Tag: Men's College Basketball
Riding high with Purdue basketball after a cathartic win 44 years in the making
DETROIT – Zach Edey unfolded a brown blanket across his legs in the first aisle seat on the right, and Lance Jones carefully tucked the Midwest Regional trophy into the seat beside him. The flight attendant congratulated Purdue on its 72-66 victory over Tennessee in the Elite Eight. The plane taxied, took off and, 52 minutes later, landed in the middle of catharsis.
Purdue on Saturday will play NC State in its first Final Four since 1980, and a program
In Cam Spencer, UConn coach Dan Hurley found a kindred soul and standard-bearer
STORRS, Conn. — When Cam Spencer visited Connecticut last spring, he got the usual treatment. Photoshoot. Pitches on branding and NIL. The fluff, UConn coach Dan Hurley calls it.
Spencer goes out of his way to avoid what others seek. He’s not on social media. His interests are minimal. And Hurley could see Spencer and his family losing interest.
Then they started talking hoops. Style of play. How Spencer fit in UConn’s system.
“The group perked up,” Hurley says.
Hurley
Which teams can realistically win the NCAA Tournament? Why these 12 stand a cut above
We don’t have many rules of thumb —what with only four total thumbs between us — for picking an NCAA Tournament bracket. But there’s one we believe in wholeheartedly: Don’t overthink it.
To that end, there’s something simple to keep in mind (yet again) when choosing your Final Four and national champion. After Connecticut won it all last year, 18 of the last 21 champs ranked among the top six at KenPom.com before the NCAA Tournament. (Tell us again why
The Joker Effect: How playmaking centers have revolutionized college basketball
When Fred Hoiberg left a front-office job with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2010 to coach Iowa State, he was ahead of his time chasing transfers to build a roster. Hoiberg was also ahead of the curve when he landed his biggest transfer prize: Royce White.
White was built like an NFL tight end — 6-foot-8, 250 pounds — but he thought the game like a point guard. Back then, transfers had to sit out a season, and during that sit-out
2024 NCAA Tournament bracket picks: Why CJ Moore has UConn winning the title
(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)
Since Florida repeated as national champs in 2007, no defending champion has advanced past the Sweet 16. That ends this year.
Connecticut is the most complete team in college basketball, and it’s going to end that streak and repeat as national champions. That was my pre-bracket prediction and
How did Juwan Howard and Michigan basketball fall so far?
Editor’s note: The University of Michigan announced Friday afternoon that Juwan Howard will not return as head basketball coach next season.
Crisler Center was mostly empty the night of March 4, 2021, but Michigan basketball brought the place to life. A win over rival Michigan State secured a conference title in a season shaped by pandemic restrictions, and players danced around a confetti-covered court, hoisting a “Big Ten Champions” sign. It was an achievement of resolve, one that would result
Bucky McMillan has built Samford into a mid-major power, without leaving home
HOMEWOOD, Ala. — The house Bucky McMillan grew up in, the one in the Birmingham suburbs where a new owner discovered 18 waterlogged basketballs buried beneath years of leaves in a ditch where they’d collected after running off the driveway, is only three miles from his office at Samford University. The Shades Valley YMCA, where McMillan played his first organized basketball, is less than half a mile away. Mountain Brook High School, where McMillan starred as a player and then
A Hall of Fame coach’s son got his fairy tale ending. Now he wants to know how the story began
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Steven Izzo sat in his locker, aw-shucksing the high point of his adult life, playing a familiar part.
The first basket of his five-year career on his father’s Michigan State basketball team was an act of comedic defiance. The gall of this move. Against a Rutgers defender with 6 inches and 50 pounds on him, Steven Izzo took two dribbles to his left, stopped, reversed direction, flicked the ball between his legs, took two more dribbles
College athletes are getting closer to becoming employees. What would happen next?
The NCAA inches closer every day to a tipping point of dramatic overhaul. Years of tectonic shifts around college sports could soon usher in an era its leaders and administrators have long tried to avoid: the treatment of college athletes as employees.
The next milestone could come Tuesday, when the Dartmouth men’s basketball team will vote on whether to form a union. The university is countering by fighting a National Labor Relations Board regional director’s finding that the basketball players
Toronto tall tales of Zach Edey: On the ice, the diamond … and ‘What’s a Purdue?’
TORONTO – Head north out of downtown on Bayview Avenue and past the shops and bars in Leaside, plus four Tim Hortons. Cross a bridge and climb a hill and there’s Crescent School, a private all-boys institution opened in 1913. It’s closed for winter break, but a courtyard plaque points to reception. A groundskeeping vehicle is parked in front and a delivery guy walks out. Somewhere inside lies another story about how the impossibility of Zach Edey came to be.