away. Now they hope it doesn’t turn out to be bigger than that, and all they can do is wait and hope. And waiting will be a hard thing to do at this point.

Tulsa lost a tough one to UConn in the American Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals. It was a game they were mostly in control of, as they led for almost 33 minutes. They scored the game’s first seven points, not allowing the Huskies to score until almost eight minutes in. They responded well to runs the Huskies made for much of the game.

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Fran Dunphy deals with bubble uncertainty for the first time

HARTFORD, Conn. – This isn’t the kind of uncharted waters you want to be in. Uncertainty is something humans hate more than anything else. For now, though, all Temple can do is wait and hope that they will be part of the field of 68. It’s something Fran Dunphy hasn’t had to do before.

Dunphy has had seasons where his team hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament. He’s a great coach, but he hasn’t been perfect. To this point in his career, he’s always known whether his team is in or out, though. While at Penn, his team was only going with a league championship, so he knew before Selection Sunday if he was in or out. At Temple, he’s won three conference championships, had other teams that were locks regardless and others that were definitely not making the Big Dance.

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UConn is one game away

HARTFORD, Conn. – They have one more to go.

One more game to pull off another magical conference tournament run.

One more game for one more guard to get them in one more NCAA Tournament.

One more opportunity to do something special, to finish the job.

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It didn’t take Larry Brown long to change SMU

HARTFORD, Conn. – SMU probably won’t have Larry Brown as their head coach for long. He’s 74 years old, and the school knew his time was limited when they hired him with a head coach-in-waiting in Tim Jankovich. However, his hire has had the impact they wanted: the program has a winning product in three years.

Now, people know about SMU. It’s a destination for players.

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Groundhog Day for Stony Brook

ALBANY, N.Y. – Steve Pikiell probably answered the same questions on Saturday he’s answered seemingly thousands of times before. Too many times, really, and not because of anything he’s done.

When will Stony Brook win the big game? What’s the feeling after another one of these close calls? Did you get concerned down the stretch?

You know those questions and variations of each were undoubtedly fired away at the Stony Brook mentor on Saturday.

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