Essays I wrote on the history of mid-major college basketball for the final season of The Mid-Majority.
It had to be Dayton. A joyous start to our first NCAA tournament gave way to a brutal, wrenching weekend of mid-major losses. The magnificent Shockers were upset in a championship-level struggle; the first round victors from the Atlantic Sun …
Anyone who’s read this site knows that we don’t put much stock in the old saw that “sports are an escape from real life.” On the contrary: sports are played, coached, and officiated by real people. Fans experience real joy …
Though the NCAA’s various Corporate Champions and Official Broadcasting Partners would have us believe that no Shining Moments can or will happen until next month, those of us who’ve been mainlining basketball for most of the last two weeks know …
In the entire history of NCAA basketball, only one guy has scored more points than Freeman Williams. That other guy, you know: Pistol Pete Maravich, college ball’s all-time leading scorer, a legend at every level of the game.
(See Tuesday’s Part One to learn how we got here.) At the end of the 1969-70 season, Marquette coach Al McGuire turned down the team’s invitation to the NCAA Tournament, protesting the selection committee’s choice to send the Warriors to …
April 2, 2011. Game 7-104. A national semifinal. The unofficial mid-major national championship.
Here in the Mid-Majority, our definitions of success are more malleable than the usual. They’re shaped according to the team and the time, and with ten seasons’ understanding of the uphill nature of our battles.
Here in the frozen Midwest, temperatures have spent more time below zero than above over the last two weeks; the rare respites on the thermometer usually just mean the clear, cold skies are replaced by another coating of slick, wet …
Penn vs. Princeton: One Year, Two Rivals, Three Games Read more »
As Ray pointed out last week, Season X has finally bid adieu to one of the Mid-Majority’s betes noires: the guarantee game, in which one of our own earns a much-needed paycheck (and a likely loss) for visiting a power-conference …
In the early years of NCAA basketball, Our Game had its unquestioned capital in New York City. The finest players and smartest coaches came up through the five boroughs, and an NIT victory at Madison Square Garden was the pinnacle …