Even a historically unhinged college basketball season — during which four teams played hot potato with the No. 1 overall ranking in the opening five weeks, and 14 different top-5 teams lost to unranked opponents — deserves a finale. And although the coronavirus has robbed many college athletes of their championship endeavors and, less importantly, […]
For any school that dares to try to break into the upper echelon of men’s college basketball, the programs at the top often serve as a firewall. For years, Leonard Hamilton and football-crazed Florida State brushed up against the door to the top tier of the ACC but couldn’t break through and win the regular-season […]
The Virginia men’s basketball team started this season with two highly Virginia-esque wins, the statistics of which were so consistent that some were identical. There was stifling defense: 34 points allowed on 59 possessions against Syracuse, then 34 on 69 trips against James Madison. There was pedestrian offense: Tony Bennett’s team shot 4-for-25 from 3-point […]
Glance at the top of Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted efficiency rankings, and the 2019-20 men’s college basketball season might not seem so weird. Kansas at No. 1? That’s not new. Gonzaga second? We’ve seen it before. Duke is No. 5, Michigan State is No. 7, Ohio State is No. 8 and Louisville is No. 9. Seems […]
Less than four months ago, Kentucky became a national punchline after paying nearly six figures to Evansville for the privilege of beating the top-ranked team in its own arena. On Saturday, the Wildcats and head coach John Calipari claimed their 49th regular-season SEC championship. “All of Coach Cal’s teams get better at the end of […]