Welcome to College Basketball Tonight! We are pleased to bring you this fine program here on Hoopville. College Basketball Tonight is a comprehensive look at the 2017 NCAA Tournament hosted by veteran broadcaster Ted Sarandis.
In this edition, the field for the 2017 NCAA Tournament is set. We know who is in and who is out, as well as the initial matchups.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Like the NCAA Tournament, conference tournaments have a lot of drama and stories. Friday was no different, a seemingly decisive day in many respects all over the country.
The drama actually starts with one of the last games of the day, and one that was probably off of everyone’s radars. The WAC Tournament looked like it could be heading towards a rematch of last year’s thrilling championship game, but Utah Valley had ideas of getting in the way as they took on defending champion CSU Bakersfield. It was a pretty low-scoring game throughout, as neither team shot better than 32 percent in a defensive struggle. Utah Valley led by eight with 2:40 left in regulation, and it looked like the Roadrunners were on the ropes. In a low-scoring game like this, a lead like that might be insurmountable.
Welcome to Part 2 of this Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis during Championship Week. In Part 1, we touched mostly on game action and coaching news from Thursday, but there was much more to get to. That is what this is for.
First, we talk about the new reality for a number of conference tournaments in light of a comment that caused a real stir. The ACC Tournament is in New York this year and next, which is a little different from its many years in Greensboro and Charlotte, especially the former. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim was asked about that, and his comment got quite a reaction out of many people:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Welcome to the latest edition of Talking Hoops With Ted Sarandis. In this part one of two, we look at some of the action on the hardwood during Championship Week, as well as coaching news.
We start with the Big East Tournament, where Ted covered an evening doubleheader that saw Xavier pick up a crucial win and Creighton also move on. Earlier in the day, Ted saw North Carolina and Duke win in the ACC Tournament across town, which sets up a big rivalry game in the semifinals on Friday night.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Closing out a trifecta of postseason awards I have a vote in this year is the USBWA postseason honors. I have been a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association for over a dozen years, and every member has a vote for these postseason awards. Members also vote for the women’s postseason honors if they choose, but as I do not follow the women’s game nearly enough to make an educated vote, I have consistently abstained from doing so as it would not make sense.
This year’s USBWA vote involved 10 All-District selections, a district Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, along with 10 All-Americans and three national postseason awards. The first is the Oscar Robertson Trophy for national Player of the Year, the second is the Wayman Tisdale for national Freshman of the Year and the last is the Henry Iba Award for national Coach of the Year. This year, for the national awards, writers were to rank up to three candidates.
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – When Kevin Keatts arrived in Wilmington, he was taking over a good program that had fallen on hard times. UNCW had won four CAA titles and at one time was among the powers in the conference, but those might have seemed like a lifetime ago to some in the fan base.
Now, it’s the hard times that seem like a long time ago, with the Seahawks heading back to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row.
Last year, Monmouth was the NCAA Tournament snub that was talked about the most, and rightly so. This season, they are one more in what will surely be a series of regular season champions who suffered a gut-wrenching loss in their conference tournament.
The top seed in the MAAC, the Hawks had a 39-25 lead at halftime over Siena before the Saints scored 64 second-half points, 27 from Nico Clareth (on 8-11 shooting, including 7-9 from deep), to pull off an 89-85 stunner in Albany. This time around, there will be no sweating out Selection Sunday for the Hawks.
On Sunday afternoon, the ACC will announce its postseason award winners, a very quick turnaround from the end of the regular season. The ACC hands out several postseason awards and also names five teams of players – three All-ACC teams, an All-Freshman and an All-Defensive team.
The awards are voted on by the conference’s head coaches, SIDs, 30 members of the media and one member from each school’s radio network. The conference will make the names and affiliations of the media members public, but not their ballots. However, as I have done with my CAA award voting and USBWA awards (coming soon, as ballots are due at 6 p.m. on Sunday, March 5), I share my votes as I find it a useful exercise.
The last couple of nights have reminded us why March is the best month of the year. I have said it many times, and have been fortunate to cover many conference tournament thrillers, but it bears repeating because there are always reminders of it.
And we can be sure more are still to come. It’s early yet this Championship Week, after all.
The CAA Tournament is ahead this weekend, and before that happens, the conference will hand out its usual postseason awards. The tournament moves to North Charleston for the first of a three-year run after three years in Baltimore.
I have been a voter for these awards for over a decade now, having covered the conference closely over that time. This year, the votes were a little tougher than in many years. The race for Player of the Year was wide open, in particular, and from that, you may deduce that the all-conference teams were also a challenge – and you would be correct there. As is often the case, the all-CAA and Player of the Year considerations involved quite a balancing act between a player’s individual accomplishments and how his team did – a little more so than usual.
In our first podcast in the postseason, we look back one more time on the NCAA Tournament, which was just what we needed at this time. We also look at the NIT, CBI and CIT, as well as important transactions with players leaving early for the NBA Draft and coaching changes.
The 2018 national championship is in the books, and with it another season of college basketball. We break down the national championship game and some of its implications to wrap up the season.
Welcome to our Final Four edition of College Basketball Tonight. In this edition, we look ahead to Monday’s national championship game, and bring on two guests – long-time Villanova radio play-by-play broadcaster Ryan Fannon and Radford head coach Mike Jones – to get their thoughts and insights on the game.
In our latest podcast, we break d own the national semifinals, where one game went back and forth while the other was never really a ballgame thanks to an impressive performance for the ages by the winning team.
With the Final Four all set, we look back on the regional finals and ahead to the final games of the season. We are joined along the way by veteran writer Ken Davis and Towson head coach Pat Skerry for their insights as well.
For the first time, a public school won the Hamilton Park Summer League, and they were led by a big effort from a junior point guard in the title game.
Some news and notes coming from the second and final day of action at the 2017 Boston Shootout, where the host program provided plenty of talent, but so did a program that produced a team that beat them.
The Northeast Hoops Festival helped bring in the new spring travel season in New England, and we have notes from some of Saturday’s action.
We look back at the 2016 Boston Back to School Showcase, where a couple of Boston City League teams were among the most impressive on the day.
We look back at the championship games of the 2016 Hoopville Spring Finale, which had a big local flavor as one might have expected.
