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Thursday, May 9, 2024
The championship game for the 79th annual National Invitation Tournament is set, and it’s a worthy one with two very good teams. How good? Put it this way: if Oklahoma and Syracuse end up playing in the NCAA Tournament final on Monday, their combined win total will be less than that of the two playing in the NIT title game.
Small, private, religious-based, and running an athletics department on a modest budget, Valparaiso is precisely the type of school that makes NCAA Division I basketball so much fun.
Two days into the 2015 NCAA Tournament have felt kind of like trying to start up the family roadster after she’s been sitting idle in the garage for a couple years. It’s taking a little time to get the engine warmed up, but slowly it’s getting back up to speed.
In a college basketball year that has been defined by unpredictability, we dare say that the host of downright thrilling conference races is a story developing late that is also becoming a signature mark of this season.
For the best-kept secret among conferences in college basketball this season, look no further than the Colonial Athletic Association, which also just so happens to be the league with the very best conference race this year.
If you haven’t seen any BYU games yet this year, you should. In fact, you should see as many of them as possible. The end of Kyle Collinsworth’s college career is near, and when it’s finished college basketball will lose one of the truly unique players it has had in many years.
It’s not just the big games a team wins; it’s how they play in the games immediately after, as well as in games throughout the season that they aren’t expected to lose. In that regard, Saturday was not a good day for a few teams who have had some big moments this year.
Thursday night provided a flurry of activity, good games and most notable results, but few games this year have drawn us in more at the end like the Conference USA tilt between UAB and Old Dominion did.
Sometimes in college basketball, comebacks happen so fast and so suddenly that it’s literally as if a storm blew through, and a game seemingly in hand suddenly has slipped away. SMU was the victim in such a scenario in its NCAA Tournament loss to UCLA in March; last night, the Mustangs returned the favor.
One of what may turn out to be the games of the year in the Missouri Valley took place last night. And now, with one its back pocket, Wichita State gets ready for what may be another one.
